What we found

According to our test results, you get a much better antioxidant bang for your buck with fresh fruit and vegetables. We think you're just wasting your money on super-juices.

Exposing the hype

We compared the juices according to their usual serving quantity. A recommended serving for most of the super-juices is 30ml (40ml for Cook Islands Noni Juice) and a serving of supermarket juice is a standard glass: 250ml.

On a per-serve basis, a standard glass of any of the supermarket juices we tested had a higher antioxidant capacity than the recommended dose of any of the four super-juices.

On a 30ml serving, MonaVie had the highest tested antioxidant capacity of the super-juices tested: an ORAC score of 1146 per 30ml. But all the supermarket juices did much better than this on a 250ml basis. A 250ml glass of the blackcurrant and dark grape juices has around 5 times the antioxidant capacity of a MonaVie 30ml serving.

The other three super-juices had much lower ORAC scores: 30ml of these super-juices had an ORAC score similar to 30ml of the supermarket grape or blackcurrant juices.

Both XanGo and MonaVie contain citric acid - a preservative with antioxidant properties. It's added to extend the product's shelf life but it also contributes to its ORAC score.

Very expensive apples

The humble Granny Smith apple has an ORAC score of 5067 (per 130g apple). To get the antioxidant equivalent from a super-juice, you would have to down at least 4 30ml shots of MonaVie, 6 40ml shots of Cook Islands Noni Juice, nearly 7 30ml shots of XanGo, or more than 10 30ml shots of Himalayan Gold Super Goji Juice.

These juices aren't cheap. We paid between $28 and $81 per bottle (750ml or 1L). If you take the recommended daily "dose", a bottle will last about a month.

The most expensive product we tested was XanGo (mangosteen). At $81 for 750ml, it works out at $3.24 per 30ml serve. And it turns out that its antioxidant capacity isn't much higher than that of a same-sized serving of regular grape or blackcurrant juice.

One Granny Smith apple costs about 55 cents and has the same antioxidant capacity as nearly $23 of Xango. Forget the super-juice and eat an apple is our advice.