Whole Food and Nutrition

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How does Juice Plus+ compare to other supplements

March 29th, 2008 Excerpts from: Nourishing Mother and Fetus by Margaret Ames, Ph.D.
International Journal of Integrative Medicine, Vol. 1, No. 6, November/December 1999
Mitra Ray on Pregnancy and Supplements


1. BIOAVAILABILITY
The best-formulated product in the world is of little benefit if it cannot be made available for absorption. Indeed in a recent study of nine prescription supplements indicated that six of those products failed to meet Unites States Pharmacopoeial Convention (USP) standards for folic acid dissolution.
How does Juice Plus compare?
Juice Plus is the first whole-food nutritional product that has been independently researched in Universities and research institutions all over the world (UCLA, Arizona Cancer Center, University of Arizona, Brigham Young University, Kings College of London, etc.) and found to be bioavailable. For instance, in one study, beta-carotene levels among test subjects increased 510%, alpha-carotene levels increased 119%, vitamin E levels rose 58%, and lycopenes increased 2046%. No vitamin supplement has ever been shown to come close to this much bioavailibility. Juice Plus orchard and garden blend capsules contain 4 to 10 times more vitamin C, folate, calcium, B-vitamins, food actives, fiber, vitamin E, etc. than even freshly-made juice made from the same 17 fruits and vegetables used to make Juice Plus. You would have to eat 4 oranges a day to get the same vitamin C increase in your body or 3 carrots a day to increase the carotenes in your body as the 4 capsules of Juice Plus. In vol. 57 of Current Therapeutic Research, (a peer-reviewed research journal) the scientists conclude, The increase in plasma carotenoids in response to Juice Plus appears to be substantially greater than with similar quantities of carotenoids from food… It appears that they are much more readily absorbed than are the same micronutrients in foods. So let the bioavailability of Juice Plus go to work for you. This is not to say that you shouldn’t eat your veggies. In fact, the majority of your diet should be made up of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. This is merely the extra insurance you want and are looking for in a supplement.

2. PROCESSING TECHNIQUE
Heat is known to destroy nutrients.
How does Juice Plus compare?
In the making Juice Plus, an extremely temperature-sensitive patented process is used to evaporate the water from the juice mix such that heat-sensitive nutrients retain their biochemical activity – the process of going from wet to dry occurs in a matter of seconds! Thus, when you take Juice Plus with water, you reconstitute real food with active, bioavailable nutrients. We know this to be true because several independent studies in peerreviewed journals have shown the incredible response that Juice Plus has in the body to improve the status of various systems of the body such as the immune system and DNA repair mechanisms.

3. USE OF CHEMICAL SOLVENTS
Most solvents are mutagenic
How does Juice Plus compare?
No harmful solvents are used to make Juice Plus because solvents are only used to extract vitamins from food. Since Juice Plus is a whole food, there is no extraction process, and thus there are no solvents to worry about. Furthermore, Juice Plus is regularly tested for the absence of herbicides, pesticides, or any other harmful chemicals known to man. It is also tested for the absence of microorganisms. In the final analysis, Juice Plus is cleaner than the organic fruits and vegetables that you buy at the market.

4. SUPPLEMENT COATING AND BINDERS
Some vitamins still use pharmaceutical food glaze, better known as shellac as a coating. One advantage of shellac coating on a supplement is that it yields an attractive, shiny appearance. It also renders the pills slightly slippery, which may facilitate swallowing. However this coating often results in the phenomenon known as bedpan pills, products that move through the gastrointestinal tract intact. Similarly, methylene chloride is an agent commonly used to bind nutritional formulations to facilitate the manufacturing process. In fact, methylene chloride is such an effective binder that the nutrients it coats are largely rendered unavailable for absorption.
How does Juice Plus compare?
This is not a problem for encapsulated juice powders as it is for hard-pressed vitamins. The gelatin capsules that are used for Juice Plus are also kosher.

5. PENNY WISE AND POUND FOOLISH
The less expensive, [the] less effective
What about Juice Plus?
Because there is so much research to back up the efficacy of Juice Plus, you can rest assured that you are providing your unborn child and yourself with state-of-the-art, exceptionally healthy food that is far better than any pre-natal vitamin. If you compare Juice Plus to a traditional vitamin, then it might be considered expensive for a prenatal vitamin. Yet, it’s inexpensive when you consider the amount of whole-food nutrition that Juice Plus provides – remember it takes 25 different fruits and veggies to make a daily dosage of Juice Plus Orchard, Garden and Vineyard capsules.

6. AN OPEN DOOR POLICY
If a supplement manufacturer does not offer an open-door policy to allow you to personally inspect their facility, perhaps it’s because they have something to hide.
How does Juice Plus compare?
Natural Alternatives has an open-door policy and you can schedule a tour with them through NSA, the marketing company.