What to Look For When Choosing Vegetable Juice
By Shereen Jegtvig for foodessentials
Most people need to eat more vegetables every day. We need five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables, but most people get less than five. Vegetables are particularly good for you because they’re rich in nutrients and generally low in calories, so they nourish your body and help you to feel full longer.
Why don’t people eat more vegetables? Some people don’t want to take the time to prepare them and others just don’t like the taste. Studies have shown that a lot of us don’t like bitter flavors, especially as kids. Vegetable juices can help because they’re ready to drink, no preparation necessary. Some vegetable juices are available with zesty seasonings for extra flavor so even kids may like them. So when you’re busy, or just don’t like veggies, you add an extra serving or two by choosing vegetable juice as a beverage or snack.
There are several brands of vegetable juices available, although they don’t seem as popular as fruit juices. One of the most popular vegetable juices is tomato juice (well, yes, some people consider tomatoes to be fruits, but in cooking they’re usually treated as vegetables). Tomato juice is rich in vitamin C and a phytochemical called lycopene, which has been shown to reduce the risk of prostate cancer if you’re a man and improves heart health for both men and women. Other vegetable juices combine tomatoes with the juices of other vegetables and maybe a bit of seasoning for extra flavor.
Choosing Vegetable Juice
Most vegetable juices contain healthy ingredients, but you want to keep an eye out for any artificial preservatives or colorings that you don’t need. Our FoodEssentials database will help you sort out the different type of preservatives.
Look for brands that are low in sodium. Like many other processed foods, vegetable juices often contain high amounts of sodium, but not all of them. Why does this matter? Consuming too much sodium may cause your blood pressure to go up and that may not be good for your heart. Experts recommend you take in no more than 2400 milligrams of sodium every day. Or less than 1500 milligrams each day if you already have high blood pressure. While your body needs some sodium, the typical western diet contains much more sodium than any of us need.
FoodEssentials List to Help You Choose Vegetable Juices
Othe relevant lists:
Vegetable Juices by Added Colors
Vegetable Juices by Sodium Benzoate
Resources for Vegetable Juices
WebMD Beet juice can lower your blood pressure. Beets contain a compound that can lower your blood pressure so your heart doesn’t have to work so hard. Healthier blood pressure means a healthier heart.
Mayo Clinic Vegetable juice is almost as good as whole vegetables, except that you’re missing out on some of the fiber. drinking vegetable juice is a good way to get one or two servings in each day, but you still need to eat at least three more serving of vegetables.
WebMD There are several ways to boost your vegetable intake and WebMD has 15 helpful tips, including vegetable juice.
American Dietetic Association Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant found in tomato products. Actually, lycopene is more concentrated in processed tomato products like tomato juice and tomato sauce.
Shereen Jegtvig has a masters degree in human nutrition and 16 years clinical experience in nutritional counseling. She writes about nutrition for About.com and TypeAMom.net. She is also the co-author of the upcoming book, Superfoods For Dummies.
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While vegetable juice is a great way to get those veggies in, the ones that need it the most in my household, my kids, turn their nose up at things like tomato or beet juice. They will, however, drink fruit/veggie mixes. For a long time, our family bought 100% juice until we realized this was A LOT of sugar.
So, instead, we started buying First Juice, an organic juice for kids that has 50% less sugar than 100% juice (but all the nutrients). Plus they have cool flavors like peach+purple carrot (not to mention the bottles are BPA free).