I was always taught that fresh or steamed veggies are healthier than boiled, as many nutrients break down from the heat and or are leeched out by the boiling process. Since the process of pasteurization uses high heat, wouldn’t some of the vegetables nutrients also be lost in bottled vegetable juice?
I love the convenience and cost savings of “V8” if it’s truly a healthy way to get a quick serving of veggies, I just wanna make sure I’m not just basically drinking watered down Campbell’s tomato soup thinking that I’ve had a salad because of asshole marketing.
Thanks!
It’s asshole marketing. One of the reasons fruits and veggies are great is due to their fiber content along with vitamins. Juices rarely contain the amount of fiber you would get from eating the whole fruit or vegetable.
I mean they are ‘comparable’ but they do lose a fair amount of fiber. I would pick V8 over a sugary soda or fruit juice but it’s not the same as eating whole vegetables.
EDIT: ALWAYS go for the low sodium option, if you can.
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Also, nutritional benefits may be cancelled out by the addition of Vodka, hot sauce, and salt rim =).
https://www.eatthis.com/v8-juice-healthy/
They’re a good choice, apart from sodium content.They may even have more vitamins and minerals than most fresh veges/fruit, or similar amounts, dependent on how far those things had to travel/how long they have been sitting in the store.
Apart from vitamin C, very little nutrient degradation happens through pasteurisation techniques. They’re typically very fast, which minimises nutrient loss, or low and involving steam, which does as well.
Nutrients are lost when boiled because nutrients that mix into water (water soluble nutrients) leech into that water. The vitamins aren’t lost, they’re just in that water instead.
They also typically have an okay fibre content, and are very low calorie.
The downside is they don’t all taste great.
There’s most definitely more vitamins and minerals than on the label. They’re heated while sealed, and it’s not that high of heat(not even boiling) to breakdown the nutrients. It easily beats most fruit juice for micro/macro ratio. No, it’s not marketing, the USDA recognizes vegetable juice as vegetables(shocker, right?) and establishes what a serving size is and allows labels indicating such.
hahahahahahaha, no.
But the sodium free V8’s are better than a regular Coke, I guess.
However, I think Greens Powders have a decent level of nutritional value (Greens+, Barlean’s Greens, CytoGreens, etc etc).
They usually have a ton of good nutritional algae (Chlorella, Spirulina, etc) that is chock full of nutrients, and MUCH better than a V8
TBH, I’d just get a supplement if that’s what you’re looking to do. Nutrient loss isn’t as terrible in dehydration. I use SUBI Greens because they’re a good high quality brand for a better price than Athletic Greens which is essentially, if not exactly, the same thing but more expensive. SUBI also has a couple flavors in addition to unflavored and one scoop = 4 servings of veg. Totally worth it. I take 2 scoops per day in smoothies because I have a tiny appetite and a large requirement. :)
I always wondered about the enzymes etc, the ‘living stuff’ in the vegetables that you don’t get if they’re processed or pasteurized. I don’t think vegetables can be replaced by supplements as some people suggest here, I think it’s important to look at what are all the good things about eating vegetables, and how many of those - and how equivalent - do you get in V8 or whatever other brand.
I do know for fruit juices, like OJ, you get a lot more concentrated sugar and without the fiber etc of eating the fruit, so it’s good to water it down if you drink it at all.
You need look no further than the amount of sodium in those things. They should, in theory, be a healthier alternative to your typical soft drink or canned veg soups, but the amount of salt far outweighs the benefit of those drinks. I say stick to good ol’ veg and homemade shakes, but skimp out on anything that has the potential to raise your blood pressure to the roof.
well even canned whole veggies are said to lose a bunch of nutrition over time so i’d assume the same applies to something like V8, but hey if you’re going to drink coke, or V8, i’d say V8’s a lot better for you in that regard