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Juices and smoothies are cashing in on their health credentials. After years of stagnating sales amid concerns about their sugar content, the pandemic has pushed their functional benefits – crucially, their high vitamin content – into the spotlight.
Total category sales are up 9.5% to almost £1.4bn [Kantar 52 w/e 27 December 2020] thanks in part to the overall rise in grocery sales during multiple lockdowns.
But it’s telling that the particularly strong performers have been freshly squeezed juice, up 18.7%, and smoothies, up 13.3%. That’s because their growth has been propelled by some savvy health cues – a trend that could determine the future of the category.
Vitamin D reduces Covid-19 deaths by 60 per cent, a study has found, as MP David Davis today called for the therapy to be rolled out in hospitals immediately to save many thousands of lives.
The study evaluated the effectiveness of calcifediol - a Vitamin D3 - on more than 550 people admitted to the Covid-19 wards of the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain.
Subjects were randomly assigned as either recipients of the calcifediol treatment or as controls on admission, before receiving five doses of the vitamin in increasing intervals of two, four, eight and 15 days.
The research, published by the Social Science Research Network, found Covid-19 patients given doses of Vitamin D were 80 per cent less likely to require ICU treatment.