Author: Anonymous
While current generations have become more health conscious, companies have taken note and have created more ‘healthy’ products to market to the ‘clean eating’ market. This includes companies like Naked, who have created a brand revolving around healthy smoothies, packed full of fruit and no added sugar, it seems like drinking this definitely equates to being healthy and happy.
However, when you compare the real ingredients of a bottle of Naked ‘Red Machine’ to that of a can of coke, it is not at all that dissimilar.
| Categories | Classic Coke (100ml) | ‘Red Machine’ Naked Smoothie (100ml) |
| Energy (kcals) | 42 | 51 |
| Fat (g) | 0 | 0.1 |
| Carbohydrates (g) | 10.6 | 11.3 |
| – of which are sugars (g) | 10.6 | 11.1 |
| Protein | 0 | 0 |
| Salt | 0 | 0 |
Table 1: Ingredients from https://www.nakedjuice.co.uk/the-range/red-machine/ and http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/drinks/coca-cola/coca-cola
As shown in the table above, the Red Machine smoothie has 9 more calories than a 100mls of coke and has 0.7g more carbohydates. As a drink that markets itself as a healthy drink, it is not actually healthier than a can of coke when it is broken down. In fact, the ingredients in the smoothie are:
37 Grapes
4 Raspberries
2 Cranberries
2 Apples
1 Strawberry
1/2 Orange
1 Banana
This initially looks like a very impressive list, it looks like it has a lot of fruit in it. However, if you look at the numbers closely, it is not very much at all. In fact, it is essentially apple and grape juice with a very small quantity of other fruit added. It is in fact, not a smoothie but merely a juice with a coupele of other fruits waved near it! If you think about this – 2 cranberries and one strawberry is hardly worth mentioning.
Also, when I looked up the nutrients of each fruit, a convenient website informed me of what is both good and bad about each individual fruit. One very common theme with every fruit is that they all had a very high sugar content. Below I have listed all the good and bad properties of each fruit:
Grapes –
The good: This food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a very good source of Vitamin C and Vitamin K.
The bad: A large portion of the calories in this food come from sugars.
Raspberries –
The good: This food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Vitamin K and Magnesium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C and Manganese.
The bad: A large portion of the calories in this food come from sugars.
Cranberries –
The good: This food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol) and Vitamin K, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C and Manganese.
The bad: A large portion of the calories in this food come from sugars.
Apples –
The good: This food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Dietary Fibre and Vitamin C.
The bad: A large portion of the calories in this food come from sugars.
Strawberries –
The good: This food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Folate and Potassium, and a very good source of Dietary Fibre, Vitamin C and Manganese.
The bad: A large portion of the calories in this food come from sugars.
Orange –
The good: This food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Thiamine, Folate and Potassium, and a very good source of Vitamin C.
The bad: A large portion of the calories in this food come from sugars.
Bananas –
The good: This food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Dietary Fibre, Vitamin C, Potassium and Manganese, and a very good source of Vitamin B6.
The bad: A large portion of the calories in this food come from sugars.
Overall, the issue with Naked smoothies was not that they lied about the numbers or were inaccurate, but they did advertise their drinks in a misleading way and overwhelmed the consumer with the quantity of fruits while when you actually think about it and compare the figures, you would actually drink fewer calories and sugars if you drank coke. This would be why PepsiCo (the parent company of Naked) were sued for misinforming their customers.