January 14, 2005
POM Not So Wonderful
By Jeff Stier, Esq.
They say that it's good for cardiovascular health, but when I saw the
price at a Manhattan supermarket, I almost had a heart attack! $7.99
for a twenty-four-ounce (three-serving) bottle of POM Wonderful,
possibly the fastest-growing premium refrigerated juice drink,
according to Forbes.
More troubling than the hefty price is the downright obesifying calorie
count. The drink is heavily marketed as a health food, with slick
slogans such as "Cheat death" and "It's been around for 5,000 years.
Drink it and you might be too."
However, in a country appropriately concerned about obesity, it should
be pretty hard to get away with calling anything with 140 calories per
eight ounces a health food.
That is about as many calories as you can possibly fit into a palatable
eight-ounce juice drink -- although their tangerine drink does manage
to fit in 150 calories! That's more than the nutritionally superior
orange juice, which weighs in with "only" 115 calorie per eight
ounces. And POM doesn't even have any vitamin C -- not even in their
"tangerine" variety. Go figure! POM makes Coca-Cola look like a
diet drink by comparison, at a slim 105 calories per eight ounces.
But what about all those antioxidants? Is it worth the calories?
"No," says Dr. Gilbert Ross, medical director of the American Council
on Science and Health. "Antioxidants are not the cure-alls that they
are often reputed to be."
"If you want antioxidants for their touted (but not proven) health
benefits," adds ACSH nutrition director Dr. Ruth Kava, "you are better
off eating the actual fruits and vegetables, so you can get some
fiber." POM has no fiber.
So be cautious: If you enjoy POM, it is okay to drink it every once in
a while, balancing calories from foods and beverages with calories
expended by physical activity, as per the recently revised federal
guidelines. But it may not be a good idea to drink it everyday, as
the ads advise. "Drink it daily. Feel it forever," they say. But
feeling it on your fattened stomach probably isn't what they meant to
imply.
Jeff Stier, Esq., is an associate director of the American Council on
Science and Health.
This information was found online at:
http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.494/news_detail.asp