I really love the supplement industry. I mean think about it, where else can you package a product with no requirements or standards for labeling (other than it adhere to the GRAS-generally recognized as safe-principles outlined by the FDA)and sell it at exorbitant prices with no obligation to your consumer that your product ACTUALLY does what it says it will do? I could package and sell a tub of sugar as an energy supplement and be perfectly within my rights as a supplement seller. And boy oh boy do Americans love their supplements. According to the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences , 6 out of 10 Americans report using supplements in some form. This scientific journal-along with dozens of others-acknowledge the tremendous issues of enforcing nutritional claims and quality control within this industry.
But that doesn't stop people from buying them up at crazy high prices. A quick peruse of the GNC website turned up supplements for as much a $100.00!! I think I am in the wrong industry. All this ranting leads me to a particular, and tasty I might add, supplement I came across this weekend. A few of my friends from school and I volunteered for the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure where we came across the "Juice Plus" tent. The very patient (they really handled being quizzed by two Master's of Nutrition students well)and nice ladies were very well informed about their supplements they were selling and were generous enough to even give us a few samples. I have to say they were quite yummy, they tasted like those little gummy fruits snacks and I kept wanting to ask her for more under the pretext of being interested in purchasing some, but I held it together. Instead we began drilling these poor ladies on the effects of Juice Plus and what exactly it is supposed to accomplish.
Juice Plus is a nutritional supplement and it comes in two forms: The option I had sampled was the chewable form and it comes in "fruit" and "vegetable" packs, they recommend you take 4 of each a day. The other option is a capsule form with fruit, veggie and the orchard blend-suggested dosage is 2 of each a day. Juice Plus retails for about $42 dollars a month. To be fair, they do not promote the use of Juice Plus instead of fruits and vegetables, but rather in addition to a healthy diet and exercise.
And guess what? There is just all kinds of scientific evidence to promote the effectiveness of these little gems. Study after double blind study shows that these supplements can prevent disease and boost your immune system. Well where do I sign up??
Not so fast. I began questioning Diane Sears, your local Juice Plus rep, about the product. She informed me the reason Juice Plus was so effective was because "all the water is removed from fruits and vegetables, leaving the antioxidants and fiber and removing the sugar and calories!" I was confused. "Water doesn't contain sugar or calories", I explained to a clearly misinformed Diane. "Yes but they take the sugar and calories out as well though". Oh okay. That makes sense. Especially when I read the ingredients on the label and find dextrose (another word for glucose) and organic cane syrup (also sugar)and only 1 gram of fiber per 4 chews-an apple contains on average 3 grams of fiber. I ask Dian Sears about this. Well the actual aim, I am told, of Juice Plus is to provide a variety of phytochemicals in one serving. I don't think anyone ever told Diane that the effectiveness of antioxidants is not well understood at all. The reason their effectiveness is difficult to duplicate is because they are known to work synergictically, fiber being a huge component part of this effect and as I have mentioned, just about all the fiber has been removed.
Furthermore, the addition of dextrose and can syrup means more sugar than what was actually in the fruit in the first place has been added. An interesting side note here is that fruit sugar is mainly fructose, which is metabolized slower than glucose so has been a preferred form of sugar for diabetics. However, Juice Plus replaces the natural fructose in the fruit with dextrose and a refined cane syrup. Peculiar.
And all that scientific evidence? Well I went through all those studies and while a few were from some pretty good journals, not one study was published by the American Dietetic Association, and all acknowledge the overall benefit from a healthy, balanced diet containing a large variety of fruits, vegetable and whole grains. The studies do show that Juice Plus was effective in improving artery plasticity even after high fat meal but any diet high in fruits and vegetable will do that.
Last comes the cost. At $42 a month for a year, a consumer would spend about $504 dollars a year on these supplements, which don't actually replace anything in your diet, so your not saving that money, this is in addition to your grocery bill. A little more math and I figured out that works out to about $1.40 a day. For that money, you could purchase a half a box of strawberries ($.50)a banana ($.20) and an orange ($.60), eat them all and get at least ten times the benefit of eating those little gummy things or taking a pill you may only absorb half of.
The bottom line
Juice Plus is a multi-level marketing plan designed to make money. I don't doubt the reps have good intentions when they sell their products but don't spend your money on nutritional supplements. It's a complete waste of resources and remember your best bet is ALWAYS to get your nutrients from food first. Supplement only when necessary (pregnancy, menopause, disease states, etc.,). Chances are if you can eat a little gummy chew you are just as capable of buying and eating fruit and vegetables in some form and these purchases are a much smarter and better choice for your money.
