So I was at the hospital the other day and I ran into this cardboard cutout promotion for a fruit smoothie by a company named Odwalla.
As you can see from the photo, it was promoting a beverage called, "Mango Tango" and it bragged, "1 Whole Pureed Mango per 450mL".
Curious, I picked up a bottle and had a peek at the nutritional facts panel.
Want to know what I learned?
That Odwalla Mango Tango had 0% of my percent daily value of Vitamin C.
That seemed strange given that I would have thought mangoes are full of vitamin C and the cutout said that there was a whole pureed mango in each bottle.
Looking up mangoes, I found that a whole mango actually contains 96% of my percent daily value of Vitamin C.
So shouldn't that be how much is in Odwalla Mango Tango?
Well perhaps as a commenter had noted on my blog post on KD Smart, the processing removed all the vitamins. Or perhaps something's up with their secret formula.
Either way though one thing's for sure. Odwalla's trying to sell products on the basis that drinking them is tantamount to drinking whole fruits, replete with all of their nutritional cache and benefits and the fact that those benefits appear to be absent to me strikes me as ethically challenging.
So nutritionally what's in Mango Tango? Mango flavour, water and an astonishing 15 teaspoons of sugar per bottle.
Ethics, shmethics.
Posts
Sadly not surprising and what's even worse is that it is yet another crappy food to be found in the HOSPITAL. You know once upon a time the VG hospital in Hfx only had cafeteria staff & made their food and it was good, now very few staff, very little food made there, most of the food choice is the pizza guy or Tim Hortons. All to be found at the same place that gives you a lecture and disapproving looks about your weight, makes you feel unworthy of treatment - even if you're there for a non-weight related issue. There is something wrong with the hospitals in this country!
ReplyDeleteAnd, if it's the same one that I use in my presentations, it has a whopping 260 calories! Just think, if you have one of these a day, you can anticipate a 27 pound weight gain in one year.
ReplyDeleteWow, that sure is a superfood.
Ken Leebow
http://www.partiallyhydrogenated.com
I had written to Odwalla about exactly this earlier this year:
ReplyDelete"...My question is regarding the nutritional content: Why do some of the smoothies (other than the C Monster products) not have any vitamin C in them when the ingredients include orange juice/mangoes/strawberries etc. which all contain plenty of vitamin C? I'm referring to the Nutrition Facts on the bottles I buy here in Canada. The information on your website is different."
...and got this unsatisfactory response:
"You are right, fruit juice does naturally have vitamin C. However, our nutritional facts are based on values at the end of the shelf life. This recent change is a more accurate methodology to test many samples of the products at the laboratory. Our new label now reflects the results of those tests. This practice insures that the consumer will get the vitamin and mineral content stated on the label at all times during the code life of the product.
Vitamins such as vitamin C and vitamin A are very unstable and deteriorate over the shelf life, therefore, they are not significant enough to label."
Here in the U.S., Odwalla Mango Tango has 50% Daily Value Vitamin C per serving, so it must be a different formulation. The ingredients are listed as mango puree, apple juice, water, orange juice, banana puree, coconut, lemon juice, vitamin E, vitamin C, beta carotene.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that eating whole fruit is preferable.
Kristin - I don't understand why you say that the response from the company was unsatisfactory?
ReplyDeleteIt was a truthful response and it was a scientific response. Vitamins and minerals deteriorate over time and with exposure to light. On the label, they are providing consumers with the minimum vitamin content that they can expect to receive (at end of shelf life) rather than maximum content (at beginning of shelf life).
Ken - to state that one could expect to gain 27 pounds in one year by drinking a 260 calorie drink is ridiculous. That is simply a fictional math exercise that does not factor anything other than calories over and above one's normal intake. It does not factor energy expenditure, overall calorie intake, individual metabolism, or foods or other beverages that may be replaced. I feel sorry for the people listening to your presentations which are filled with popular junk science and misinformation.
Your argument applies equally to *all* fruit juices - why pick on just this one drink from Odwalla?
ReplyDeleteThe sugar content of this drink is on par (well, a little higher) than orange juice.
So... no real surprise here, and am kinda surprised you got so worked up.
I just checked my Odwalla Mango Tango bottle. It says 100% Daily amount of Vitamin C. It says it's an 86% Juice/Puree Blend. It has mango puree, apple/orange/lemon juice, coconut and added vitamins. How long ago did you check your bottle?? Obviously nobody should expect to gain any serious benefit from these drinks. But who doesn't like a tasty beverage that isn't horrible for you every now and then?
ReplyDelete