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Light ‘n Healthy – It’s Just Water, Stupid…

I did not want to believe my eyes when I saw the “light” version of Tropicana Orange Juice at the supermarket today.  Tropicana OJ is 100% fruit, how do they make it light?   Hm.. the box says “½ Less Sugar & Calories”, let’s check the ingredients:

Filtered water, not from concentrate pasteurized orange juice, modified food starch, citric acid, malic acid, natural flavors, sucralose (Splenda), and acesulfame potassium; Vitamins & Minerals: potassium citrate, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), beta-carotene, tocopherol (vitamin E), magnesium phosphate, niacinamide (vitamin B3), thamin hydrochloride (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), and pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6)

Wow, I only recognize one “legitim”  item on this list: the orange juice.  Light juice?  Yeah, right.  I’ve got news for everyone: half the juice will naturally have half the Calories and Sugar in it.  The rest is just water, plain and simple. (well, not that plain considering all the crap added to it).

Of course I shouldn’t be surprised, this comes from the industry that sells us tap water in bottles.

Need I say the water/juice mix and the pure juice are sold for the same price?   So here’s my “light juice recipe”: buy the original, mix half a glass juice with half a glass water on your own, free of extra charge, and PayPal me half of what you saved.:-)

Update (9/9/08): See Consumerist on Apple Juice.