Getting Juiced, Getting Fleeced

By now you’ve probably heard about the Juicero, a Wi-Fi-enabled juicer that squeezes $8 packets of juice into your glass for a mere $399 (plus tax, shipping, and handling). Venture capitalists with more money than common sense funded this company. One investigative reporter found that she could hand squeeze the packet into a glass herself and save $399 and loads of spam emails saying, “Time to order more packets!”

This tale brings up a variety of issues:

• First, where is that juicer you bought back in the 1990’s? Still sitting on the shelf at the thrift store?
• Each $8 packet of juice contains ingredients you could get at any neighborhood supermarket for less than $1.
• The packaging of these juice packets is as ecologically conscious as all of those foil coffee pods people burn through in a week.
• One hopes these packets are processed in a health department-approved facility, which would involve pasteurization of some sort. Twenty or so years ago, a popular organic juice company got into trouble with the FDA for contamination of its products with barnyard bacteria. The juicers were set up in a barn with free access to anything floating in on the wind. Heat pasteurization would negate the effect of cold pressing the ingredients for the packets.

Despite its popularity amongst the glamorati, juicing is overrated nutritionally. Most centrifugal juicers separate the fiber from the liquid portion of the fruit/vegetable. That fiber serves several purposes. It stimulates satiety and moves things along the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, fiber can slow the transit of simple sugar (glucose) from the gut into the blood. You may have heard of something called the glycemic index, which measures the speed at which glucose is absorbed from a particular food. Whole foods containing fiber spike blood glucose more slowly than their juices do. Folks are more likely to drink these juices as a snack or meal replacement, which could be troublesome if someone has problems keeping their blood glucose under control.

While juices are better nutritionally than sodas, it may be better to drink more water and get your fruits and vegetables in their whole, fiber-rich forms. Go have a salad or a plate full of roasted vegetables. Nibble on carrot and celery sticks as a snack. Eat an apple with the peel. Save your money and avoid the juicers.