In our modern day, fast paced and over stressed society it is all too common for most of us to rely on processed food. However, this does not go without dire consequences which we are seeing in the population today amidst the weight and disease statistics. To combat some of these problems and try to help, while providing quick and easy convenience, many companies are creating products that are geared to being healthy choices. One of these products is the Green Machine from Naked Juice.

Naked Juice began as a small fresh smoothie company in the Santa Monica, California area. Today it has grown to provide bottled juice smoothies all over the continent of North America and is making its way to Europe.

Naked Juice boasts this name, as they claim that they never add any sugar or preservatives to their products, and that they have nothing to hide. There are also no artificial flavors or colors added to their product. Their drinks (juices and smoothies) are 100% real fruits, with some of their products also getting “boost ingredients”, such as vitamins, minerals, herbs or supplements. In total, Naked Juice has over 20 varieties of juices and juice smoothies.

But does this warrant the product as a healthy choice? In this review, I will share with you information about the Green Machine, which has become a common choice for many seduced by the idea of “green smoothies”. Please note that because ingredients vary by variety, this review does not represent the quality, characteristics or nutritional benefits of all the varieties.

Personal Experience

Living the healthytarian lifestyle, it is a very rare occasion these days if I buy a drink if I am out anywhere. Water has been my main fluid of choice for the past few years and I am mindful to have my own water in a reusable glass bottle with me when going out. At home, whole food green smoothies and freshly made green juices are regulars in my diet. However, during a trip to California in December 2010 and being unable to make the usual green smoothies I make at home, I decided to give the Green Machine a try.

In terms of taste, the Green Machine tasted fantastic. In fact, a little too fantastic. I know the company says that they add no sugar whatsoever to any of their products, but I have made pure fruit smoothies at home before and have never got such a sweet taste. (There is a good reason for that, which will be explained below.) The taste was great, but the sweetness of the product did surprise me quite a bit in being on the unnaturally too sweet side. Perhaps that is just my refined-sugar-free tastebuds talking.

In terms of consistency, the drink is smooth and uniform in texture, like one would expect a smoothie to be. If you make homemade smoothies, it is not thick, but thinned out enough to be pleasant to drink for everyone, and not viscous.

Ingredients & Nutrients

Green Machine Ingredients Apple Juice Mango Puree Pineapple Juice Banana Puree Kiwi Puree Spirulina Natural flavors Chlorella Broccoli Spinach Barley Grass Wheat Grass Parsley Ginger Root Blue Green Algae Odorless Garlic	The Fruit Inside 2 & 3/4 Apples 1/2 Banana 1/3 Kiwi 1/3 Mango Hint of Pineapple The Boost Inside Spirulina 1300mg Chlorella 400mg Broccoli 100mg Spinach 100mg Blue Green Algae 50mg Garlic 50mg Barley Grass 75mg Wheat Grass 75mg Ginger 50mg Parsley 50mg
Nutritional Information (per 240mL/8fl oz.) 140 Calories 0g Fat 2g Protein 33g Carbohydrate (28g Sugar) 0g Fiber 400 mg Potassium 15 mg Sodium 0 mg Cholesterol	Vitamins & Minerals 50% Vitamin A 2% Vitamin B1 10% Vitamin B2 15% Vitamin B6 25% Vitamin B12 40% Vitamin C 6% Magnesium 2% Calcium 4% Iron

In terms of nutrition value and health benefits, well this is where things get a little “sticky”. How you will view or rate this drink depends largely on your personal definition of health and nutrition standards. For example, to a raw foodist, there is nothing healthy about this drink. To a SAD diet consumer, this is probably the healthiest thing they will consume. So let’s break it down a little further, and here is how it goes.

Why is the Green Machine so sweet? You only need to look at its first ingredient—apple juice. Anyone who does home juicing knows all too well that if you want to make any vegetable juice taste good, just add apples. Now it would be one thing if the apple juice was “one of” the ingredients somewhere down the line, but it isn’t. And it would be another thing if someone juiced their own apple juice at home and added to a homemade smoothie, but that is not the case either here. Processed, pasteurized apple juice is for the most part pure sugar. So Naked Juice is not lying in saying that it does not add any “sugar”, but unless one is nutritionally-oriented, they may not realize that with this product being based on apple juice, it is like having sugar added.

So if you glance (and actually read the list of ingredients) not just the fancy hyped up marketing about how many servings of produce one apparently gets, you will see that the bulk of this product is made up of “juices” and “purees”. Juices are devoid of fiber, and pretty much liquid sugars (unless homemade - research home juicing to understand this concept). One would think being a smoothie the purees would have their fiber, yet one look at the nutrition info and we see that this product does not contain any fiber.

This is something to consider, as even though the company touts that there is a pound of fruit in every 15.2oz bottle, it is not the whole fruit. This is what misleads people to think that a juice or commercial drink like this can substitute servings of real fruits or vegetables—it can’t. To have fruit and vegetable servings really count we must go to the fresh, whole and natural source. This is also why homemade smoothies are superior when made with fresh produce, and based on water (not juice). They retain their fresh qualities, nutritional integrity, live enzymes and fiber.

Further down the ingredient list we do see some nice green vegetable and algae ingredients, but again these are so far removed from their original nutritional integrity. One other area of concern about this product is the “natural ingredients” added, which really could be anything. But on top of that, with all of the “juice and fruit purees” this product should have no problem providing its own natural, delicious flavor. Not quite. This is a common problem for processed food. Processing destroys not just the nutritional integrity of our foods, but their flavors too. This is why companies resort today to adding salt and various forms of sugars, not to mention other additives to literally everything!

As for other Naked Juice flavors, I am not even inclined to go there as I am pretty sure this would be the healthiest of the Naked Juice varieties. The rest will just be processed fruit drinks.

Conclusion

So is this drink a good and healthy choice for you? Well, you will have to answer this one for yourself. I can only give you the following guidance. If you would typically be a soda, energy drink or juice person, then by all means this is a much healthier choice than the other three options any day.

However, if you are trying to be healthy, I mean seriously healthy, or trying to lose weight, or diabetic, or pre-diabetic then this is not a healthy choice at all. Make your own smoothies at home. No excuses. A decent blender costs as little as $50 and a smoothie takes about 5 minutes to make. We have all of the right resources today at our finger tips from free web recipes to Kindle and print books on smoothies in every price range. It just takes a little effort on our part to make our health a priority. And yes, you can then take some of your homemade green smoothies with you to work, or on the road and enjoy the convenience too!

Will the odd one hurt you? Of course not (let’s hope ;) but you have to take responsibility for your health and choices, and figure out what role if any this product would have in your life. Most of the time we don’t realize how much money we waste (and environmental resources) on products like this. Simply ask yourself each time you buy it why you are buying it in that moment. Is it thirst? Choose water. Is it hunger? Choose a fresh fruit or vegetable. Is it boredom? Choose a hobby.

So while the smoothie has many beneficial ingredients, especially boosts like chlorella and spirulina, and is very convenient on the go, it is still a processed food product. This means it should not be relied upon as a regular part of your diet if you are interested in optimal health. I know the company sounds so proud about how fresh the products are, but anything bottled and pasteurized is far from fresh. To make matters worse, these drinks then sit in plastic bottles for days, weeks or even months.

UPDATE: July 2012

Back in the fall of 2011, Naked Juice was sued with allegations that its supposed “all natural” juice was hiding both GMO and synthetic ingredients. Here is an excerpt regarding the details of the case:

“CSPI’s litigation department is acting as co-counsel in a class action lawsuit against PepsiCo, on behalf of consumers who purchased Naked Juice products that were falsely and misleadingly labeled as 100% Juice 100% Fruit “ALL NATURAL” suggesting that the beverages’ vitamin content is due to the nutritious fruits and juices, rather than the added synthetic compounds such as calcium pantothenate (synthetically produced from formaldehyde).

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages as well as an injunction against Naked Juice preventing the company from advertising its products as 100% juice and all-natural, when they are not. 09/11″

More of the details of this can be found in the following articles:

1. Naked Juice Not So Natural – La Times

2. Naked Juice Faces Class Action Lawsuit – Living Maxwell

Summary

Packaging

The smoothies come in 10oz, 15.2oz, 32oz, 64oz and 128oz sizes, with the small 15.2oz/450mL serving and large 32oz/960mL being the most common. They come in recyclable plastic bottles, with a screw on cap.

Price (as of this posting)

• Around $3-$4 US/CDN for the small 15.2oz bottles
• Around $5-$7 US/CDN for the large 32oz bottles

Availability

• In Canada & US at local grocery stores, health food stores, coffee shops, etc.
• A store locator is available by zip code on NakedJuice.com

The Pros

• Very sweet taste
• Convenient
• Not from concentrate juices
• No artificial colors
• No artificial flavors
• No preservatives
• No added sugar
• Vegan
• Kosher
• Sustainably Grown and Harvested
• Rainforest Alliance Certified
• Ingredients and nutritional information easily found on product label
• Contains beneficial health compounds

The Cons

• It is a processed food product
• It is pasteurized (not raw)
• It has lost/destroyed natural nutrients
• Is it not from organic sources
• It lacks whole food nutritional integrity (ex: fiber)
• It is packaged in plastic
• UPDATE July 2012: alleged to contain GMO ingredients
• UPDATE July 2012: not all natural, alleged to contain synthetic sources
• Owned by PepsiCo. - a company notorious for unhealthy products

Questions and Answers

What is the difference between JUICES and SMOOTHIES, aren’t they the same thing?

No, they are definitely not the same thing, not in nutrition and not in consistency.

Juices are the squeezed water and nutrients, especially micronutrients, from plants. They are typically made with a juicer (the higher quality the juicer, the better the quality of juice) and less nutritional integrity is lost. Juices do not contain fiber, but they offer a direct and high concentration of pure nutrients (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc.) for us. Juices are best used for detoxification and cleanse purposes, or to enhance health with vitamins and minerals as needed in addition to one’s superior diet. Their consistency is normally like water, or what one would expect from typical “juice”.

Smoothies are made by using the whole fruit or vegetable and blending it down into a liquid or liquified end product. They are typically made using a blender, and the higher quality the blender, the smoother the consistency of the smoothie turns out. Smoothies keep all of the food intact: micronutrients, macronutrients and fiber. Smoothies are filling and best for everyday use, where they can serve as complete meals or snacks.

It is important to realize that both have value and a role to play in optimally healthy living, but for most benefit they need to be homemade from fresh, high quality and hopefully organic ingredients.

Naked Juice Smoothies contain juice, but they also contain puree. Puree is the entire fruit/vegetable ground up, correct?

Not necessarily. The term puree can be used to describe the consistency of something. For example, at home I have a juicer, if I put apples into it, I get apple juice. But if I put a papaya into it, I get a papaya puree. Either way, the fiber is almost (if not entirely) gone. There are many ways that companies process their food and the “wording/labelling” they use, which often leaves us as consumers in the dark, unless we actually “see physically” their factory and processing of the food, or call them and get precisely clear answers. In the case of Naked Juice, the fact that the product does not contain any fiber can make one suspect that the purees used are not from whole food.

According to Wikipedia:

Purée is a general term for cooked food that has been ground, pressed, blended, and/or sieved to the consistency of a soft creamy paste or thick liquid.

So is Naked Juice a smoothie or a juice?

It is branded as a smoothie, but its nutritional characteristics are closer to a juice.

Naked Juice claims that all the sugar is from the fruits used. I’d always believed that not all sugar is equal, and that the sugar found in fruits is better than the sugar found in, say, candy. Is this incorrect?

Yes and no. At the molecular level, generally speaking yes all sugar is sugar. A glucose molecule from fruit is no different than a glucose molecule from a cookie. But as we can see from that example, sugars come into our bodies in many forms and bound to many other compounds, and this is what matters and makes the difference as to which sugars are healthy or better, and which are not. For example, whole fruits have lots of sugars, but they are bound to fibers and numerous nutrients, specifically micronutrients, making them a healthy food option. (We have to remember that our body does run on glucose as its main fuel, so it would not make sense to vilify glucose molecules, what all sugars break down into more or less.) On the other hand, when the fruits are juiced, their sugars are “free” and not coming in with the fiber that helps regulate the speed of digestion. Homemade juices at least come in with rich nutrients, which is why people use them for healing benefits, but commercial pasteurized juices lose most if not all of their nutritional benefits, giving us liquid sugar only. This latter example is clearly not considered healthy. Finally, many high sugar foods in society (ex: commercial cookies) come in the form of nutrient deficient calories and highly processed forms, which is what makes these “sugars” unhealthy.

Green Machine uses juiced fruits mainly, not whole fruits. So their sugar compounds do not compare to whole, fresh fruit that brings in sugar in whole food form. Yes, it is from fruits, but from juiced fruits, which lacks the fiber and can spike insulin as quickly as soda. Fruit sugar will act differently in the body compared to other sugar sources, and can be considered healthy but again when it comes into the body in whole food form. Then, it is a different biochem reaction where the fiber and other whole food nutrients delay the sugar from entering the blood stream as quickly.

I heard about the amazing health benefits of algae like Spirulina and Chlorella. Is this product a good source of those in my diet?

No. You will get some blue-green algae from this product, but it is far from the optimal way of consuming superfoods like those and in the amounts you want. If you want the benefits of algae like Spirulina then it is best to source out the pure product in powder or tablet form. Spirulina powder can be added to your own smoothies, or other foods like these delicious and optimally healthy Superfood Squares.

The only concern one can have about spirulina today is simply where it is coming from. In the past a lot came from around the Japan area and today with that area being infected with radioactivity, it is not wise to get spirulina sourced from Japan.

I encourage you to read the following report on the amazing benefits of Spirulina and its sister food Chlorella.

Can I use Naked Juice Green Machine to lose weight?

Drinking pure sugar is never a good idea whether to lose weight or help with one’s health. The best solution to weight loss, which most people do not want to take seriously and put into practice is to eat a mostly plant-based, whole food diet. This means that most of your meals are made of vegetables and there is very little, if any animal foods and processed food in your diet. Consuming reduced, nutrient dense calorie foods is the smartest and most efficient way of losing weight.

Can I use Naked Juice Green Machine as part of, or to do a juice fast?

No. If you want to do a juice fast, then you need to do it properly - meaning, freshly made juice that is not pasteurized and vegetable based. There are lots of resources out there to help each person know how to do a proper juice fast. However, using a processed, sugar rich product like Green Machine defeats the purpose of even doing a juice fast.

I watched Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead and want to lose weight and improve my health in a similar fashion but cannot make my own juices. Can I use Naked Juice Green Machine?

Green Machine is NOT equivalent to freshly made, vegetable based juices. Secondly, if one starts drinking this product only and losing weight it is not because the Green Machine is causing weight loss, but because there is a serious calorie reduction. Anytime we drastically reduce our daily calorie input, we are going to lose weight. Green Machine is in no way a solution for weight loss or cleansing/detoxifying.

If one is serious about their health, they really need to consider going to the root of the solution and prioritize what is important in their life. Yes, there are transition steps we can each take, but we cannot cut corners, rely on processed food and expect good results.

I want to turn my health/my family’s health around and Green Machine sounds like a healthy product to add into our regular diet which normally has no fruits or vegetables. Is that a good idea?

While the Green Machine may seem like a step in the right direction and could be used as a transitional drink or in place of something like nutrient deficient soda, it is ultimately not the ideal way to go. Green Machine is NOT a substitute for fresh fruits and vegetables. Here are some quick tips to turn your family’s health around in the most beneficial ways:

1. Get a good blender, if you don’t already have one, and make your own green smoothies…..Green Machine is a quick fix, and nothing compares to the goodness and freshness of homemade smoothies. Packing smoothies with greens is key! For optimal health, greens should be part of every meal. The easiest way to get them for breakfast is in a whole food smoothie.

2. This site contains hundreds of articles to help people with different aspects of their diet and lifestyle. Every topic is explored in as much detail as possible to leave the person empowered and ready to act. There are also various videos and healthy recipes for you to explore on Healthytarian which is a growing library of videos where I teach people how to put optimal nutrition into daily practice.

3. Finally, I outline the basics to give people a proper foundation of how to eat, what to eat and why in my book Healing & Prevention Through Nutrition to empower people to take things into their own hands and have a valuable resource with practical tips and meal ideas in one easy to use and undersand book.

There are also so many other books and resources from other nutrition experts that can help along the way. However taking things step by step and not overwhelming oneself is key, and slowly but surely change takes place and our diets, as well as our health and lives are transformed.

How important is it to buy organic produce to make your own juices or smoothies at home?

Generally speaking with today’s chemical and synthetic farming methods, very important. However, it is a fact that not all produce is available in organic form everywhere and not all people will be able to afford organic in large amounts.

So what I recommend is to check out the Dirty Dozen which is a resource from the EWG that comes out each year to help customers pick what produce should really always be organic, and what you can get away with and be fine buying conventional. This helps to balance things in the financial department.

Also, for the summer months, try to see if your area has a CSA program on some farm. This is a fantastic way to get local, and normally organic fruits and veggies, and is normally very, very economical. If no CSA exists, see what local farmer’s markets offer, and if you find an organic farmer I would even suggest making a bulk deal with them, that each week you commit to buying “x” amount, and you can work out some bulk discount to benefit both of you.

http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/

Is it okay to give this drink to babies under 2 years of age?

In terms of safety, it should be fine. However, one has to ask themselves if they really want to introduce their young child to pure sugar liquids and over excite their tastebuds so early. Often parents complain that their child doesn’t want to, or won’t eat any vegetables or other healthy foods and they wonder why. When we introduce children from a young age to hyper sweet or salty or fatty foods, we are conditioning their tastebuds to prefer such items, consequently making whole, natural foods unpleasant due to their milder and unique flavors. For your child’s current and future optimal health and weight, I would not recommend giving them any processed, high sugar (natural or not) drink products.

I tried making my own homemade green juices and/or smoothies but I don’t like their taste, what advice can you give?

There are two reasons people may not enjoy homemade versions of green smoothies or green juices.

1. They were not made right. Look at some good Green Smoothie Recipe Books. Done right, green juices and smoothies are normally amazingly delicious tasting. Simple tip is to use more fruits than greens at the start, and modify to more greens/less fruit as your tastebuds adjust.
2. You need to give your tastebuds time to adjust.

When it comes to homemade green juices or smoothies, or even switching to an all natural diet, you have to give your taste buds time to adjust. Remember that most of us have eaten a processed food, heavily refined diet based on unnatural and hyper flavors. Depending on what kind of a diet you ate for the majority of your life, it will take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks of good clean eating.

Here is an article to get you started and two sample recipes from Evolving Wellness:

• How to Make Green Smoothies
• Pineapple Kale Green Smoothie
• Strawberry Spinach Green Smoothie

I tried making my own homemade green juices and/or smoothies but I don’t like the texture I got with my blender, what advice can you give?

Although most blenders, regardless of the price range, will do a decent job at blending ingredients, many will leave small chunks of the foods blended, especially pieces of the leafy greens. Some people don’t mind this, and some obviously do and desire a smooth, commercial like consistency.

This is actually very easy to achieve at home, but it takes the right blender. For example, high powered, industrial blenders like the Vitamix or Blendtec are world famous for this very function and revered for their amazing funcationality and versatility. They come with a high price tag, but are a worthwhile investment for anyone who wants to incorporate optimally healthy smoothies (and then some) into their everyday diet. Also, when we add up how much money one spends on commercial drinks, the price of one of these blenders starts to become quickly justifiable.

How can I store extras of my green smoothies? Is it okay to freeze them?

Smoothies should be drank fresh for maximum health and nutrient benefits. They only take a few minutes to make so there should be no need to freeze large quantities and de-frost for future use. Although freezing food is not as nutritionally destructive (as far as we know) as heating food, it still is not optimal when fresh options are practical.

It is best not to make more than what you would drink in one sitting, or spread throughout the day at most. Store extra smoothie in the refrigerator for no more than 24 hours, and preferably in a covered/sealed container.

I want to make my own smoothies but I am finding fresh produce, especially organically grown, to be extremely expensive. And when I buy fresh produce, and cooking only for one, I find I often have to discard lots after a relatively short amount of time. Produce seems so expensive compared to many convenience foods. Do you have any advice on these points?

Where people live makes a big difference often in fresh produce prices. Typically however, organic produce today is very close in price to conventional produce. Some yes, is significantly more expensive but it goes in waves, and some is even cheaper. What I recommend in my book Healing & Prevention Through Nutrition is to be a mindful shopper and eat as seasonally as possible. For example, in the winter months organic strawberries are 2 to 3 times as much as they are in the summer, or compared to the conventional ones. Well no problem, eat strawberries when their price makes sense. There are other fruits we can eat in the winter, specifically citrus fruits. These don’t always have to be organic either thanks to their thick skin which we don’t eat, unlike strawberries and apples which should always be bought organic.

If we compare produce to heavily processed food, say Kraft dinner, of course the price difference is big. But in such cases we need to do a paradigm shift. We literally have to pretend that that stuff does not exist, and not compare a pound of fresh organic apples to a pound of white pasta. There is no comparison, not financially and not nutritionally. Yes, you will pay pennies for the white pasta, but in the long run you are paying to clog up your intestines and spike your blood sugar on a regular basis. Where as with the apples, you are investing into a healthy body, rather than paying to eventually get sick. So it takes a personal paradigm shift within as to what we value, what we prioritize and where we are willing to spend our money. For many people paying a dollar extra for broccoli is a big deal, but not a big deal to pick up a case of beer on the weekend. The other thing people find, is the more nutritionally sound you eat and re-nourish your body, eventually you will start eating less. Most people eat more than they need, or buy more food than they need because they are nutritionally starving no matter how much they eat. Ultimately, if we want to compare eye to eye and we take a vegan (optimally healthy) shopping cart and an omnivore shopping cart for the same amount of people and time to feed, the first is always cheaper.

So aside from eating seasonally and getting to know the prices a bit, to not waste food, there are two other tips I normally give:

1. Buy less at a time. Gauge your personal habits and know what is going to last you how long. And in your mind when shopping have a rough plan of what meals you plan to make with what. I personally go grocery shopping once a week, finish everything, nothing goes bad, and do it again next week (shopping for and feeding two) but I know that for a single person a better way to go is normally 2 smaller grocery trips per week. Only get enough for 3 or 4 days, and eat everything in your fridge before going again. Basically commit yourself to what you have, before buying more. It is usually tricky at first, but once you get into a routine and know what your personal habits are like, it is easy breezy :)

2. Learn what produce is more vulnerable and what should be eaten first, etc… For example berries and greens are most sensitive and should be eaten first. For the “later days” or “later in the week” I would depend on things that don’t go bad fast like apples, oranges, zucchini, potatoes, etc.

People often waste the most food when they buy too much at once, but more commonly they don’t eat the fresh food. Normally a fridge could be full of produce, and most people would reach for canned or packaged foods for meals or go out to eat, and then have the problem of the produce going bad since no one was eating it. So the key with produce is to buy less, and actually eat it rather than have it sit there while we eat other stuff.

I get bloated after drinking Green Machine, why might that be?

It all depends on the health of your digestive tract and what you are consuming the drink with. People who consume the SAD (Standard American Diet) based on lots of processed food and animal products typically do not have healthy intestinal health on many levels. It can manifest as anything from chronic constipation to chronic diarrhea, and everything in between. Many people also have Candida overgrowth or an imbalance in their body. Any of these can cause various digestive reactions, especially with fruit and/or sugar substances which tend to ferment and cause gas if not able to pass through in a relatively short time. This is where one should also watch what they consume the Green Machine with. For example, if the drink is consumed alongside a “meat & potato” like meal it is very likely to cause bloating or gas as the fruit sugars want to move through quickly, but the meal needs longer to digest. Never mind that meal alone will typically cause bloating and gas for many people. When it comes to fruits, they should be consumed on their own and typically on an empty stomach. For more information on this I recommend researching food combining dietary practices.

Community Input

AB - November 22, 2012

Naked Juice Green Machine does taste great, BUT they are a deceptive company that we should all boycott. This past election Naked Juice who claims to be organic and all natural put up big bucks (about $2 million) against Prop 37 in California. Which leads me to believe that they do use GMO products in their juices. We have the right to know what we are eating. BOYCOTT NAKED JUICE!!!! Here is the link unmasking several companies that were against us knowing about the GMO produts they use.

Jake - November 12, 2012

I think Naked Juice should be ordered to remove the graphic of the broccoli from the label of green machine. A whole 15.2 ounce bottle contains 100 milligram of broccoli! I bet they’re banking on the fact that most Americans have no clue about the metric system. But convert it in google and weep: it’s 0.00352 ounces! Or 0.02%, thats right a 0.0002 fraction of the total contents of Green Machine is broccoli! Yet this famously healthy vegetable has a prominent place on the label’s graphic. Seriously though, why buy this overpriced junk if you can get the ingredients fresh about anywhere. The best way to make fruit smoothies is with fresh fruit and your molars.

Veenyc - April 25, 2012

The Green Machine is by far the best of the commercial brands out there, and is a nice tasty juice. But it has way too much sweetness, way too much sugar from fruit juices that could spike insulin levels, and is not good for one’s diabetic health! They’re making this with fruit juices ( that are loaded with sugar) which is why they are so SWEET! Yup, probably using TOO much apple juice, which is cheaper to use. Wish they could make a healthier, pulpier juice adding more greens, and minimizing the fruits. I make green smoothies at home with a Vitamix, adding the exact same organic ingredients, never using fruit juices…and I never get their toxic level of sweetness, which is totally unhealthy!

Laura - April 22, 2012

I drank green machine for months, loved it. Started having GI issues, or so I thought. I was in ER three times and admitted twice for uncontrolled vomiting. At first I thought it was just a coincidence that I had drank the juice even the second time it happened. Then to test my theory, I bought another green machine, took a few sips and waited. The wait was short as I was nauseated then uncontrollable vomiting and other GI symptoms. I had a hard believing it was the green machine as I had drank it without incident for months. Any reasons you can think of as to why? I am a vegetable and fruit eater, my favs, so it isn’t a new introduction to my GI system. I no longer drink any Naked product because that is miserable feeling to not be able to vomiting.

Wylinda - June 2, 2011

I am so happy to have read this article, as I was drinking Green Machine as a vegetable substitute. Thank you so much for clarifying. I’ll have to make my own smoothies again. I guess there really is no substitute.