UPDATED: October 6, 2016
Naked Juice reached out to Delish.com to provide their statement on the current lawsuit against them. "I believe that the lawsuit is baseless," said Andrea Theodore, GM. "I feel very proud and confident about we're doing on Naked Juice. We've been around for over 33 years and we've always had a commitment to transparency. We created the 'Goodness Inside' label and the back panel, in addition to the ingredients, to make it clear about what [consumers] are getting in our juices and smoothies. Our goal has always been to blend fruits and vegetables in a way that doesn't require consumers to make a trade-off between something that tastes delicious and something that is nutrient and vitamin rich."
ORIGINAL POST: October 5, 2016
A bottle of Naked Juice might seem pretty healthy — they're brightly colored and printed with fruits and veggies — but yesterday PepsiCo was sued by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) for misleading consumers with claims that the drinks are healthier than they actually are, according to Business Insider.
The CPSI argues that Naked Juices uses deceptive terms and taglines like "only the best ingredients" or "the goodness inside" to market the juices and smoothies, when really they're just made from cheap, nutrient-poor fruit juices. Oh, goodness.
Naked Juices also rattle off the impressive list of different fruits and vegetables that are jam-packed into the drinks on the side of the bottle. For example, Naked claims that a 15.2 ounce bottle of the Pomegranate Berry Pure Fruit drink has 1½ pomegranates, 23 blueberries, ½ apple, 34 red grapes and 34 white grapes inside.
They also label that the juices have "No Sugars Added," which could very well be true, but even without added sugars, all that fruit adds up to about 61 grams of sugar, which is 20 more grams of sugar than a 12 oz. can of regular Pepsi soda. The first ingredient on the alleged "Pure Fruit" drink is also, "pomegranate juice from concentrate," not even real pomegranates — womp, womp.
"Unfortunately, these products not only lack substantial nutritional value, but the marketing tactics mask what the product actually is — a sugary beverage, similar in nutritional composition to soda," says Jackie London, MS, RD, Nutrition Director at the Good Housekeeping Institute.
London also says the bigger issue is that the FDA needs to reexamine its definition of the claim, "No Sugar Added" on food labels. "About 67% of Americans are overweight or obese, so convincing consumers that it's safe and healthy to eat non-nutritive sources of concentrated, naturally-occurring sugar, and added sugars in the form of 'fruit juice puree' or 'fruit puree' it simply irresponsible," she says.
PepsiCo told us in an email that the CSPI's lawsuit is "baseless," and ultimately stood by their ingredients and marketing strategies. "All products in the Naked portfolio proudly use fruits and/or vegetables with no sugar added, and all Non-GMO claims on label are verified by an independent third party," they said in an e-mail. "Any sugar present in Naked Juice products comes from the fruits and/or vegetables contained within and the sugar content is clearly reflected on label for all consumers to see."
Ultimately, the CPSI would like PepsiCo to pay back customers who have purchased Naked Juice beverages, as well as adjust its marketing to be more transparent.
Naked Juice drinks are most definitely a no-no, but London points out that even when you drink a fresh-squeezed fruit or vegetable juice, you usually drink way over the recommended ½ cup or four ounce serving size. "Plus, the concentrated sugar in juice is still higher in calories and lower in nutritional value than eating a whole fruit," she says. "You're much better off eating whole produce, which is chock-full of filling fiber and a slew of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that are crucial to maintaining and promoting health." Sorry, folks, that's just the naked truth.
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