Written by Suzanne Weaver-Goss, Certified Holistic Health Coach
On these very hot summer days with 5 grandchildren visiting often, popsicles are a needed treat. Fruit popsicles can be healthy, refreshing snack, or they can be a vehicle for too much sugar, pesticides, and other junky ingredients.
As with many food choices, making your own will result in the very healthiest fruit popsicles, especially since every store-bought one comes in plastic.
However, we are all busy and sometimes it makes sense to buy fruit pops to have on hand in the summer. Read on for our picks for the healthiest fruit popsicles you can find in a grocery store.
Healthiest Fruit Popsicles Recipe
Homemade popsicles are my favorite in the summer because there are so many fresh fruits available. First, you need to buy a non-toxic, plastic-free popsicle maker. We sell two of these in our store, both of which we use every summer. One is old-school stainless steel and the other is a pretty palette of silicone.
Next, you need to choose your fruit and puree in a blender (this is the blender we use).
I use 2 cups of fresh or frozen organic berries. You can use raspberries, strawberries, or blueberries, or a blend of them. A banana will lend natural sweetness. I also add some freshly squeezed fruit juice; orange makes the popsicles sweet, but lemon or lime can be fun, too.
I then add one additional cup of water. Other add-ins can include plain yogurt or kefir, or some greens (we’ve found romaine lettuce or spinach to be the mildest in flavor). If you want to add a little raw honey or maple syrup, you can, but if you’re using ripe fruit it should be sweet enough, especially if you include banana.
Once you have your blend, just pour and freeze (and drink what’s left as a delicious smoothie!).
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Healthiest Fruit Popsicles: Store-Bought Varieties
One issue with most store-bought brands is that they don’t use organic fruit; this is particularly concerning when the fruits included in the popsicles are among this “Dirty Dozen.”
There are several other reasons that the healthiest fruit popsicles are the ones you make at home:
- Even if they don’t have sugar in them, packaged popsicles usually contain more juice than actual whole fruit purees.
- Store-bought pops–even organic ones–often also contain fillers such as guar gum and locust bean gum. These ingredients don’t really worry us much, but they are processed and unneeded in homemade popsicles.
- Perhaps our biggest concern with store-bought popsicles is the amount of plastic waste they produce!
All of this said, of course every summer requires some ready-to-go fruit pops in the freezer! When you want to buy rather than make them, you can refer to our review below.
Below are that the five brands that offer the healthiest fruit popsicles–and a bunch more that we would rather see you avoid.
Good Stuff
Blendtopia Superfood Smoothie Pops
7 grams of sugar in each pop, and it’s mostly from whole fruit. The small amount of added sugar (less than 1 gram) is from lucuma power, which is a superfood in its own right. Blendtopia contains added probiotics and veggies in many blends. We found this brand at our local Whole Foods.
Cost per pop: $0.55
Deebee’s Organics SuperFruit Squeezies
While not as healthful as something you’ll make at home, these ice pops contain just organic fruit juices, and little actual fruit.
Cost per pop: $0.47
GoodPop Organic Freezer Pops
Since we last updated this guide, GoodPop ditched the sugar in their fruit pops. Now, the freezer pops (which you buy not refrigerated and then freeze yourself) contain just organic fruit concentrates. These still aren’t as good as a pop you make yourself, since they have guar gum and natural flavors. Note that GoodPop’s Organic Juice Blasters and Organic Junior Pops are also free of sugar– all of these come in at about 5 grams of sugar per pop. Their other pops, including Strawberry Lemonade and Watermelon Agave, contain cane sugar.
Cost per pop: $0.55
Sambazon Organic Acai Pops
Sambazon pops contain all organic ingredients and include no added sugar. They use lots of actual pureed fruit, some fruit juice, and organic guar gum and locust bean gum. I like that each pop contains only 3 grams of sugar.
Cost per pop: $0.87
Sweet Nothings Squeezable Smoothie
These are dairy-free, contain fruits and veggies, and are 100% organic. They contain no added sugar, which is a requirement to be included as Good Stuff.
Cost per pop: $1.84
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Okay Stuff
Chloe’s Pops
Chloe’s various popsiscle varieties are free of dairy, gluten, stablizers, artificial colors and flavors, and GMO ingredients. The problem is that none of the fruit is organic, and there are 12 grams of added sugar in each bar. The No Sugar Added Pop from Chloe’s is a better bet, but with concentrated grape juice as the very first ingredient, this still is only Okay Stuff–especially since grapes are a Dirty Dozen fruit. Chloe’s Oat Milk Pops have the longest list of ingredients, none of which are organic. While there are certainly worse options out there than Chloe’s, we just can’t call something with sugar Good Stuff. This feels especially true for a product like a fruit pop that really doesn’t require sugar to be tasty!
Cost per pop: $0.67
Mom Pops
These contain only fruit, organic agave, and guar gum. The fruit isn’t organic and agave is controversial so we are calling these Okay rather than Good Stuff. Mom Pops are not available online.
reHarvest Provisions Frozen Smoothie Shot
If only these were made with organic ingredients! We are designating them as only Okay Stuff but the actual ingredients are all great–including lots of whole fruits and veggies. For the price, they should be organic.
Cost per pop: $2.60
Bad Stuff
Generic Freezer Pops
We took this picture of these basic “fruit” pops piled high in an outside bin at the grocery store. These make me sad because they are hard to miss, marketed to kids, and really inexpensive so moms who are looking for a summer time treat are buying these for their kids. The first ingredient is water but this is followed by high fructose cron syrup and then various artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives. No wonder you can get 24 of these for $1.99–they aren’t even food:(.
Simply Popsicle
We took this picture of these basic “fruit” pops piled high in an outside bin at the grocery store. These make me sad because they are hard to miss, marketed to kids, and really inexpensive so moms who are looking for a summer time treat are buying these for their kids. The first ingredient is water but this is followed by high fructose cron syrup and then various artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives. No wonder you can get 24 of these for $1.99–they aren’t even food:(.
Sneaky Stuff
365 Citrus Pop-Ups
Whole Foods’ bar version of fruit popsicles are made of mostly juice and cane sugar. Worse are their Pop-Ups, which are mostly sugar and corn syrup, totaling some 15 grams per pop, plus a variety of gums. These are devoid of any nutrition, offering 0% of recommended daily intake of all vitamins, fiber, etc.
Outshine Fruit Pops
There is some real fruit juice in these, but nothing is organic, and there is far too much sugar in both the pops and the bars to call these even Okay Stuff. The No Sugar Added varieties should also be avoided as they contain artificial sweeteners like sorbitol–which is not recommended for children or anyone with a sensitive digestive system because it causes diarrhea–and maltodextrin.
King of Pops
Found in popsicle stands across the country, these popular fruit pops do contain organic sugar–but too much of it to call these even Okay Stuff. Some flavors (like Strawberry Lime) get basically all of their sweetness from sugar rather than fruit. (Note that this new flavor is fruit-juice sweetened, making it a better option. We found these pops in our local Whole Foods.
Organic Whole Fruit Frozen Juice
Even Maia, an expert label-reader, was duped by these! We found them at Costco, and she actually thought from the label (which proclaims “frozen juice!”) and a quick ingredient scan that these were truly just frozen juice. Later, after tasting one and finding it cloying, she read the label again and discovered white sugar contributed 7 grams of sugar per bar (plus another 8 grams of sugar from fruit juice concentrate.
Trader Joe’s Fruit Frenzy Bars
The main ingredients in these are water and sugar (not organic). These are the sweetest bars we reviewed, with 20 to 30 grams of sugar!
I hope you have a wonderful summer full of delicious fruit pops! Please share your favorite recipes or brands below!
To your health,
Suzanne, Certified Holistic Health Coach
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