Carrying bottle of green juice now seen as 'status symbol'

Thursday, November 14, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: bottled green juice, status symbol, nutrition

(NaturalNews) For many health-conscious professionals, the thought of having to pull out the juicer or scoff down three or four salads every day just to get enough fruits and vegetables into their diet is a harrowing one, which is why many now opt for convenient, cold-pressed bottled green juices instead. But because of their typically high retail price, with some brands costing upwards of $10 per bottle, toting around a container of green juice is now considered by some to be more of a status symbol than a practical addition to one's daily health routine.

Maybe you drink them yourself, or know someone who does -- those fancy-looking bottles of green juice that have suddenly invaded the cold cases of health food shops and natural grocery stores nationwide. Some don large numbers indicating their placement in a recommended cleansing routine, while others simply sport bold listings of their uniquely fresh ingredients on the front of their clean-lined labels. But the one thing that is common amongst all the juices in this class is their price, which is almost never less than about $6 per bottle.

Why are they so expensive? One, they usually contain a blend of raw, organic produce ingredients not typically found in conventional juice products, ingredients like juiced kale, cucumbers, beets, ginger, parsley, mint and celery. Two, the integrity of these raw ingredients is kept largely intact through an advanced cold-pressing process that avoids traditional pasteurization, which we now know destroys beneficial enzymes and other nutrients. These factors unavoidably translate into higher costs for manufacturers trying to meet growing demand for fresh, raw and unadulterated foods.

"We wish we could bring the cost down," says Zoe Sakoutis, co-founder of BluePrintCleanse, a bottled green juice company based in New York.

High-quality bottled green juice simply costs more, say manufacturers

Like its competitors, BluePrintCleanse says the costs associated with obtaining fresh, organic produce, processing it without pasteurization and supplying it to customers as quickly and conveniently as possible are high. This is why a single bottle of BluePrintCleanse runs for about $10 at Whole Foods Market, a price that the company claims is less than what consumers would pay if they tried to make the same fresh green juice at home.

But to the casual onlooker, spending $10 for a bottle of what appears to be "just juice" might seem outrageous. Previous generations of people that are more used to drinking highly processed vegetables juices like V8, for instance, may fail to recognize the difference between this canned, conventional beverage and organic green juice made from freshly-pressed "superfoods." From a nutritional standpoint, these two foods do not even belong in the same category, but most people will likely perceive the latter as some type of fad for the rich rather than the better option for good health.

"Just as carrying a Starbucks coffee cup has become a celebrity fashion accessory and a slung-over-the-shoulder yoga mat can signify a certain devotion to spiritual fitness, porting a clear bottle of green vegetable juice has evolved into a status symbol," writes Katherine Rosman for The Wall Street Journal.

"Initially, the juicing market was supported mostly by people doing liquid-only cleanses, marketed as a way to rid the body of toxins and bloat. Now, more consumers are drinking juice as a meal replacement, a quick infusion of vegetables or to convey the impression of superior health and discipline."

Sources for this article include:

http://online.wsj.com

http://scallywagandvagabond.com

http://www.dailymail.co.uk