Don't believe what the food companies tell you!

Shopping has recently started taking a lot longer than it used to as I find myself looking at every label and forming an opinion on everything on the shelves!  Over the last week or so I have had a couple of facepalm moments at the unbelieveableness of some new products and the claims which the manufacturers dare to make.

Exhibit #1
Ocean Spray's 50% less sugar Tropical Blend Juice Drink

On the face of it, sounds like quite a good idea.  Everyone knows there's quite a lot of sugar in fruit juice, so surely it's good to have an alternative with less sugar, right?  WRONG!
Firstly, this isn't fruit juice; it's a 'juice drink'.  This means that it's a blend of water, sugar and a small amount of actual juice.  Compare the labels between juice and juice drink next time  you're shopping and you'll see the difference.
So already we're losing as it's a sugar/water/juice-esque imposter.

But surely 50% less sugar is good though?  Well sort of, if you're going to have a juice drink then having less sugar is better than more.
Let's look at the ingredients...

First on the list is water; promising!
Next comes fruit juices from concentrate, a whole 13% of them!
Then comes sugar, oh dear.
A bit more fruit in the form of 2% mango puree, then some other stuff including the very vague 'flavourings' and a bit more fruit from carrot and cranberry concentrate although it doesn't say how much so could just be a drip's worth.  There is also sweetener (steviol glycosides).

Quite a lot of ingredients for something that you can just get from giving some fruit a good squish!

Looking at some of these ingredients more closely:

Sugar - well we know what that is.  But why would you want to add sugar to something which is naturally sweet anyway?
Fruit juices - 13-15% fruit in a juice is really nothing to be proud of.
Flavourings - this is especially vague so a bit of detective work was necessary to figure this one out.  In the FAQs of Ocean Spray's website they say 'our natural flavours are...of a specific plant species.  No MSG or animal product extracts are used.'  Yep that clears it up then.  Or not.
Citric and malic acid - These are found naturally in fruits and contribute to the taste.  Citric acid is also found in cleaning products, yum.
Sweetener - yes Stevia comes from a plant so is technically natural, but often, the processes used to extract the sweetness from the leaves can be anything but natural (http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/04/25/stevia-food-babe-investigates/).

It is worth mentioning at this point that the 50% less sugar claim refers to the comparison with Ocean Spray's standard Cranberry Juice which isn't necessarily a like for like comparison.  To compare with a standard supermarket juice (Asda's Orange, Mango and Passion Fruit juice) shows us that it has:
104 calories in 200ml compared to the Ocean Spray's 96;
24.4g of sugar in 200ml compared to 11g in the Ocean Spray.
So yes it does have less sugar, but at least the real juice only contains real fruit sugar and not added sugar instead and there are no dubious 'added natural flavourings' in a squished orange.

Bottom line, juice isn't the best option generally due to the sugar and you are better off drinking water.  But if you do want juice, either get yourself a juicer and make it yourself so you can control what goes into it, or at least buy actual juice.

Exhibit #2 - Coca Cola Life

Marketed as 'great tasting cola with fewer calories, sweetened from natural sources', the new member of the Coke family sounds promising.  But does it do what it says on the bottle?

So the ingredients list is our first port of call again (as it should always be for you):
Carbonated water - fizzy water, no major problem there.
Sugar - hang on, thought it was sweetened from natural sources?  I suppose sugar is natural if you're going to get technical about it.
Colour Caramel (E150d) - got to love a good E number.  Otherwise known as sulphite ammonia caramel; 'controlled heat treatment of sugar with ammonia and sulphite containing compounds' (http://www.laleva.cc/food/enumbers/E141-E160.html).
Natural Flavourings including caffeine - there's those elusive natural flavourings again.  I guess they are part of Coke's secret recipe so aren't going to be well publicised but it would be nice to have an idea.
Phosphoric acid - sounds tasty.  Added to bring out the flavour and slows the growth of bacteria.  It is either extracted from rocks with sulphuric acid or by burning phosphorus and adding water.  It is also a corrosive acid and can produce toxic fumes in certain conditions.  (http://www.livestrong.com/article/468217-why-is-phosphoric-acid-bad-for-you/).  Sounds yummy, no?
Sweetener (steviol glycosides) - Finally, there are those steviol glycosides again which may well be produced using dubious methods and not as natural as they initially sound.

None of the other members of the Coke family are any better:
Regular Coke has most of the same dubious ingredients as this plus a ridiculous amount of sugar;
Diet Coke has the same ingredients plus a nice helping of artificial sweeteners in the form of aspartame and acesulfame-K to help you reject healthy non-sweet foods, make you twice as likely to be overweight (http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/artificial-sweeteners-sugar-free-but-at-what-cost-201207165030) , mess up your insulin sensitivity and also possibly contribute to the chances of getting a brain tumour (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/23/aspartame-artificial-sweeteners.aspx).
Coke Zero contains the same as Diet Coke but with the added bonus of an extra E number, E331 as an acidity regulator to be precise.  It's a sodium salt of citric acid which may not mean a lot other than it's not something I want in my food.

So there you have it, Coke's new 'natural' offering.  I don't buy it, literally.  Not had a Coke of any description for over a year and my insides thank me for it.  You may be wondering which of the Coke products are the best option, given that they are marketed for different people for different reasons.
The simple answer is none.  Don't even go there.  Ever.

What message should you take from today's blog offering?

If nothing else, please know that food companies are not creating these products to help you be healthier.  They are creating them to try and appeal to new customers or to get people to buy them instead of an alternative; bottom line, they are trying to make more money out of you.  Don't fall for the 'health' claims on the label, read them for yourself and decide if it is something you actually want to be putting into your body.  Chances are it won't be, so don't.