Healthiest Fruit Popsicles Guide

Written by:

Suzanne Weaver-Goss

07/26/2022

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.

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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!).

  • Summer Baby Silicone Popsicle Molds Sea Speckled from Gimme the Good Stuff 004
    Saturday Baby Summer Pops – Silicone Popsicle Molds 2 Pack
    $14.99
  • Life Without Plastic Stainless Steel Popsicle Kit from Gimme the God Stuff
    Product on sale
    Life Without Plastic Freezycup Stainless Steel Popsicle Kit
    $54.99
  • Life Without Plastic Freezycup Stainless Steel Individual Ice Pop Mold from gimme the good stuff
    Life Without Plastic Freezycup Stainless Steel Individual Popsicle Mold
    $12.00

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!
The amount of packaging that comes with even the healthiest fruit popsicles is a good reason to make your own.

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.

We reviewed these 8 brands of popsicles that we found in our local Whole Foods. Four are Good Stuff, one is Okay Stufff, and the others are Sneaky Stuff.

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

Leave a Reply

  1. Wendy Avatar
    Wendy

    The popsicle maker linked is not available. Do you have another one to recommend?

  2. Jhoei Avatar

    This is a wonderful list of pops for kids. I don’t usually buy from the stores because I usually make some pops at home for my kids.

  3. Jess B Avatar
    Jess B

    Hi! Can you recommend a nontoxic popsicle mold please? The link you have above doesn’t work! Thank you!!

  4. SeaMama Avatar
    SeaMama

    I don’t understand why non-organic popsicles would be added to the Good Stuff list. I get trying to avoid sugar but you replace with natural flavoring, citric acid and pesticides from non organic foods. If the only goal is not having refined sugar then great but if you are actually looking for a healthy, non-toxic popsicle this list is a bit misleading.

  5. Liz Avatar
    Liz

    Try Paleo On the Go! Technically not a store bought I guess because you order online, but their pops are made of bone broth, banana, organic strawberries and pineapple juice. This company has really good ingredients.

    http://Www.paleoonthego.com/broth-pops

    1. Maia James Avatar
      Maia James

      Thanks for this awesome recommendation!

  6. Justine Avatar

    Just wanted to point out that the good pops have a lot of pops (Specifically the ones you pictured above) that do not have any added sugar and have a total of 8-9 grams per pop. I personally think these should be included in the good stuff as they don’t have added sugar and many of the ones you make at home would actually have more “grams” of sugar then that. (Even if it’s natural fruit or milk sugars)

    1. Maia James Avatar
      Maia James

      Hi yes! Good Pops has expanded their line! We will update accordingly:)

  7. Lauren Clark Avatar
    Lauren Clark

    You two are so wonderful! I can’t explain how much finding Gimme The Good Stuff has changed my and our family’s life! You’ve saved me so much time when searching for certain natural items to help to live the best toxic free and natural lifestyle possible! You all align so much with my values as a parent and person! Thank you, thank you! ?

    1. Maia James Avatar
      Maia James

      Awww, thanks so much for these kind words! This is why we do what we do!
      xoxo

  8. Jamie Avatar

    Great list. We don’t buy popsicles often, but I do like to treat my girls occasionally. Now, I know what to look for when shopping. Thanks!

    Plus, I would have never thought of buying popsicles off of Amazon, but I guess they sell everything now!

    1. Maia James Avatar
      Maia James

      I know, Jamie, it’s a new world!