The most common mission I often help people with is that of weight loss. You’ll constantly hearing me preaching the values of basing your eating habits around produce, lean protein, lean dairy, whole grains and legumes. If 90% of the things you put in your mouth are legitimately healthy … the other 10% won’t hurt you so much. I’m also a huge proponent of not drinking your calories. Why? Caloric beverages are often loaded with sugar and empty calories. Calories from a glass are often very unsatisfying leaving you hungry to consume the chewable kind of calories as well.
I don’t imagine everyone will adhere to my guidelines perfectly of course, but when people come close … they usually get where they want to go. With that in mind, I bend slightly with the caloric beverages rule. How so? Well, although I think it would be a bad idea (for your waistline) to drink five glasses a day, a glass of freshly squeezed pure fruit juice on occasion is something I can’t fight too hard about. I’d always prefer that you eat an orange, but pure orange juice is so full of beneficial vitamins and nutrients that I couldn’t say that it was techinically bad for you. The difference? A navel orange will cost you 50 calories, is full of nutrition and includes fiber which will fill you up – thus detering you from eating more. A four ounce glass of freshly squeezed pure orange juice also costs 50 calories, an eight ounce glass 100, and is packed with nutrition. The juice does not contain fiber though, which will eventually cause you to consume more calories.
So when Tropicana invited me to come to Chicago to learn about their Florida grown product, I was extremely intrigued. Most OJ brands pack their product with sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and lots of other unnessecary crap which really causes their product do more harm than good. Tropicana Pure Premium, on the other hand, claims to add nothing to their juice except for well, oranges! So I hopped on a plane and flew to the windy city to do some investigating.
I was able to meet with and grill just about every one in the Tropicana family, especially Steve Lezman, the brilliant chemical engineer, juice master, gevernment affairs guru, jack of all things orange-juice man who’s worked with the company for over 20 years. Besides being a smarty-pants Steve showed the exact process in which Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice is made, and I’ve got to tell you … I was impressed! They process about 58 million oranges per day and their goal is to simply save your forearm the work of squeezing those citrus fruits yourself (and make a profit). Thoughtful, huh?
Anyway, after gathering my info in Chicago I flew back home and did some more investigating in my own grocery store. I found tons of “orange juice products” that don’t even list oranges as their main ingredient – buyer beware! Should you buy Sunny D? Nope! Should you buy most of the others sitting on that shelf? Nope. Should you by Tropicana’s bastard stepchild beverage called Tropicana Twisters?Absolutely not. Those are full of high fructose corn syrup and other nonsense too. The Tropicana execs were admittedly embarrassed by the Twistersas they were only a knee-jerk creation positioned to help keep the company afloat if the orange crops were destroyed due to hurricanes. But if you look for the offiicial Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice label you’ll find nothing but the good stuff in your glass.
Another smart concoction Tropicana has just launched is Trop50 and I like this one a lot. It’s a combination of pure oranges, water and the REB-A sweetener which brings back the full flavor of Tropicana Pure Premium OJ. I tried Trop50 and not only did I love the taste, I felt less stressed about it’s effects on my lean body. So if you’re someone who is trying to lose or maintain an ideal weight yet refuse to give up your OJ … Trop50 is definitely what I’d recommend for you.
So I’d like to quote the Tropicana folks and tell you to you “Get Your Fruit On!” And if you’re not only interested in eating actual fruit … stick with Tropicana.
**Note to consumer: Label reading is a sure-fire way to make sure you’re getting exactly what you want to be getting. Never take for granted that OJ is truly just OJ and that a label which reads “good for you” actually is.
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