Why Jamba Juice is the Most Dangerous Store in America.
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You’ve seen what I eat for breakfast, lunch, and my daily breakdown of foods. I don’t always eat like that.
Sometimes, eating poorly is really really fun and really really necessary. Clearly, when I eat a chocolate peanut butter ball, a Russian tea cake, or an oatmeal lace cookie I have no illusions that I am eating healthy. Christmas is a great excuse to do this. When I choose to eat like crap, I enjoy every minute of it. There is literally no case to be made that eating a Christmas cookie is good for me. But I like it….so every now and then I will eat a couple.
What don’t I like? Here is a short list in no particular order:
Brown Rice, cereal bars, Kashi cereal, tortillas, whole wheat bread, most Paleo baked goods, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Coke Plus, Gatorade, Poweraid, Muscle Milk, South Beach bars, Zone bars, protein bars, “Light and Fit” Yogurt, Michelob Ultra, granola, Go Lean Plus, frozen yogurt, Splenda, turkey bacon, canned soup, ketchup, anything with Soy, almost anything at Starbucks, low fat milk, low fat ice cream, low fat peanut butter, margarine, veggie burgers, low sodium soy sauce, and ALMOST ANYTHING FROM JAMBA JUICE.
Why are these dangerous? Because you can tell yourself they are healthy. It is easy to eat things like this every day and not think twice about it. You can’t eat Christmas cookies every day and kid yourself into thinking you are eating well. You can drink Diet Coke and eat Kashi everyday and be totally convinced that you “eat pretty healthy”.
For example:
Breakfast: Bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios (Lowers cholesterol!!)
Lunch: Diet coke (0 calories!), Small Acai Cup from Jamba Juice (620 Calories, 114 Grams of Carbohydrate, 67 grams of sugar)
Dinner: Gatorade (electrolytes!) and a veggie burger (low fat!)
See my point?
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So what is the answer? Well , to start, try garden vegetables, especially greens, lean meats, nuts and seeds, little starch, and no sugar. Shop to the perimeter of the grocery store. Don’t eat anything with more than 3 or 4 ingredients. Real food rots if left out. Read everything you can on Mark’s Daily Apple.
Still looking for more answers? Try reading the primer I wrote on Paleo eating a couple weeks ago, found here.
11 comments
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Amen. I went on a four-day carb binge for Christmas and loved every food I ate, but felt absolutely awful afterward. It’s not like I was questioning the change in my diet before, but this definitely solidified paleo-style eating for me even more now. I’m currently reading Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint, and he uses Jamba Juice as one of his examples because the shakes are so high in total carbs in general and sugar in particular. My smoothies (which I make occasionally) are made of coconut milk and frozen berries with no added sweetener. Yum!
Great post. Jamba Juice is terrible – I’ll throw Robek’s in there as well although I don’t think it’s half as bad.
What you’ve outlined here is the marketing genius of american food manufacturers…most of my family eats the foods above and considers it “healthy” but cringes when I eat bacon 5x/week…it’s hard to change conventional wisdom.
Marks Daily Apple/Primal is the way to go IMO…
What do you think about Paleo/Primal with 1-2 re-feed meals a week consisting of high carb/low-fat as to replenish glycogen and leptin levels?
Hey Tommy,
I agree with your point about marketing genius. Sounds like you are pretty locked for nutrition with a cyclical low carb plan. Sounds good to me! Check out http://www.paleonu.com/. He is really good.
Thanks for the heads-up. Haven’t heard of Jamba Juice, but I’ll be certain to steer clear!
The most dangerous food in America…because an Acai cup has a lot of calories. Can you judge the place on the calories in one item…have you had their all fruit smoothies or the Jamba light smoothies…have you had their oatmeal…is a serving of freshly made steel cut oats topped with fresh fruit worse than an egg mcmuffin? Jamba has eliminated all trans fats from their menu ….which burger joint can claim this? Jamba now offers salads and wraps which are a much healthier alternative to a burger or burrito…lower in sodium and saturated fats. Most dangerous food in America? lol
Hey Noah,
Thanks for taking the time to comment. You bring up some points that I’m sure a lot of people share. The reason why Jamba Juice is dangerous isn’t because of the calories, although those certainly don’t help. The reason why Jamba Juice is dangerous is because of their claims as a “health food” chain. I don’t think anyone can eat at a fast food restaurant and say they are “eating healthy”. To most people, when they eat at a fast food joint, they don’t tell themselves “I’m being good right now”. But that is exactly what they do if they go to Jamba Juice. They say “Oh, I’m on a diet, I’m just going to get a smoothie”. They assume because it is a fruit smoothie, it is going to be good for them. Jamba Juice is the most dangerous store in America because people can tell themselves they are being good. Again, thanks for the comment.
hi jon,
thanks for your response to my post. im curious as to how you can speak for all those people. you state “They assume” or “…”to most people”…i dont think it’s fair to project your opinions on others. Jamba doesnt claim to be a “health food” restaurant, try and see if you can find such wording on their website….they claim to be a healthier option….something we desperately need in America! There are several low cal offerings at jamba, new food items have zero trans fats and substantially lower amounts of sodium than what you will find at your local greasy fast food joint…no high fructose corn syrup or anything processed…none! this is a great leap forward for a fast food place. i realize that one has to be careful to watch the sugar content in some of their smoothies…they also claim to serve “decadent” treats for those customers who want that kind of thing. but to call jamba the most dangerous place in america is preposterous in my opinion. thanks again for your reply to my comment.
Noah:
I could write out a fairly refined, well thought out response to your comment. Or I could just post this:
Hyperbole: from ancient Greek, meaning excess or exaggeration is a figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally.
you use a lot of hyperbole — in your response to my first comment you used the hyperbolic “dangerous” three times. seems like you don’t want to be “taken literally”…which is fine. btw, you’re not the only one who uses hyperbole…”but to call jamba the most dangerous place in america is preposterous in my opinion”…. cheers
Noah,
You are missing the point completely. He isn’t trying to steer people towards fast food restaurants instead of Jamba Juice. It’s all shitty food. He is advocating a paleo diet. If you were to take two people, feed one Jamba Juice smoothies and the other a diet full of veggies, grass-fed meats and eggs, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar, the person eating non-smoothies would certainly be healthier and likely leaner. The problem with smoothie type places, which is what the post was eluding to, is how they are viewed by the american public, as a “healthy” alternative to the run of the mill stuff out there. Jamba Juice gets no defense. This is not an issue of trans fats, as you continue to point out, or sodium. We all know eating at Burger King is bad, no one would order a whopper and suspect they are eating healthy. Someone MAY order a 40 ounce smoothie FULL of sugar and convince themselves that since it is fruit it is healthy. Sorry I am so late to the party I just stumbled across this post.
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