Minute Maid Enhanced Pomegranate Blueberry Juice

By: Tanya Taylor, PhD | Feb 13, 2008
3 stars

Minute Maid Pomegranate Blueberry Juice Minute Maid has a line of Enhanced Juices which includes Heartwise Orange Juice which aids in reducing cholesterol (read our glowing review), MultiVitamin and Active Orange Juices plus the new Pomegranate Blueberry Juice which has omega-3 fatty acids/ DHA to "Help nourish your brain."

This juice tastes just sweet with no tartness and it doesn't really taste like pomegranate juice. In fact, the taste reminds me a lot of TrueBlue Blue Berry Juice. Minute Maid says that this a 100% juice blend, but don't get excited or fooled into thinking this is 100% pomegranate and blueberry juice. Instead the ingredients - in order from most to least - are apple, grape and pomegranate juices from concentrate, fruit and vegetables juices (for color), blueberry juice from concentrate, natural flavors, raspberry juice from concentrate ... DHA algal oil, added vitamins.

One 8 ounce serving of Minute Maid Enhanced Pomegranate Blueberry Juice has 120 calories and 29 grams of sugars. The "enhanced nutrition" that Minute Maid refers to is:

DHA (50 mg which is 31% of the 160 mg daily value) key building block in the brain.
Choline (55 mg) and B12 (10% of the recommended daily amount) plays a role in the brain and nervous system signals.
Antioxidant vitamin E (20%) helps shield the omega-3/s in the brain from free radicals.
Vitamin C (100%).

This doesn't really seem Earth shattering to me. Salmon has 65 mg of choline and 56 mg of DHA, plus 37 mg of EPA (another omega-3 fatty acid). In addition, the DHA in Minute Maid is from algal oil read algae/ fungus. I was just reading an article over at Food Karma Alert about hexane extracted DHA from algae and the fact that they have been shown to not have the same beneficial effects as DHA in fish (I highly recommend you subscribe to Food Karma if you want to stay up to date on food issues affecting us).

I think the $3.34 that I spent on Minute Maid Enhanced Pomegranate Blueberry Juice would have been better spent on Lakewood Organic Heart Healthy Pomegranate with Cranberry or Bom Dia Acai Berry with Pomegranate Juice.

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Comments

Wed: February 13, 2008
Kevin said:

I have seen this in the stores recently. I use to drink POM juice. It comes in a few different flavors, all with pomegranate juice in them. It was not very good and was very expensive. This looks like a cheaper and better alternative I may have to try out.

Wed: February 13, 2008
Red Icculus said:

POM is obsenely expensive!

The weird thing is that pomegranates are more easily juiced than eaten. Why not stick with the real deal??!!

Thu: February 14, 2008
Red said:

Juice reviews, eh? That's a fantastic idea. Maybe I'll do the same for donuts.

Wed: November 19, 2008
Preggo Eggo said:

I think you were forgetting one key group of people while writing that review; Pregnant women. Alot of us cannot eat fish whether it be because it's high in mercury or our lovely vomit reflex won't allow us too. Very few prenatals offer DHA in them and most women don't use them anyhow bc the prescrition ones tend to worsen nausea and constipation. These new juices with added DHA are a great and tasty alternative for us.