Surprising HFCS food of the week

I don't know why this one always catches me off guard, but it does. Today's surprising HFCS food of the week is JUICE! I guess I always find it surprising because juice is thought to be so good for you, and yet it's so often a little juice floating in a sea of HFCS or sugar.

I was shopping for cranberry juice a couple of weeks ago and picked up some Langers Cranberry juice. I've gotten this brand before and was happy with is. So, I was surprised when I flipped it around to glance at the ingredients and saw that HFCS was the second ingredient! Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail is not immune - HFCS is the third ingredient (at least it's after cranberry juice this time!). Not all Langers and Ocean Spray juices contain HFCS - it pays to read those ingredients! Langers Plus juices, for example, use only other fruit juices to sweeten their cranberry juice - no HFCS or sucrose.

Cranberry juice swimming in HFCS

Cranberries are very tart, so it isn't unusual (in fact, it's the norm) for cranberry juice to be sweetened with sugar or another very sweet fruit juice (like apple juice), but HFCS in a fruit juice product is not an unusual thing. And sadly, products geared toward kids seem to be the worst offenders when it comes to adding HFCS to fruit juice products. Have you looked at the ingredients in a pack of Caprisun? Even some of the Minute Maid juice pouches contain HFCS!

Kids' juice prducts are often full of HFCS

So, what do you do? Read the ingredients! For kids' products, look for 100% juice products. Those products almost certainly contain apple juice as the main ingredient (not my favorite juice - it's one of the least nutritious juices out there - a junk juice to me!), but at least it isn't HFCS or a sugar syrup. There is still some redeeming value to apple juice - the same cannot be said for sugar syrup. The most nutritious bets for juice boxes are ones that use orange juice or concord grape juice - both great juices worth drinking - but those usually aren't my kids' favorites.

Look for 100% juice on kids' juice products

There are also several "flavored water" pouches out there that are mostly water, sometimes a little sugar (but often less total sugar than found in a regular juice box), and sometimes a little fruit juice for flavoring. (Watch the ingredients, though, because some do contain HFCS!) I think that these can be good options too if you're looking for a pouch drink. Honest Kids is one of our favorites in this category.

Honest Kids and Minute Maid Fruit Falls are both HFCS free

For adults and kids alike - HFCS or not - remember that fruit juices should be a treat and not the primary drink for the day. A little juice at breakfast or with a snack is fine and dandy, but fruit juice with breakfast, lunch, and dinner isn't recommended. Even the juices packed with good stuff - like orange, cranberry, pomegranate, and Concord grape juice - are also packed with sugar in the form of fructose.