Michelle Obama’s Juice Brand Fails Her Own Health Standards

Former first lady Michelle Obama has come under intense scrutiny after her new “health drink” was found to not actually be all that healthy.

According to a new Bloomberg report, Michelle Obama’s “Plezi Nutrition” brand of drinks wouldn’t be allowed in schools based on the very same school lunch regulations she championed during her time in the White House.

Obama, who is credited as the co-founder and strategic partner with Plezi, is pushing these drinks as a healthier alternative to the various sodas, juices and sugary drinks that are all but unavoidable at the grocery store.

Plezi’s first products to market are all various mixed fruit drinks.

Of the experts that Bloomberg interviewed, however, “most were critical of the new line of drinks.”

“The experts largely agreed that the product is an improvement on soda, though a small one,” the report notes. “At the heart of the matter is whether ‘healthier than soda’ is good enough for a product aimed at children as young as 6, especially one that comes with Obama’s endorsement.”

While the Plezi drinks do, in fact, contain far less sugar than its typical competitors (an eight-ounce Plezi drink has six grams of sugar. A typical eight-ounce bottle of apple juice has 28 grams of added sugar. A can of soda of the same size contains 26 grams of added sugar), the drinks also contain additives that disqualify them from school lunch programs.

Natural sweeteners, such as those based on stevia leaf and monk-fruit extracts, are in the drinks.

While they make for better numbers on the nutrition label, there is ample growing concern about the consumption of too much of them, especially among young children.

Some experts warned that there was a lack of research on those types of sweeteners, and that parents should generally avoid giving it to their children.

Those added sweeteners, however, directly run afoul of the Obama-era school lunch regulations.

According to those regulations, U.S. elementary and middle schools may only serve water, milk, or 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice with no added sweeteners.

The most those regulations permit, as far as additives go, is the allowance of mixing juice and water.

All four of the Plezi flavors have those additives, meaning that they wouldn’t be allowed to be served in American elementary and middle schools.

For the notoriously image-conscious Obamas, this is an embarrassing gaffe that will only embolden those who accuse the former first family of being hypocritical elitists.

Just as disconcertingly for Michelle Obama, and the Democrats, there has been growing and ongoing speculation that she could be a presidential candidate down the road.

Regardless, for Obama’s harshest critics, this is either a case of blatant hypocrisy or it’s a matter of baffling incompetence and lack of foresight.

Either way, it’s not the best look for the Obamas.