Is the calorie content of V8 VFusion juice worth the health benefits?

I’d just rather eat real fruits and vegetables, personally.

The less processed a food is, the greater benefits you can obtain from it generally speaking. However, if you’re looking for a beverage that tastes good and is “healthy,” it may be a good option. I’ve never looked at the back of one of their packages, but make sure it’s all added juice and no added sugar.

I did the same thing. I bought the v8 fruit juice for a while. Its so tasty, but hard to stop at the one glass! I had to stop drinking it because I was just wasting calories in what I would drink. Thats a terrible habit. Have a banana! :P

@meagan: See, that’s my problem. I can eat about two bites of a banana before the texture makes me gag… lol. I have been meaning to make my grandmother’s fruit salad (apple, banana, oranges, & red/green grapes, all in orange juice) but the whole point of me being drawn in by the juice is because I have no time to fiddle with that stuff.

Get a juicer and make your own! Terrific investment!

@Cruiser Agreed. Juice some blueberries, bananas and yogurt. Very good! Try some protein powder, too ! :)

Extra calories aren’t a problem, just make sure you balance it with an appropriate amount of exercise. If the extra calories motivate you to exercise more, it may actually be a good thing. Generally the answers above are correct though, making it yourself from less processed foods is more healthy.

What I found a little disconcerting it their website FAQ list the Fusion as having 50 calories per 8 os serving yet the nutritional label says 120 cal/8 oz. Even more so is they gladly offer the list of veggie juices but not the fruit juices they use my guess is it is less than ideal. I gave up trying to find it as I’m sure it is out there but Campbell’s seems determined to not be the one to tell you. sheesh!

Is it 100% juice? If not, then you might be getting extra calories and additives. If it is 100% juice, then even though the beverage is calorically dense, those are healthy, nutritional calories. Adjust for the added calories by altering your diet.

As someone else said, invest in a juicer. A good juicer can be pricey, but it is well worth the money. Owning a juicer also gives you the option of making your own juice and veggie mixes. This way you can better control the calories and the taste.

It is better to eat real fruit..thats my verdict. Get a juicer and bring your own juice thats much healthier.

I believe it has high fructose corn syrup, so I don’t buy it.

@psychocandy: the label says 100% juice.

@casheroo: No HFCS.

@all: Yes, I should invest in a juicer. But I don’t really have the time to be making juice! If I did, I would make that darned fruit salad I’ve been craving! Even when I do have time, it seems like my roommates are dominating the kitchen. /sigh

Sure the stuff has some good things in it. I’ve never been a fan of “hiding” vegetables with sweeteners, since vegetables are so darn tasty, but whatever does it for you is good, I guess.

The problem I have with V8 fusion is that it is relatively high in sugar (none added doesn’t mean “low”). At 38 grams for 12 ounces of drink, you are looking at only a gram less sugar than a bottle of Coca-Cola. This doesn’t make it bad, but it does mean you should limit your intake of such things. A 12 oz bottle a day, I suppose, wouldn’t be a terrible thing.

Eating healthy is about getting foods with high nutrition, while staying within certain boundaries for those nutrients. 170 calories is not a particularly high number, really, if you are getting nutrients. Unfortunately, you really aren’t. There are some vitamins, but no fiber, which helps you regulate the sugar you ingest.

Fruits are good, and by the look of it, this stuff is mostly fruit- but too much of a good thing can be detrimental. This drink should be considered an occasional beverage, not a part of a balanced diet. By drinking a lot of this stuff, you aren’t being properly nourished, (fruit is only a part of a healthy diet) and you are pounding sugar into yourself by the scoop.

I know nobody like regular V8— and neither did I at first, but the stuff grows on you. It is much more nutritious, and the low sodium version is complete enough to be a real part of a balanced diet. Try it again, and see if you can get used to it. In all, it’s a much better option if you can’t find the time to make your own.

No, not worth it. It seems to me that bottled juices like that are loaded with sugar, but without the fiber you need. I just looked up the nutrition info on some of the varieties of Fusion, and there’s zero fiber, but an average of 28 grams of sugar!

but if there’s no added sugar, and I was eating fruit, would I not be getting the same amount of sugar? Yes I would be getting fiber, but I would still be getting the sugar.

@poofandmook The sugar adds up because it takes several more pieces of fruit to make juice than you get when you simply eat the fruit, plus juicing leaves out the fiber.

The juice of just one orange is less than ¼ of a cup, yet one whole orange is satisfactory for a serving.

I found this answer to a similar question on a health forum:

The V8 Fusion products are not a substitute for fruits and vegetables. They are made from fruit JUICES, not fruits and vegetables. They are also packed with a sickening amount of sugar, in the form of condensed juices (which just means that they boiled a juice down to sugar). “I always buy fresh fuit and vegetables but they go bad on me before I get to eat them” is a pretty poor exceuse; you can buy FROZEN fruit for less money than fresh fruit. You probably have a blender hiding in a closet at your house that hasn’t seen the light of day since you whipped up pina coladas for a barbecue ten years ago; use that to blend frozen fruit and non-fat yogurt together. That’s a LOT more nutritious than this V8 sugary concoction. Nutritionists agree that fruit juices are okay but not great, especially when you choose juices that aren’t clear, like choosing orange juice over apple juice, but they also warn that you can’t substitute juices for the recommended daily allowances of fruits and vegetables. That’s what you’re doing here. The original V8 juice actually contains a great deal of vegetable matter and does supply a serving of the RDA, but this stuff really seems like an overly-sweet treat that you’d be better off avoiding.

Thought that was an interesting response. Here’s the thread.

@jeanmay: Thanks! I didn’t mean to imply I was going to substitute the juice for the real stuff entirely, though. I suppose in a pinch it would slide.

@poofandmook We all need a sweet treat from time to time, and it’s not bad as sweet treats go!