My wife is a pre-diabetic and her dietician suggested she try Juce Plus+. It’s a concentrate of fruits and vegetables in pill form. Apparently it’s supposed to be highly nutritious, containing all the best parts of fruits and veggies.
Googling on this product seems to indicate that the only people who heartily recommend it are those selling it. Of course the makers cite studies that indicate some efficacy of the product, but the one MD site I found, questions the accuracy and the claims of these studies.
So, my Q is have you tried Juice Plus+, and if so, was it worth the expense? (It’s so pricey that the Dietician’s receptionist can’t afford it.)
Your link tells all - all that we want to know about Juice Plus, that is.
The Dietician charged my wife $50 for the first two “cans” of the pills. 30 pills per can, with the promise that subsequent cans could be bought on the web for a little less.
My wife’s first thought, “I can buy a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables for this money.” Which she does, anyway.
So screw this scam. I hope other Dopers read Dr. Barrett’s article.
Yeah, I was tempted to use the terms “scam”, “load of crap”, and “preying like a carrion-eater on the sacred trust relationship between patient and dietician” in my first reply.
I would be very wary of any nutritionist that flogs a pill instead of the fruits and veggies they purportedly replace. In fact, I would actually be pretty wary of a nutritionist that recommends a fiber pill instead of working up a food plan that suits your likes/dislikes/allergies that has adequate fiber [unless you are working your way through diagnosing a food allergy =)]
But then again, I think juicing is pretty dumb, as the fiber that you are supposed to get is filtered out leaving basically the sugars [though the vitamins and minerals are good…but I just love eating fruit and veggies and would rather enjoy an apple that is ice cold and crispy-crunchy that a glass of juice=)]
[NB - there are some conditions IIRC where you are supposed to avoid certain things including fiber, I vaguely remember the father of a high school buddy having to avoid high fiber foods for a little while after abdominal surgery for something]
Dude, anything with the slogan “The power to heal, the energy to thrive” is bullshit until proven otherwise.
Especially when they throw out blurbs like "The greatest food!’’, “concentrated superfood”, and “Before optimal health can be achieved, the immune system must be strong, a non-toxic gastrointestinal tract must be operating efficiently”.
Their very ads scream “quack, quack” to me.
Do you really need someone to prove this stuff is a waste of money?
I guess what I want to know is if the freeze-drying, etc., destroys the good stuff. I know some very healthy people who swear by this stuff, body workers and healers. Again, it’s not a replacement, but. I was hoping that you might examine the ingredients and whatnot and not stop at the slogan. My bullshit meter is pretty sensitive, but I’m willing to give some hippy dippy stuff a chance.
Plus, is there anything wrong with this statement per se? They’re claiming of course that GV can help one achieve this, but at face level, this makes sense, don’t it?
“Before optimal health can be achieved, the immune system must be strong, a non-toxic gastrointestinal tract must be operating efficiently”.
I note nothing of proven benefit in the product that’s not available more easily and more cheaply via consuming lots of fruits, vegetables, and an overall sensible diet. All the extra bells and whistles (antioxidants, ginko) have generally not been demonstrated to be effective.
And their claims are the nutritional equivalent of being for Motherhood, apple pie, and America.
I mean, look at their statement!
The ingredients were * chosen carefully to achieve clear goals*. Not that they’ve been shown to have these benefits, not that there’s clear evidence they’ll do things on the list.
Bogus bogus bogus.
But hey, there’s no data that shows it’ll damage anything other than your pocketbook. Yet.
