Before we get too far into it, it’s worth noting that Monarch Health Sciences is related (I think even a parent company) to MonaVie? Anything he is going to say is likely to be biased for MonaVie. With that in mind, I’d give more weight towards an unbiased, nationally televised source like Dr. Dean Edell?

However, let’s look at that Dr. Ralph Carson interview itself. I’m going to assume you have opened the link of the PDF in another browser so that you can follow along.

The first two questions of the interview establish that fruit is good and people don’t eat enough. I don’t think anyone here argues that point. That is not an argument towards drinking MonaVie… it is an argument towards eating more fruit. MonaVie product specialists admit that drinking it’s juice is not equal to eating fruit.

The third question seems to argue for drinking “different pigments and colors” – which is what you’d find in 46 ounces of V8 Fusion for a price of $1.99 at my local Safeway last week. At Wal-Mart it’s usually around $3.00 for 46 ounces. This is not near $45 for 25 ounces of MonaVie… The V8 Fusion Acai Berry is just one example of many similar options.

The fourth question suggests that people in the Amazon are more healthy than “we” are. Assuming that the “we” equates to people of United States, I’d say that “seems” very, very false. Compare life expectancies of both people… it’s not even close. Also how many fast food restaurants are on the Amazon? I’m going to hazard a guess that it’s not a lot. As such, the question is meaningless on multiple fronts.

The 5th question asks about the product that Dr. Carson helped create. Finally the bias of this interview is obvious. It’s like asking me why this website is so tremendously useful in saving people money. Dr. Carson talks about acai having the “protein profile as an egg”, but when you look at the label there is zero grams of protein… hence you aren’t getting that protein when you purchase MonaVie. He also says it’s an “It’s an exceptional source of the phytonutrients”, when scientific tests show that it is lacking. He specifically mentions “anthocyanadin”, but according to the link I just sent it’s really, really low there.

The 6th question is just about marketing… A rose by any other name is still a rose. It’s another useless question.

The 7th question (“How much of this Acai berry and MonaVie can we take each day?”) is even more crazy…

It’s a fruit juice… how much of any fruit juice can you DRINK a day. You “take” medicine, you “drink” juice. The fact that this interviewer isn’t using the right language is a huge hint that MonaVie is providing the questions and this may be a paid sponsorship.

The interview continues to ask even more unusual questions… the next one is “Is it safe for children and pregnant women?” If MonaVie is fruit juice, why wouldn’t it be safe for children and pregnant women to drink? Are there other fruit juices that are unsafe for those two groups. This again looks like a paid sponsorship because the question is based on a medicinal issue… we know that children and pregnant should consult a doctor before taking a medicine, so by asking the question, it’s hoping that people draw that mental connection to MonaVie being a medicine… which it is not.

Okay, they take the absurdity even a step further with the next question… “What sort of findings can you talk about with the
Acai berry alone?” It’s a fair question. The response was:

“Most of the studies are taken out of individual research on the individual phytonutrients. There are 19 other
fruits contained in this blend which have numerous unique contributions to health building potential.”

Translation: “We don’t have anything to say about the acai berry there, but we dilute with other fruit.

The next question continues… “You spoke about testimonials earlier. What sort of comments do you get back from people?”

Well, the reactions we’re hearing are related to aches and pains people experience; musculoskeletal things that we deal with on a daily basis. Those seem to diminish. Other things that happen would be more subtle because a lot of these plant components can help in terms of cholesterol and high blood pressure. As you take your medication and products like this, those things will rectify so possibly your physician could try a lower dose. If you look at chronic diseases, things that would linger such as cardiovascular atherosclerosis, malignancies, cancers, tumors, diabetes, Alzheimers disease or macular degeneration; these things take a long time to manifest in the body and there is such potential in terms of combating these on a daily basis.”

So here is someone who is credited with creating MonaVie explicitly violating MonaVie’s and the FTC’s Explicit Guidelines about Testimonials being Subject to Typical Results. In short, there is ZERO DOUBT that this doctor is violating the FTC as well as MonaVie’s guidelines.

The next question is “Tell about the ingredients you’ve added to MonaVie active.”

Dr. Carson’s answer is “What we’ve added are two substances, celadrin and glucosamine.” Celadrin is not added to MonaVie to best of my knowledge. There was even a law suit settled by MonaVie on this claim because there is no celadrin in MonaVie. That’s a great selling point.

And the next question is “Many people are popping pills every day for conditions like [aches and pains].”

That’s got to be a set-up question that was orchestrated by MonaVie. What’s wrong with taking pills? Why would juice be better? If I take a pill and crush it up in a juice (like glucosamine), does that change it’s effectiveness? No.

The next question says “It also seems like this would be a great alternative for the person who knows they aren’t going to get three or four or five fruits a day…” MonaVie product specialists specifically say that this would not be true as it doesn’t replace the “vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients your body needs.”

The questions get even more bizarre… “I understand from a number of reports that we’ve seen that some are using this as an alternative to
some of the Viagra-type drugs on the market.” Instead of the doctor saying that there’s no clinical evidence towards that effect (as any credible doctor would), he says that there’s some testimony towards that effect. Again this violates the FTC guidelines.

The next question is a little more reasonable, “So many companies seem to make much out of the ORAC value of their products. Talk about that.” Dr. Carson responds that “We weren’t looking for extremely high scores, but for balance.” It’s a good thing, but MonaVie still has lied about it’s ORAC score

The last question is “How does having Acai blended into the MonaVie product help the rainforest?”

Instead of telling how it helps, the Doctor gives this vague answer, “A portion of profits made from this product go back into supporting and
saving the rainforest.” In actuality, I don’t think I’ve seen any evidence that a portion of the profits made of MonaVie go to saving the rainforest. From everything I’ve read, MonaVie provides administrative help for the MORE Project where distributors (NOT profits of the product) can donate money towards helping the rain forest, which is interesting since the MORE Project looks to be misusing it’s funds.

In addition to this, the people of the Amazon are losing their one of their most basic foods because the cost of acai due to the demand of people thinking it’s a miracle cure (due to interviews like these). On top of that, environmental experts suggest that we should eat local produce and not ship it around the world adding to the fossil fuels that hurt the environment.