Today we’re going to talk about Juice Plus. A couple of my patients have asked me about
that. And the question always comes up, “Is Juice Plus a valid, worthwhile supplement or is it another one of those supplement -
or a multi-level marketing scam? Because I’m in prevention, and because I’m clear that
the literature does support some supplements – I get A LOT of questions about supplements.
So we’ll talk about it.
My name is Ford Brewer. I’m a cofounder of PrevMed. We do heart attack, stroke, cancer
& disability prevention. I’m licensed in 35 states. We travel to states to see patients.
And where appropriate, we do telemedicine. A lot of patients travel here to Nashville
to see us. We can’t make you do High Intensity Intervals & resistance training & manage an
appropriate BMI. But we can help you by telling you what you need to do - and why – and
how to organize around it – and provide appropriate medications to support you in
staying healthy.
Today, we’re talking about Juice Plus. Is it a scam? Well, let’s talk about it.What is Juice Plus? First
of all, the way, I understand it, it’s juiced fruits and vegetables. The carbs have to have
been removed. It has fruits and vegetable components, so they have to have had significant
carbs. But if you look at the label, it does NOT have significant carbs. Vitamins & other
nutrients have been added to juices that have been dehydrated and put into pills. So, you’re
getting your fruits & veggies in a pill. You can evidently get a lot more fruit & veggies
out of a pill than you can out of eating fruits & veggies.
Now, does this make sense? What’s the evidence? Bear Grylles & the German Olympic team & several
others swear by it & take it. I’m not sure that those are the greatest – most reliable
sources for science. When you start getting into the science, they’ve got a lot of critics
– both in the science area and the regulatory area… like the UC Berkely Wellness Newsletter.
And Steve Barrett. Steve Barret publishes a couple of things – called the Multi Level
Marketing Watch and the QuackWatch. He put Juice Plus on the list of “questionable
research entities”.
Why so much pushback and criticism of Juice Plus? There are a lot people that juice. These
guys just decided to put it in powder (dehydrate it), add vitamins, and take the carbs out.
That sounds like not such a bad idea to me. I mentioned Multi Level Marketing Watch - Steve Barrett.
Here are some of his multiple complaints about the group - “Conflicts of Interest”.
These conflicts of interest revolve around their research components. Let me give you
an example. This example is with the John Wise episode. In 1986, John Wise was the co-author
of several studies that showed Juice Plus prevented several diseases. John Wise was
the Executive VP of USAI – United Sciences of America. It was a multi level marketing
group. It sold vitamins & supplements. In 1987 it was shut down by several states and
federal regulators for making false marketing claims. There was a new company that John
Wise went to after USAI was shut down. It was called NAI. NAI soon got the Juice Plus
contract, which was about 16% of their revenues. (& which was being run by John Wise). So that
was maybe not great judgement in terms of selecting who does your market research.
Speaking of not the greatest luck – or choices – in marketing – then they decided, “you
know what? There’s a great athlete endorsement connection here. There’s an athlete named
OJ Simpson – known as ‘The Juice’ - a really good athlete – very popular – doing
lots of endorsements. Let’s get an endorsement from him. And they set up a contract – 6
figures – multi-year… There are pictures of OJ standing up in front of thousands of
Juice Plus distributors saying it got rid of his arthritis and made him play golf better.
Pretty soon after that, he was on trial for the murder of his wife and another person.
He said his arthritis "made it impossible for (him) to have done that. ” So, again, I don’t
know if I’d say it was a bad choice or just unlucky.
Anyway, Juice Plus. Do I take it. Actually, I’m trying it. I’ve got a friend who asked
me to. First of all, why would I try it. I’m a medical science geek, an epidemiologist.
Let’s go back through what this it. Let’s review the logic. – which I think is pretty
good. I’ve got a juicer. I juice quite a bit. But it is a mess! Juicing is a mess.
Obviously juicing fruits is going to give you way too many carbs. And even juicing vegetables
is going to give you too many carbs. Carrots & beets – have you ever heard of sugar beets?
Did you know that a lot of sugar is obtained from beet juice?
I’m Insulin Resistant, as are most people in their 60s. So, I’ve often thought, “Man,
it would be neat if someone came up with the idea of juicing, dehydrating & taking the
carbs out!” That is exactly what Juice Plus does. So I’ve taken it for a month or two.
Do I feel better? I continue to feel better & better. That gets into the issue – does
it mean Juice Plus did it? There is no way I can tell.
There are two products. One is processed vegetables. The other is fruit. And as you can see, very
few carbs. The idea is you can get a whole bunch of fruits & vegetables without having
to overload on carbs and eat too much. Again, I don’t now if that’s true or not. Will
I continue it?
Let’s get back to that concept of an N of 1. N means the number of people in your research
project. With the growing importance of genetics - and the fact that prevention gets a lot
people who criticize the standards in medicine… And I do, too. There are a lot of things in
the standards of medicine I criticize. For example, statins – and how they focus on
LDL and tend to forget about inflammation. Yes, I’ve studied genetics. I’ve been
in the postgraduate program for genetics at Stanford. It’s really clear that genetics
is re-writing the textbooks of medicine – and the standards of medicine. So, from those
perspectives, an N of 1 is appropriate.
However, here’s the problem. You get somebody like me – and like a lot of people that
say, “ You know what? I’ll try that. At the same time that I’ve added Juice Plus,
I’ve also changed my diet several times. I’ve changed my exercise patterns several
times. I’ve changed my medications. I’ve changed way too many things to attribute it
to that one thing.
So the next question is – some people may have – are you going to buy it again? I
don’t know. It’s expensive. But I’m tempted because I love the logic. I’d love
to hear your thoughts. From my perspective, Juice Plus has a valid product. But like so
many supplements companies, they’ve gone down that ugly path of trying to generate
way too much evidence, quote “scientific” medical evidence – that they work. And in
their zeal to do that, they got really sloppy in their marketing, and in their “research”.
Now, maybe they’ve cleaned up their act. I don’t know. For their product’s sake,
I wish they would. I’d love to see some real research around Juice Plus. If you’re
aware of any, please let me know. Thanks.