I love V8 Juice–my mom made me drink it every morning before school.  (Thanks Mom).  It was the perfect combo to my usual breakfast of chocolate donuts!  I think of the commercial “I should have had a V8!”  as I peel the little label off that can!   This last weekend, the kids and I went on a mission to reproduce a V8 juice using our new juicer.  Don’t get me wrong– V8 from the store is incredibly better than soda or an artificial reproduction of a fruit juice.   Please don’t feel judged if you do drink it–it’s a great choice.  We just needed a project.  It certainly became a project quickly (Imagine a 5-year-old cramming veggies in a juicer at lightening speed)  and it turned into a real ordeal.   It’s amazing that we survived with fingers and kitchen intact.

Fooducate gives it a B rating so no–it’s not all that bad.  However – please note the Maltodextrin, Salt, Flavoring???, and Ascorbic/Citric Acid. in the ingredient label.  That is way more ingredients than we like to see!  TOXIC!.

Maltodextrin is made from starch,  primarily corn in the US .  Maltodextrin applies to any starch hydrolysis product containing less than 20 glucose units.  It serves as an artificial sweetener in most foods in which it is added.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/502241-the-risks-of-maltodextrin/#ixzz2QTR6RTCd

Here is a list of the V8 juice ingredients -the store-bought version–

Tomato Juice From Concentrate (Water, Tomato Concentrate), Reconstituted Vegetable Juice Blend (Water and Concentrated Juices of Carrots, Celery, Beets, Parsley, Lettuce, Watercress, Spinach), Maltodextrin, Salt, Ascorbic Acid, Flavoring, Citric Acid.

Here are our homeade ingredients:

Our Homemade Version–

• 6 medium-sized carrots
• 1 small beet (washed thoroughly)
• 3 large tomatoes
• 1 red bell pepper
• A bag of baby spinach
• 1 green bell pepper
• ¼ slice of sweet onion
• 3 stalks of celery
• ¼ head of fresh cabbage
• Half clove garlic
• Kale leaves, chili pepper and salt to taste

Unfortunately, ours turned out quite palatable but had a very unpleasing brown color–Let me know if you try this and have better results.  (I’m not posting the end product for that reason)