Recipe: Zesty Homemade Vegetable Juice co*cktail (2024)

FAQs

What are the ingredients in V8 vegetable juice? ›

Carrots, celery, beets, parsley, lettuce, watercress and spinach juice are blended to create our unique flavor. These vegetables are grown mostly in the U.S. and then driven to our processing facility in Napoleon, Ohio where they are washed, pureed, and concentrated.

VEGETABLE JUICE (WATER AND CONCENTRATED JUICES OF TOMATOES, CARROTS, CELERY, BEETS, PARSLEY, LETTUCE, WATERCRESS, SPINACH), SALT, NATURAL FLAVORING, VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID), BETA CAROTENE, CITRIC ACID.

But mass marketed, processed, vegetable juice has nowhere near the health punch that whole vegetables do. The sodium content should also be a concern. An occasional V8 is fine for most people, but you should still focus on having a variety of whole vegetables in your diet.

The original V8 is a savory juice. It is made mainly from water and tomato concentrate, and reconstituted vegetable juice blend: water and concentrate of eight vegetables, specifically: beets, celery, carrots, lettuce, parsley, watercress, spinach, and tomato.

Bottom line: For many people, juicing can be a healthy option in moderation. But always consult your doctor first before making any drastic changes to your diet, especially if you have diabetes or other chronic illnesses.

Vegetable juice can be an easy way to increase the amount of vegetables in your diet, but you shouldn't routinely use it to replace whole vegetables. Most adults should eat the equivalent of 2 1/2 cups of vegetables a day.

Leafy Greens

Most healthy juices feature some type of leafy green like kale, spinach, or arugula. These ingredients are high in fiber and low in calories.

Adding sugar in juice will increase the blood sugar level. As fruit juices are naturally sweet, there is no need to add extra sugar. Vegetable juices are nutritious than fruit juices. However, if not prepared properly, the juice might taste bad.

What is a downside to vegetable juices? ›

Juice drawbacks

First, juice lacks fiber, which is necessary for digestive health and important for appetite regulation. Furthermore, as fiber is extracted from the plants being juiced, important nutrients bound to the fiber are lost.

Regular green veggie intake may reduce inflammation, as well as support heart and brain health. Fresh juice may also play a role in promoting healthy digestion. Also, specific populations can benefit from juicing in the short term while healing.

Juicing can play a role in a balanced diet. For instance, it can help you get fruits and vegetables if you don't enjoy eating them. Juicing also can give the digestive system a rest from digesting fiber. This may help some people who have certain health conditions or who receive certain medical treatments.

With a short and mostly recognizable ingredient list, V8 juice is a healthy option, says Crumble Smith, but it doesn't come anywhere close to eating real whole fruits and vegetables. “Unless you're getting the low sodium (V8), there's a ton of sodium in that,” Crumble Smith says.

V8 juice is a source of antioxidant lycopene, vitamin A, vitamin C and potassium. Another benefit of pure vegetable juice is it is low in calories and sugar. A down side with V8 or other pre-made vegetable drinks is they can be high in sodium.

V8 is made out of juice concentrates, so it's on the more processed side. So it'd be more fair to compare it to fruit juices that are from concentrate. It's much lower in sugar than almost any fruit juice, so it's low in calories. The regular V8 is high in sodium, but the low sodium one has a reasonable amount of salt.