One Hundred Percent Fruit Blend: Finding Healthy Options

Hectic schedules and long work hours could take their toll on our overall health and stress levels. Incorporating a well balanced diet keeps us energized and healthy.  Whole grains, nuts, legumes and a wide assortment of fruits and vegetables should be on everyone’s menu plan. One of the easiest ways to pack in vitamins, minerals and other delicious and nutritious goodies is making smoothies with 100% fruit juice blends or concentrated fruit mixes as some might refer to them.

Making a smoothie couldn’t be easier. Getting out the blender and assembling a variety of natural, tasty ingredients and you are good to go. Number one on the ingredient list should be the fruit, fruit juices or fruit puree. For taste, health impact and consistency using 100% fruit blends as the base of a smoothie is a great way to start. However, not all juices are healthy choices. It’s important to read nutrient and ingredient labels.

What To Avoid

Products don’t always live up to their advertising. Consumers should be wary of juices that look inviting but have a long list of ingredients that are hard to pronounce. Avoid products with: 

• Added sugars or artificial sweeteners
• Preservatives
• Artificial food coloring
• Artificial flavors
• GMOs – genetically modified organisms’ ingredients
• Products that are not labeled as 100% juice or 100% fruit or 100% fruit blend

Great New Options

Fruit juices used to be one flavor to a bottle but that is quickly changing in our health conscious market. Why limit your taste buds to one fruit when you can get the benefits of delicious blends?  When super-fruits such as pomegranate, blueberry, acai and goji berries are combined with natural fruit juices, powerful nutrients are added as well, including important flavonoids, polyphenols and antioxidants. There are also some terrific 100% fruit purees with added fiber, immunity and energy boosters, electrolytes, prebiotics and detoxifiers

A fruit blend or a single flavor?

Once you have chosen the right 100% juice and fruit base, you can make a wide variety of smoothies, limited only by your imagination and personal taste. Bananas, milk, yogurt, spinach, kale, almond milk….the list of combinations is endless.  Some smoothie mix brands put their emphasis on singular flavors like strawberry, banana, mango while some brands get more adventurous. Smartfruit is an example of a brand that offers 100% fruit blends in addition to the core flavors. Harvest Greens for example contains kale, spinach, cucumber, apple, kiwi and lemongrass! keep in mind that the term "blend” can also be used by different smoothie brands to label a singular flavor.  A mango smoothie mix for example that was sweetened with apple or pear juices can be considered a 100% fruit blend, even though the prominent flavor profile and the main ingredient is… mango. Some brands will use the term 100% fruit blend to describe a combination of fruits that deliver a complex flavor profile.