Juice, Label Literacy, and Michell Obama

The article I chose was from the popular family lifestyle website, “Parents” and is titled “Michelle Obama’s Newest Project Revisits Her Passion for Childhood Nutrition”. The article introduces Obama’s juice brand which targets childhood obesity through providing a beverage with less sugar. I chose this article because the amount of misinformation regarding what the “healthy” choice is, specifically in foods marketed toward children, is rising. The fact that the article was from a parenting website allowed me to obtain a first-hand look into a real instance of what the company perpetuates as its health level for its customer base. Obtaining support from a renowned children’s health activist, Michell Obama, as well as creating a marketing message based around the idea of having a healthy juice prompted me to uncover if the juice was in fact a nutritious choice. 

The article mainly discusses Obama’s heroic efforts to bring low-sugar juice into the school marketplace. I was skeptical becuase having juice with no added sugar sounds great in theory, but from a profit standpoint is unlikely to be favored by children and therefore, bought by parents. I was perplexed after wondering how 6 grams of sugar could be in an entire bottle of juice. Comparatively, as mentioned in the article, other leading “no sugar added” juice brands such as “Naked Juice” have over 50 grams of sugar. After looking up the nutrition label, I was not pleased to find processed ingredients such as Stevia and sugar alternatives such as Monk fruit extract. Both of these are not extremely harmful to children but are certainly not the health equivalent of fruit as the company claims. 

   However, the company’s efforts to produce a low-sugar alternative to juice were successful, although the article and the advertising are misguiding. This brand, like so many other children’s food companies, promotes its product as an equivalent to, and even a supplement for, the health benefits of whole, non-processed foods. This juice is a healthier choice comparatively, but in reality is not the healthiest choice overall.

This issue is significant because so many consumer parents are blinded by expert advertising agencies making foods that are not entirely nutritious seem like the healthiest choice. By breaking down their techniques to cover unhealthy ingredients and mask them as nutritious, patterns start to emerge. From these similarities in devices used to trick the public into buying what is perceived as healthy food, finding ways to avoid them becomes easier.