Diet V-8 Splash?? Low-carb alternative to reg. juice?
 

I was doing the grocery shopping this afternoon and took a look at the ingredients on the V-8 Diet Splash label. It has 3 g. of carbs, 2 of those being sugar - the sweetener is Splenda. It also provides 130% Vit. C, 100% Vit. A and 20% Vit. E.

I have a daughter who loves juice, but she is a bit overweight (no fault of her own! She was put on steroids 5 years ago, gained 10 lbs. in 5 weeks and has never been able to get the weight off even though she is a fairly active girl). I was thinking that this might be a great alternative to the juice she loves to drink with her breakfast and it would be nice for my weekly "splurge" day, also.

Any thoughts on this? I wish I had looked at the label sooner when it came out b/c my son is ADHD and I'm trying to watch his sugar intake ... Strawberry Kiwi Splash is his favorite juice flavor! It is quite a bit more expensive, but my kids are only allowed 1-2 small cups of juice daily, so it wouldn't hurt the budget too much.

Kris

Hi jkprice...

...Well I can't tell you whether it's okay or not, but I thought I'd weigh in. To me, the diet tastes a heck of a lot sweeter than the regular, so that kind of turned me off. But I can completely understand why you'd need an alternative. I just can't get myself to drink water with breakfast, so i've been drinking small amounts of milk and grieving for my usual orange juice :) To me, everything is just a give and take...compromise.

Good luck! Titania

I don't follow the same plan as you, but I have tried the diet V8 Splash. It is a little sweet tasting, but I like having a small glass on occasion. I also tried diluting it with water, I liked it much better that way. It has to be better for sugar levels than regular juice. I haven't noticed any negative side effects from it thus far. My local grocery store carries it now and I was able to get it for $1.99 per bottle, which isn't bad. Hope that helps some. :)

Thanks for your opinions!
 

I'm glad to hear from some people who have tasted it. I have heard that Splenda is very sweet and that seems to be the case here. I wish I could get it for $1.99/bottle, but my local store had it for $3.26 yesterday, so I'm checking WalMart today b/c I know they will be less expensive. If I can dilute it with water a bit, then it will last longer, too, so the cost won't be a true issue.

Whatever the cost, I just really want to find a low-sugar and low-carb alternative to the juice my kids are currently drinking. Luckily, I like coffee, so I usually have that for breakfast, but I do miss my orange juice, too, and there's no way I could have water for breakfast either - YUCK!

Kris

Try this instead of OJ for breakfast
 

I got this from PPLP. They call it Paleolithic Punch. Makes 2 servings:

Take 1/2 cup each strawberries, rasberries, and blueberries. Or sub one of them with blackberries. Or use all four so long as you have 1 1/2 cups of berries.

Put the berries in your blender with 1/2 to 1 cup of water. Blend it until smooth. If the berries are frozen, you'll have a slush.

They also say you can add a teaspoon of honey if it's not sweet enough. But I like it just the way it is. And I found a great berry mix with all four varieties at my local Natural Foods Co-op.

A suggested use is to make popsicles out of it. That will be nice when summer returns. ;)

It's a great replacement for OJ or that banana you used to have in your cereal (hint hint to my dad ;)). It's also really great with whole milk yogurt and right up Dr. S's alley.

;-Deb

I haven't purchased Diet Splash since I used the Atkin's plan quite a while ago. I thought it tasted alright. I cannot recall all of the ingredients, but have found several products that say they are sweetened with Splenda, when you read the ingredient list also contain the sweetener acesulfame, (which is not deemed very healthy). I have seen this with Diet Rite and Log Cabin syrup. Is this true of Diet Splash?

Deb's recipe sounds good also, berries have been in nutrition news lately for how healthy they are. I know I buy a berry blend in the frozen section at Wal Mart that is very economical.

Thanks for the tip, Rosa. I am going to WalMart today and look for the berry blend you wrote of. The berries I bought are organic, but they are also $3.85 for a 10oz package, ouch!

I have started having the Paleolithic Punch with breakfast a few days ago (along with my chorizo and eggs and latte made with heavy cream) and it's interesting how I don't get hungry as early as usual. I am usually hungry by 10:30 in the morning (after a 6am breakfast) and have to have a snack. But I'm usually in meetings and can't do it. So the last few days, I haven't been getting hungry until noon. This works very well for me.

The other reason I like the Paleolithic Punch is what the Eades said about it. It rates very high on the ORAC scale, which is a measurement of a whole food's antioxidant power. Orange juice and bananas are comparatively low.

;-Deb

VitaMix for making "whole" juices
 

I'm new to Schwarzbein and the LC WOE in general, so I'm trying very hard to follow all her rules to the letter (including avoiding sugar and artificial sweetners). Since Dr. S also seems to advocate against processed juices, I have so far been consuming only raw, whole juices which I make with my VitaMix (a sort of super powerful blender). Using the VitaMix, you can make juice using the entire fruit or vegetable, including skins and seeds. [There are a few exceptions, for fruit peels that are bitter in taste].

Basically, you just throw the whole fruits and veggies into the Vita Mix (cut into a few chunks if they are large), add a bit of water and/or ice, blend for a minute, and presto, delicious WHOLE juice. Or a smoothie or granita, depending on what all you added.

My favorite breakfast smoothie:

RASPBERRY YOGURT VEGGIE SMOOTHIE
1 cup goat milk yogurt (9g carb)
1/3 cup frozen raspberries (6g carb)
A few celery top and leaves
A few baby carrots
1/6 tsp of pure Stevia powder
1 T Flax Oil
A handful of ice cubes

The smoothie tastes like a raspberry milkshake - YUM! (you can't even taste the celery and carrots).

The VitaMix was a bit pricey, but since I probably wouldn't get enough fresh, raw vegetables without it, it seemed well worth the cost to me. Also, over time, I would imagine the money saved by not purchasing expensive bottled juices would pay for the VitaMix.

~Isolde