Sunday 18 October 2015

Diet Schemes Series #1 - Juice Plus

Hey everyone, I posted on social media not so long ago to inform you all that I'd be doing a series of pieces to take a closer look at the diet schemes that are present in the health and fitness industry today. Tonight's post is going to get up close and personal with Juice Plus.


What is Juice Plus?

On the official Juice Plus website, it describes itself as

"whole food based nutrition, including juice powder concentrates from 30 different fruits, vegetables and grains. Juice Plus+ helps bridge the gap between what you should eat and what you do eat every day. Not a multivitamin, medicine, treatment or cure for any disease, Juice Plus+ is made from quality ingredients carefully monitored from farm to capsule to provide natural nutrients your body needs to be at its best.


So what does that tell us? 

In all honesty, not a lot. It tells us that essentially all that the products contain are naturally occurring ingredients. Luckily, they have an 'Ingredients' page, which tells us that the ingredients are:

NUTRIENTS FROM FRUITS AND VEGETABLES - Under this title they explain that the products aren't a medicine, or a substitute for fruit and veg, and that they offer a wider variety of naturally occurring vitamins along with antioxidants and phytonutrients than 'traditional' vitamin supplements.

So let's break this paragraph down a little. They explain that all of the vitamins contained inside are naturally occurring and that you can't get them in a 'traditional' vitamin supplements. Firstly, if the ingredients are naturally occurring then what are the benefits of getting them from Juice plus products? The only benefit that I can see is that they're available in 'instant' form, rather than having to go out and buy/cook/eat the foods that contain them. Personally, if I'm offered the chance to get my nutrients from real, satiating food - you can be damn sure that I will. Some people may find that they feel 'healthier' or that they're a step ahead of everyone else because they're getting it in pill or powder form. Sorry guys, I don't think that's the case. Let's also take a look at the final point - they mention 'traditional' vitamin supplements. What does this mean? Does it mean older, less varied multivits? Or just the cheap, basic multivitamins on the market? Unfortunately I couldn't seem to find a full list of the vitamins that Juice Plus provides, but I'd argue that such products as Centrum and Opti-Men probably contain the same vitamins and minerals as Juice Plus products. The difference being that you don't have to cut out a meal to get these vitamins.

POWERFUL ANTIOXIDANTS RIGHT FROM THE SOURCE - Juice Plus actually calls on an academic article to provide the definition for 'antioxidants' (because everyone loves an officially cited study to back up their products). Here's what they say - "According to the National Cancer Institute, antioxidants are “substances that may protect cells from the damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals. Examples of antioxidants include beta-carotene, lycopene, vitamins C and E and other substances. Many of these antioxidant substances come from fruits and vegetables". Now, I'm pretty cynical when it comes to writing, so this sentence actually hit a nerve. Firstly they explain that their products contain powerful antioxidants. Then they back this up with a sentence saying that antioxidants MAY protect from free radicals. Free radicals have been indicated as possible contributors to cancerous cells. So by saying that Juice Plus uses antioxidants - are they indirectly stating that their products protect against cancer? That's for you to decide, like I said, I'm just cynical. FYI - Their sentence taken from the National cancer institute is also paraphrased - to read the actual statement, you can find it here - http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet/antioxidants-fact-sheet.

 Again, antioxidants are naturally occurring - so why not get them through food rather than buying various supplements to do so? The only place that its going to make a difference is your bank balance.

After I'd finished looking through the Juice Plus website, I decided that I needed to find some real customer reviews. Impartial and honest reviews. I managed to find a post on Facebook which detailed an actual conversation with a Juice Plus rep. The rep promises to provide Juice Plus shakes which can not only help with weight loss, but muscle building too. Now I'm no expert, but if that was possible, wouldn't the Mr Olympia contest be a hell of a lot easier to win? Anyway I digress, they state that the shakes should be taken for 16 weeks - two a day for 8 weeks, and then one a day for the last 8. This 16 week plan would be accompanied by a workout and diet plan (I'm guessing this would just be your standard cookie cutter plan) and would cost £130 in total. They then explicitly state that the products contain nutrients from fruit and veg to 'boost weight loss' and that coupling an exercise plan with their shakes will help them to build muscle. The potential client then enquires about the possibility of using the products with type-2 diabetes (for his father). To which the answer is "Definitely, the plan is perfect for type 2". The potential client then comes up with a bit of research of his own.

1. The products contain 23g of sugar from 4/5 different sources - 2 shakes would equal 46g of sugar daily. Sounds like a recipe for loss of life for a type-2 sufferer, not weight.

2. The protein inside contains a poor amino acid profile

3. It contains a variety of oils

He follows with this quote - "Fact is, people will lose weight due to a massive calorie deficit, the weight they lose will be largely water at first due to the lack of carbohydrates in the diet (carbs hold water) then a rapid catabolic state where the body will break down lean muscle tissue as it cannot produce protein. This will result in a slowing of the metabolism, a knock on effect of which will be the body releasing stress hormones to help promote fat storage (body reacts as if going into a famine). Females will reduce estrogen to promote fat stores around reproductive organs. When people go back to eating normally they will gain more weight due to metabolic damage."

Now that's someone else's words, not mine. He produces no scientific evidence to support this, although he does raise an interesting point. The Juice plus range promotes a very low calorie diet and diets with too much of a caloric deficit have been shown to have a detrimental effect on the human body. Here's an interesting article on that - http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ars.2010.3253

After seeing this frankly brutal destruction of a clearly clueless Juice Plus rep, I decided to look closer to home and had an enlightening conversation with a friend of mine who currently uses the products. We talked about which ones she uses (powders) and her thoughts on the range, plus how its working for her. She was under no illusions, she immediately stated that they're not wonder products and essentially they're meal replacement multivitamins. She had tried a variety of other ways of dieting and hadn't found them to be suited to her. She also told me that Juice Plus wasn't her idea of a long term solution, but it was working as a springboard into a healthier lifestyle. She's made some good progress, slimming down and dropping some weight, and feels great for it. However she's not really put this down to the products, its more attributed to the structure that the products bring and she's finding it easy to stick to. That's pretty hard to dispute.


The Conclusion

Juice plus ambiguously markets its products and could be seen to allude to them as a prevention tool for cancer. It markets products full of ingredients that could easily be incorporated into a well rounded diet and promotes an extremely low calorie diet (whether directly or indirectly) which has scientifically been proven to have adverse affects on human physiology and psychology (see article above). It also contains some questionable ingredients such as a high sugar content (due to fructose) and a poor source of protein (making for some protein heavy feces). There is also some concern to be raised around the credibility of some of the reps, who are clearly uneducated and freely make decisions that only a qualified professional should be able to make. However, the scheme has been shown to provide a structure to one's lifestyle - and anyone that has dieted successfully will know that the real key to achieving your goals is consistency. For this point, I can't really knock them.


My honest opinion?

Juice Plus is an extremely expensive way of getting basic nutrients (which could easily be provided by a good multivitamin). It promotes extreme calorie deficits which, when increased, will cause the user to gain weight quickly as their body tries to hang on to all of the calories that it has been missing. It could lead to yo-yo dieting and harm a person physically and psychologically in the long term. It clearly provides support for all of its users but why pay hundreds of pounds for a support structure that you could build yourself? There are hundreds of groups out there who support each other freely because that's what good natured human beings do. I'm lucky enough to be a part of Healthy Living, Heavy Lifting's free weight loss group on Facebook, and its home to some of the most supportive, well rounded and intelligent people that I've ever met. The best part about it? I receive great support, get to give great support and its all done for free. Don't waste your money on a company that gives you naturally occurring ingredients, employs reps without a clue and gives you support that you could get for free.

Awfully sorry if this post has offended everyone, but its my honest opinion. I'm not trying to offend everyone, and if Juice Plus works for you then that's great - personally I'm a much bigger fan of being able to make sustainable progress whilst eating Ben & Jerrys, but that's just me. If you want to hear more about that, then feel free to hit me up on social media:








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