EATING OUT TIP: Juice Bars

Juice bars are popping up more and more these days. Their colourful cups are a familiar sight in the hands of many people. A refreshing drink from your local juice bar can be refreshing, and it claims to be healthy. But be warned! Your favourite juice may contain more kilojoules than you realise.

Take a look at the size of the cups. Juices and smoothies are fine in small amounts - remember a serve of juice is classified as 125ml (1/2 cup). But the large take-away cups from juice bars can hold 650ml which equates to 1300kJ for juices, 1400kJ for fruit-based smoothies, 2200kJ for dairy–based smoothies and up to 2700kJ for ‘breakfast replacement’ smoothies. By choosing the small sized cups (350ml), you are reducing your kilojoule intake by nearly half.

98% fat free. Some juice bars make claims that all their smoothies are 98% fat free. Not only do they have what they call ‘regular’ smoothies, they all also have low fat smoothies. Both types of smoothies actually contain the same amount of fat and kilojoules. Why? Well to make a low fat claim, a product must contain no more than 3% fat. All of these smoothies could be called low fat, but that’s marketing’s way of getting to think you have made a healthier choice by choosing the one titled ‘low fat’.

What about the sugar? When you take the fat out of a product, you need to replace the fat with something that gives the low fat version the same mouth feel and taste. Introducing sugar! Alarming, some of the large-sized smoothies contain between 50g and 95g of sugar. That equates to 850kJ-1615kJ from sugar alone! And that’s got to make you even more thirsty.

After reading this you don’t need to avoid juice bars completely, but you may want to make some changes to what you order. Here are some tips that can help you the healthier choice at the juice bar.

Size does matter: Always choose the smallest size to prevent unnecessary weight gain.
Dairy smoothies: Ask for skinny milk and low-fat or frozen yoghurt instead of full cream milk and ice cream. These smoothies can also be a good source of calcium if you don’t consume other dairy or soy products.
Freshly squeezed juices: Fruit and vegetable juices can provide with essential vitamins and minerals, but they are also concentrated form of kilojoules. Select a freshly squeezed vegetable juice over a fruit juice as vegetables contain less kilojoules than fruit. You could also eat a piece of fruit instead of ordering a fruit juice as the fruit will contain fibre, something that the juice is lacking.
Fruit-based smoothies: These types of smoothies are normally made with sorbet, yoghurt or ice cream which means the sugar content is higher than freshly squeezed juices. Choose a combination that is higher in berries as berries are lower in kilojoules compared to other fruits.