About three years ago my wife and I quit smoking after some 25 years at it (for me at least) and started to focus more on trying to live rather than trying to die. It has been a remarkable turnaround for both of us really, where once we sat on our asses doing our individual jobs, smoking a cigarette doing virtually zero exercise, we now both do yoga daily and exercise 3 to 5 times a week (Sue does 5 and sometimes more! I'm a wimp at 3), pushing ourselves pretty hard on the cardio. We both run 13+ miles a week now and while neither of us particularly enjoy it, we can't argue with the results and so continue through every day.

Actually, if truth be told, I think we both actually do like Yoga, just not the running, but I digress.

Part of health and fitness is nutrition and while I have focused on eating well for more than 30 years and we have always put nutrition first in our family, we started to take an even greater interest over the last three years. We have very little processed food in the house, we rarely fry food, we do not use margarine, we make our own dressings, we eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables; in short, we eat the way most nutritionists and dietitians would have us eat.

For me that included a daily dose of a vegetable cocktail juice as I wanted more vegetables earlier in the day (I found breakfast had become a carb and protein feast). We tried a number of different brands but upon looking at the nutritional facts label we soon realized that most of these supposed cocktails are little more than grape and/or orange juice in disguise; most of them provide 100% of your daily Vitamin C needs but little else in turns of vitamins and minerals.

The exception was V8 Original, it was chalk full of good things like copper, manganese, magnesium, iron, and Vitamins A, C, E and a few Bs as well. One look at the V8 Original Nutritional Label was enough to know that on balance this stuff was good for you. Now it did have a LOT of sodium, something between 25% and 33% of your daily requirements but as our processed food intake is low and we rarely add salt to our food, I accepted the tradeoff.

But then Sue came home with a V8 that claimed to be "The Original" but had a new label and something that suggested they had removed 25% salt (though that isn't actually what it said, they removed enough salt to claim they were 25% less salt then some unnamed competitor!). Of course that in and of itself isn't a bad thing but a peek at the V8 New Original Nutritional Label tells a truth that the rest of the words deny.

Gone are almost all the good things in V8...there is virtually nothing good left in this! If you look at the "ingredients" you'll see little difference (showing just how useless "ingredient lists" really are), the same core eight vegetables listed in the same order, and yet the value to one's health has clearly declined significantly. Can salt be responsible for this? That seems unlikely.

I really can't say why the huge change, I had originally thought that Campbell's had simply redone the tests and that the original Original was inaccurate. But then Sue brought home the new V8 VGO which brings back many of the missing vitamins and minerals as well as yet more sodium and sugar (and more calories of course). The V8 VGO Nutriional Facts Label tells that truth quite well and proves that Campbell's made a decision to downgrade V8's nutrition ... though how and why can only be speculated on.

<speculation>Campbell's found another supplier that uses sub-par vegetables but they don't care because it is cheaper</speculation>

Shame on you Campbell's! Not only are you lying scum about what "Original" means, you advertise about how healthy your products are and yet, it seems to me at least, that the overall nutrition value of your products is degrading. You've lost me as a customer, that VG0 simply has too much salt and sugar to overcome the goodness provided by the vitamins and minerals and your New Original V8 has so little nutritional value left it isn't worth the price.

To anybody who makes it to the end of this, please know that the corporations making your food do NOT have your best interests in mind; they will say one thing and do another, they will use bait-and-switch tactics, they will find a way to trick you ... not because they want to feed you garbage but because they make more money when they feed you garbage. Our first entry into the Hall of Shame ... I'm sure they won't be the last!