Low Carb Juices - Just As Good As The Real Thing? South Beach Diet™: Hundreds of recipes and 24-hour support! Low carb juices are the answer to failing juice sales in the wake of the low carb dieting craze. Made with fairly little juice and fortified with vitamins and minerals, these can be a substitute for real fruit juice with many of the benefits and few of the carbs. You will notice, when you inspect these products, that they are called “juice beverages” because, in fact, they contain little juice. Many are diluted and have sugar free sweeteners to make a tasty low carb juice that is comparable to real juice. Or is it? Juice from real fruits is a powerhouse of vitamins and enzymes that can help your body heal and fight off disease.

I’m not talking about processed juice with additives and whatnot, I’m talking about real fresh squeezed or “juiced” juice. Low carbohydrate juice is really just a manufactured version that may or may not contain any real juice but is highly processed and has a fraction of the benefits that the real thing can give you.

But it does have one thing, lack of carbs. The lowest carbohydrate juices can have only 4g or lower per serving compared to 20 - 40 grams in real juice that’s quite a savings! They are also lower in calories and claim to be able to help in your weight loss regime.

If you used to drink a lot of juice and are really craving it, adding lower carb juices to your daily food intake can give you a bit of variety and help curb cravings. If you are finding that a low carb lifestyle is helping you lose weight and feel better than this may be a great way to help stay with low carbohydrate food choices.

If, on the other hand, you are looking for the health benefits of pure natural juice, you probably won’t find them in the low carb version. While these juices are usually fortified to have 100% vitamin C and maybe some other vitamins they still do not have the wide range of vitamins, minerals and enzymes contained in real fruit. The vitamins you will be getting are the same as if you simply took a vitamin pill.

Lowering carbohydrates in juices is typically done by diluting the “real” juice with water and using a non calorie sweetener like Splenda along with perhaps some flavoring to give it some taste and make it seem like it is not watered down. If you still want some of the benefits of fresh juice, you could try watering down fresh squeezed juice for less carbs.