Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Juice Plus™ Vitamins

Everyone knows that it's important to eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. The problem is most people don't. The current recommendation is for people to eat at least 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day depending on how active you are. If you're active, you need nine servings because your body has greater demands the more that is demanded of it.

The sad fact however is that only 8% of Americans eat that amount of fruits and vegetables. You might ask yourself how many servings you consume each day. Just so you know a half cup of hard vegetables and 1 cup of leafy vegetables equals ones serving. You might wonder why it is so important to eat so many fruits and vegetables. The benefits of eating fruits and vegetables are related to two main qualities of produce, the presence of fiber and the presence of phytonutrients.

Fiber is beneficial in it in that it aids the digestive process and promotes regularity. It is recommended that everyone consume 30 to 50 g of fiber each day. The fact is however most people do not consume that much. When you don't consume enough fiber each day, you increase your chances of getting colon cancer.

Phytonutrients, or plant nutrients, are perhaps the most beneficial aspect of eating fruits and vegetables. It is estimated that there are some 10,000 to 12,000 phytonutrients in a single piece of fruit or vegetable. Some of these phytonutrients we call vitamins. Vitamins, however, only make up a small portion of all the phytonutrients. All vitamins at one point were considered phytonutrients and then their purpose was determined and then they were named vitamins. Scientists have yet to determine how all these phytonutrients acts within the body, but it is clear that they all serve a vital purpose.

Many times people take a vitamin supplements to add nutrition to their diets that they might be lacking from the food they eat. What one should know, however, is that a multivitamin only provides 30 to 40 various vitamins. That is because scientists have not figured out how to synthetically produce all the other phytonutrients that are present in fruits and vegetables. It is theorized that there is a natural balance of minerals and other nutrient levels that the body tries to maintain. When you take a synthetic multivitamin or other vitamin supplement, you are not receiving the phytonutrients so this can throw your body out of balance. Serious medical conditions can develop from imbalances, especially imbalances related to minerals. That is why it is really important to consume vitamins and phytonutrients from fruits and vegetables, and not from man-made synthetic vitamins.

The best place to get your vitamins and phytonutrients, if you're not eating enough fruits and vegetables, is to consume a whole food-based nutritional supplement. I have been taking a whole food supplement called Juice Plus™ for about five years now. Juice Plus™ vitamins because it is made in facilities that are voluntarily inspected by FDA auditors.

The take away message is this, fruits and vegetables are very important to consume on a regular basis if we want to stay healthy. We either need to start eating 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables every day or we need to supplement our diet with a whole food-based nutritional supplement. If you'd like to learn more information, please click on the link in my resource box.

Juice Plus™ Vitamins

Juice Plus™ Vitamins are a whole food nutritional supplement that contains phytonutrients (plant nutrients) from 17 fruits, vegetables, and grains in the form of very concentrated extract powders that are taken in the form of a capsule. Juice Plus™ vitamins are made by a company located in Memphis, TN called National Safety Associates, or NSA.
NSA is a company that has operated with the same CEO since its inception in the early 1980s. They market Juice Plus™ through the direct sales method, so you won’t see any of their ads on the TV anytime soon. What is interesting about this product and company is the amount of university-level research that has been performed using the Juice Plus™ product. There have been 15 studies performed using name brand Juice Plus™ vitamins that have been published in medical journals.
No other nutritional supplement has had this number of name-brand research studies published before. What is even more remarkable is that all 15 of these studies showed positive health benefits. Some people reading this might be thinking that any company can just buy research studies like this, so it is not very impressive. So what makes this body of research different is that these studies were performed using the “Gold Standard” of research. Gold standard research puts measures in place that make it impossible to “buy” or otherwise influence.
To be considered gold standard research, a study must be double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized, and cross-over. Let’s clarify what each of these terms mean in a research setting.
·         Placebo Controlled: A placebo is usually a sugar or otherwise inert pill that looks exactly like the pill being studied. A placebo is used to measure the effects a person experiences by “thinking” they are taking the pill, when in fact they are just taking the sugar placebo.
·         Double-Blinded: When a research study is double-blinded, neither the research project’s observers nor the participants know whether they are taking the real thing or just the sugar pill. This serves to ensure that personal bias does not affect both the observer’s observations and conclusions or the study participant’s perception of the pill’s effects.
·         Randomized: Randomization is important to a study to ensure that the changes seen during the study are not the result of how the study participants were chosen. It ensures there is no bias in how the participants are selected.
·         Cross-Over: A study that has a crossover has the placebo and the Juice Plus™ groups switch groups so that both groups have a chance to take both the placebo and the real thing. Usually there is a washout period in between so that the group taking the real thing has a chance to flush it out of their body before switching to the other group. This is used to ensure that the Juice Plus™
When a study is performed using these measures in place, you can be ensured that the results are honest and believable. Most companies do not structure studies of their own products like this. They want to be sure they get the results they are looking for so their product looks good. The fact that NSA has performed so much research on Juice Plus™ vitamins and the results have all been positive tells me that Juice Plus™ is the real deal and not a scam.