A Dietitian’s Review: Juice Plus+
Juice Plus+. I’ve been asked about it quite a few times and it’s been creeping into my social media feed more and more as the start of a new decade approaches and people start assessing where they went wrong with their diets this year.
So…
What is it?
Juice Plus+ is “next best thing to fruits and vegetables,” according to their website. Juice Plus+ claims to be “made from the juice powder concentrates and oils from more than 40 different fruits, vegetables, and grains. While Juice Plus isn’t a substitute for eating fruits and vegetables, our whole food-based products support a healthy diet by offering a much wider variety of naturally occurring vitamins, along with antioxidants and phytonutrients found in fruits and vegetables.”
How do you use Juice Plus+?
Juice Plus+ offers capsules, chewables, and powders to consume.
What are the Pros?
Do Juice Plus+ products actually have benefits? Sure! The nutrients they contain may have an impact on keeping the body healthy and preventing illness.
What are the Cons?
It does not replace fruits and vegetables.
As Juice Plus+ states right on their website, “Juice Plus+ is not a substitute for eating fruits and vegetables. It is not a medicine, treatment, or multivitamin.” This means, while it may provide vitamins to fill in gaps in a diet of a person that does not consume enough fruits and vegetables regularly, it cannot and will not replace fruits and vegetables in the diet. Taking Juice Plus+ instead of fruits and vegetables will leave your body lacking fiber and water content, leading you to need to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables regardless. So, we may start to wonder why should we spend $71.25 / month to take capsules of dried fruit and vegetable vitamins each day, when we have to still spend the money to get whole fruits and vegetables into our diet anyway.
Some may claim that even while eating fruits and vegetables, it is too difficult to get enough vitamins into the diet on a regular basis. Sure, for those who do not get enough fruits and vegetables, a supplemental form of vitamins and minerals can absolutely fill in gaps to at least give them some of the benefit of those components when they aren’t getting it from their diet alone. However, when one eats the amount of fruits and vegetables recommended each day, it can be surprisingly easy to meet your body’s daily vitamin and mineral needs.
Check out this comparison below of two Juice Plus+ capsules versus the amount of whole, nutrient-rich foods one could easily incorporate into their day to exceed those nutrient amounts found in Juice Plus+…
“But I can’t eat that many veggies in one day!” you say? Try this simple meal plan to squeeze all of this, plus some more fruit/veggies in…
Breakfast – 2 egg omelet with sautéed peppers, diced tomatoes, 1 cup spinach (it shrinks way down when cooked) and cheese. Top with 1/4 cup avocado.
Snack – Trail mix with salted air-popped popcorn, 1/2 cup almonds, & 1 tbsp chocolate chips.
Lunch – Leftover grilled chicken breast, 1 cup mashed sweet potato, sautéed green beans.
Snack – 1/4 cup guacamole with bell pepper strips and pita chips.
Dinner – Baked salmon filet, 1 cup roasted broccoli, 1/2 cup brown rice.
Easier than you thought, eh? 😉
What if you do eat plenty of fruits and vegetables each day, but you want to take Juice Plus+ to make sure your body definitely got enough vitamins and minerals? Well, you may end up with some very expensive urine. Did you know that when your body takes in more nutrients than it needs, it will often times just send it right on out into your toilet via urine? The human body is quite complex, and honestly it’s crazy how ‘smart’ it is. Other nutrients, when consumed in amounts larger than our daily needs, can actually have negative health impacts as well.
In order to ensure your body is receiving enough vitamins and minerals, it is important to work with a dietitian to determine what nutrients you may be lacking based on your current diet, then work with your dietitian and doctor to determine what specific nutrients you may need supplementation of, and in what dose.
So..
Do I recommend Juice Plus+?
Short answer – no.
Why?
Without knowing exactly what nutrients your body is deficient in, I do not recommend taking a supplemental form of a variety of vitamins or minerals. To avoid wasting money or potentially consuming way too much of specific nutrients, I highly recommend instead talking with your doctor in conjunction with a Registered Dietitian to learn what your body needs more of, and how much.
What about all of the research results they list on their website?
Let’s take a look at the claims from the Juice Plus+ website:
Claim – “Studies show your body is receptive to absorbing the nutrients in Juice Plus+. Nineteen publications found significant increases in blood levels of antioxidants and other phytonutrients.”
Dietitian thoughts – Did they check for increases in blood levels of antioxidants and other phytonutrients in people who did not take Juice Plus+ and who instead ate the recommended daily servings of fruit and vegetables? Is whole food just as effective?
Claim – “Juice Plus+ can help improve gum health and reduce gum bleeding.”
Dietitian thoughts – They used a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to compare healing and pain after dental surgery, but did they compare the results to anyone post-op who was getting the nutrients from whole food versus Juice Plus+? Is whole food just as effective?
Claim – “Juice Plus+ can help better maintain normal, healthy elasticity of arteries and produce positive effects on several other measures of vascular health.”
Dietitian thoughts – In reading through one of the studies they linked under this claim, I read this – “Smoker’s lifestyles are different from nonsmokers’ lifestyles in that smokers consume less fruits and vegetables and therefore could have lower antioxidant capacity from diet alone. Many fruit and vegetables components function as antioxidants and neutralize RONS (reactive oxygen and nitrogen species). Moreover, whole fruits and/or vegetables may be biologically more effective than synthetic compound given as supplements.” (Journal of American College of Nutrition, 2013; University of Milan, Italy. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07315724.2013.767652) So… smokers could just eat more fruits and vegetables then?
Claim – “Juice Plus+ supports key measures of immune system function in healthcare professionals with direct patient contact; in young law school students; in an elderly population; and in athletic men.”
Dietitian thoughts – In the concluding remarks of one of the studies they have listed, it states the following: “It is not realistic to provide general advice pro or con regarding supplementation with mixed FVB concentrates. Pro or con and also amount and dosage of supplementation underlie individual evaluation of each influencing domain in every single person. The manifestation(s) of the five domains, diet, biochemical analyses and clinical history, exercise training, basic conditions, and the product itself, are crucial for decision-making.” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK299051/#ch12_sec11)
What does this mean? Talk to your doctor and a dietitian to have your entire situation assessed to get a personalized recommendation for how to move forward with your nutrition needs.
Are you starting to see the pattern here? Even the website of the product itself cannot provide proof that it is superior to eating fruits and vegetables. If we need to eat fruits and vegetables regardless, why spend the money on a supplemental form of fruits and vegetables that really does not have any proof of any superior benefits over the whole foods themselves?
So as a Registered Dietitian, what do I recommend you do if you’re worried about ‘filling in nutrition gaps’?
Go to your doctor. Get a blood test. Find out if you are deficient in any specific nutrients or have any medical conditions that warrant supplementation. Talk to a Registered Dietitian about your deficiencies/supplementation needs to get feedback on how to increase those nutrients specifically through food and/or supplements as needed.
To check out the rest of the claims and studies on Juice Plus+ yourself, visit https://www.juiceplus.com/us/en .
Questions? Let’s have a conversation! Leave a comment, e-mail me or comment/message me on social media any time!