"Healthy" Calories

Virtuous Calories Are Still Calories

By DAN MITCHELL for the NYTimes online
Published: November 25, 2006

PEPSICO this week announced that it plans to acquire the Naked Juice Company as part of its effort to “expand into natural, healthy, good-for-you products” that “address growing consumer health and wellness needs.” (pepsico.com)

Many news accounts followed PepsiCo’s line. Reuters described PepsiCo as helping “health-conscious consumers cut down on sugary soft drinks and traditional snack chips” (reuters.com).
Public radio’s Marketplace program, citing Coca-Cola’s 2001 acquisition of a Naked Juice rival, Odwalla, declared that “the cola wars have taken a healthier turn” (marketplace.org).
But have they? Given an equal number of calories, fruit juices and smoothies — and particularly the “super premium” ones made by Naked Juice and Odwalla — are certainly healthier than sugary, nutrient-free soft drinks.

But calories aren’t always equal. The amount of sugar in a bottle of fruit juice or a smoothie may far surpass the amount of factory-made sweeteners found in a bottle of cola. While a 16-ounce bottle of regular Pepsi contains about 200 calories, a 16-ounce bottle of Naked Juice’s Chocolate Karma Protein Smoothie contains 380 calories, according to calorie-count.com.
Most of Naked Juice’s products have fewer calories than that — often amounts comparable to those found in nondiet soft drinks.

But childhood obesity — not a lack of vitamins — is the primary reason cited for ridding schools of soft drinks. Replacing them with sugar-laden juices might be more of a marketing move than anything else. A Marketplace reporter, Lisa Napoli, said the juices were “virtuous looking,” because they “make you feel healthy.”

The products may have lots of vitamins, but those amount to “calorie distracters,” wrote the nutrition professor and author Marion Nestle in her recent book “What to Eat” (foodpolitics.com). The nutrition claims may be valid, she wrote, but they “make you forget that juice has calories and is best consumed in limited amounts.”