Drinking in Fruits and Vegetables

Douglas J. Peckenpaugh, Community Director of Content & Culinary Editor

No matter where you look for nutritional information, chances are, theyll be advising that you need to eat more fruits and vegetables. MyPlate covers half of its graphicdesigned to represent our daily dietary intakewith fruits and veggies, equating to roughly 2 to 3 cups of vegetables and 2 cups of fruit daily. But were not even close to meeting those numbers. According to the CDC website Fruits and Veggies Matter, only 32.8% of adults eat 2+ fruits a day, 27.4% eat 3+ vegetables and 14.0% eat both; for adolescents, those numbers drop to 32.2%, 13.2% and 9.5%, respectively.

This situation is nothing short of alarming.

The American diet is clearly lacking in the vital nutrients fruits and vegetables bring to the table. However, some recent moves in the retail and foodservice beverage market are helping close the gapand point to possibilities in an emerging category of sports-nutrition beverages.

Juices Revitalized

Juice bars are nothing new, but some theyre seeing some newfound attentionand diversity with the inclusion of more vegetables in the mix, particularly in the smoothie category.

When Starbucks jumped fully into the juice market with last years acquisition of Evolution Fresha premium manufacturerit made a bold statement about the future of this market. Evolution Fresh uses high-pressure processing to render its cold-pressed juices microbially safe without use of heat, which can alter their flavor, color and nutritional value. Although it has a retail line (competing with the likes of Odwalla and Naked Juice), including products featuring either fruits or vegetables, as well as vegetable-fruit blends like carrot, orange and mango and cucumber, pineapple and ginger, Starbucks used this acquisition to launch its Evolution Fresh foodservice concept, with one store in Bellevue, WA (just outside of Seattle), right next door to a Starbucks, and more units in the works. The café offers a range of juices and smoothies (using fruits, vegetables, yogurt and/ormost interestinglygranola) along with breakfast, lunch and dinner. If consumers warm to the idea (and texture) of granola mixed into their smoothie, it could open the door to use of more grains in smoothies.

Kale, lettuce and other leafy vegetables lend themselves well to drinks like smoothies, says Elizabeth Doyle, CEO and president, Vegetable Juices, Inc. We have seen increased awareness and questions around super veggies, of which Kale is included. An added benefit is their neutral flavor, which blend well with other ingredients and are naturally low in calories.

Smoothies in general are a growing foodservice beverage category. According to recent data from NPD Group, smoothies are the No. 2 growth potential beverage in foodservice right now, just behind blended coffee drinks (see Top 5 Restaurant Beverages, Nations Restaurant News). Chains like McDonalds, Burger King and Einstein Bros. have all menued smoothies in recent months, and Orange Julius, Jamba Juice and Smoothie King have long focused on smoothies. Starbucks now menus three smoothies (chocolate, orange-mango and strawberry) that all come standard with whey protein and fiber.

This activity makes for some interesting competition in the foodservice space, and the addition of vegetables to the mixtaking smoothies into a decidedly nutritious directionlends and edge. Jamba Juice continues to ramp-up menued juices and smoothies that feature fruits and vegetables, including carrots, beets, broccoli and greens, along with ingredients like spirulina and wheatgrass, and marketing materials often note the total servings of fruit and vegetables in each menu option. Consumers seem to be responding well to these moves. A recent reports cited a 12.7% same-store sales jump at Jamba Juice during early 2012 (see Jamba 1Q Same-Store Sales Rise Nearly 13%, Nations Restaurant News).

A Sporting Chance

Perhaps the greatest untapped opportunity for fruit and vegetable beverages is the sports-nutrition market. Before the start of this years baseball season, New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira proclaimed his affinity for fruit and vegetable juice blends, specifically the 100% organic, cold-pressed products manufactured by Juice Press (see With Eye on Nutrition, Tex Seeing Results, MLB.com). The bottled products variously include ingredients like carrots, celery, parsley, spinach, cucumber, apples, sweet potatoes, pears, spirulina, flax, Peruvian maca extract (Lepidium meyenii) and cayenne pepper, among others. Teixeira, who is a partner in Juice Presswith four retail locations in New York City, where they offer freshly made smoothies along with bottled versions, as well as some food optionscredited his 15-lb. off-season weight drop to dietary shifts that replaced his old, less-nutritious snacks with the juices.

In order to avoid use of added sugars or other sweeteners, thus keeping the ingredient statement as straightforward as possible, formulators of these next-generation fruit and vegetable smoothies often judiciously combine select ingredients to cultivate the desired organoleptic traits. Certain vegetables have a sweet component, says Doyle. For instance, she suggests using sweet potato to naturally boost sweetness levels in smoothies.

Some combinations are purely desirable from flavor and visual standpoints. Leafy greens work well with palm, stone and tropical fruits, says Doyle. Root vegetables combine well with berries, palm fruits and citrus. These combinations work well together to provide appealing color and taste. After all, even though performance is a key motivating factor in sports-nutrition products, she notes that consumers still desire a good-tasting product.

Other fruits and vegetables are specifically well suited to sports beverages based on their nutritional composition. Some vegetables, for example, are high in potassium, which lend well to the category, says Doyle. Greens like spinach, Swiss chard and kale are high in potassium, as are sweet potatoes and avocadoes. Athletes require higher amounts of potassium to replace levels lost from muscle during exercise and help prevent cramping, among other benefits.

A consistent trend within fruit and vegetable juice blends and smoothies is the use of very natural ingredientsideally any with whole food connotations on the label or in the menu description (listing apples versus apple juice, etc.). Complementing such ingredients with extracts of whole foodsnot unlike Starbucks is doing with its Refreshers line of energy drinks in employing an extract of green, unroasted coffee beansis a logical extension of this premise, as long as those extracts are as natural as possible (stay tuned for a forthcoming article on the next generation of energy drinks for more on this subject).

One untapped ingredient along these lines might be an extract derived from specially bred (non-GMO) Extramel melons, billed as 100% natural, that has reportedly been shown to improve physical performance and recovery. Clinical research also points to other emerging ingredients, including watercress for reduced physical damage, chia for carbohydrate loading, and golden root (Rhodiola rosea) for endurance, as candidates to help diversify the natural sports-nutrition market. With more clinical support, other ingredients, including those from traditional Indian medicine, ayurvedaincluding safed musli root (Chlorophytum borivilianum) for building muscle and ashwagandha root (Withania somnifera) for endurancecould prove viable, as well.

The combination of whole foods like fruits, vegetables and others, along with ultra-clean labels and targeted nutritionfrom the various demographic segments everyday health-trending consumers fall into, to serious amateur and professional athleteswill continue to drive the juice and smoothie categories forward. Such an approach meshes well with consumers who are increasingly facing the music regarding their nutritionally depleted (and oft overweight) existence, but who are evermore tuned into a desire for transparent, easy-to-understand foods that seem only a stones throw away from nature.