Fruits are generally high in fiber, water and vitamin C. Fruits also contain various phytochemicals that do not yet have an RDA/RDI listing under most nutritional factsheets, and which research indicates are required for proper long-term cellular health and disease prevention. Regular consumption of fruit is associated with reduced risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, Alzheimer disease, cataracts, and some of the functional declines associated with aging.

Let’s break that apart into sentences:

Fruits are generally high in fiber, water and vitamin C.

This isn’t all that exciting to me. I could get all that from some Metamucil and a vitamin C pill. However, it’s worth noting that MonaVie has less than 1 gram of fiber per serving, so it lacks one of the key important factors of fruit.

Fruits also contain various phytochemicals that do not yet have an RDA/RDI listing under most nutritional factsheets, and which research indicates are required for proper long-term cellular health and disease prevention.

Ahh, this is the good stuff. I can’t get phytochemicals just from Metamucil and vitamin C. So eating fruit is indeed a good thing as it may (according to the words “research indicates”) help long-term cellular health and disease prevention. So fruit maybe prevents disease. Sounds like seat belt to me. Seat belts may prevent me from getting seriously injured in the case of a car accident. However, if you chose not to wear a seat belt and get into an accident, putting it on afterward isn’t going to help you or treat your injuries.

Regular consumption of fruit is associated with reduced risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, Alzheimer disease, cataracts, and some of the functional declines associated with aging.

This looks to be an excellent reason to consume fruit – I’m going to grab and apple right now. Just note that it says your risk may be reduced of getting those diseases. There’s nothing that says or implies giving a lot of fruit to someone with Alzheimer’s will cure him or her.

Analysis of Fruit and MonaVie

To my knowledge no fruit has been approved by the FDA to help treat any disease or medical condition. The only disease I can think of that fruit may treat is scurvy (which comes from a lack of vitamin C) – something that is extremely rare in today’s world. Everything about fruit here is about the prevention, not treatment of medical conditions. By extension neither MonaVie Original or MonaVie Active can help treat medical conditions (again outside of scurvy).

There could be a case made for drinking MonaVie as a preventative measure. However, even in that case an apple is more effective than drinking MonaVie. Also, the scientific tests have largely been done on fruit which has significant fiber, so it would be a stretch to apply them to MonaVie which has little fiber. There’s a chance that fiber is part of what makes regular fruit effective. With that being the case, it’s not logical to go with something like MonaVie that is less proven and potent than fruit.

“Unconscious, Josh was flown to a hospital in Provo, Utah and diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, multiple bone fractures and abrasions and in a coma. Josh’s initial prognosis was dire. Doctors informed John and Teresa the likelihood of Josh coming out of the coma was slim, and even if Josh did come out of the coma, his disabilities would be severe.

After a horrific motorcycle crash, Josh Morros was flown to a hospital in Utah where he remained in a coma for 24 days. Two days after the accident doctor’s ran tests and were shocked to find tests showing Josh’s nutritional health was off the charts. In addition to a healthy diet, Josh would consume around 7500 calories a day, including half a bottle of MonaVie Active three to four days before a race to ensure proper energy reserves. Doctors said Josh’s health was paramount in providing Josh’s body a head start.

After being in a coma for 24 straight days, on September 8, 2008 Josh awoke from his coma. While he could not talk, there were signs he was aware of who he was, and recognized those around him, certainly an answer to prayers of his family and friends. It was the start of a rigorous rehabilitation process as Josh had relearn how to do most things and Teresa made sure MonaVie was a part of that process.

‘Four days after I woke I learned how to drink out of a straw and the doctors knew how important MonaVie was to my family and hospital and staff believed in good nutrition, so they allowed my mom to introduced the Active juice back into my diet giving me 6-8 ounces of juice two to three times a day. My mom even had some of the nurses taking the gel packs instead of drinking coffee,’ said Josh.

Not only was MonaVie there for Josh to aid in his nutrition that aided his recovery, but the family also received support from the MonaVie community. During Josh’s recovery, friends were able to talk with Dr. Alexander Schauss during MonaVie’s 2008 convention. Dr. Schauss provided advice and prescriptions that significantly aided in Josh’s recovery. Teresa even bought Dr. Schauss’ book Feed My Brain and followed his advice as part of Josh’s recovery. In February, the Morros families reached Ruby Executive and were able to come to Utah and participate in the Ruby Fly-In.

…Teresa has already received inquiries from doctors and medical associations about their story and how proper nutrition can help aid brain injuries.”

Before I go into further into this, let me say that I’m glad that Josh’s recovery went well. Now back to our regularly scheduled program…

I highlighted a few interesting parts of the MonaVie’s post. These are interesting because MonaVie is suggesting that their juice can aid in medical problems, which is, as we all know illegal. I’m also reminded of MonaVie’s own guidelines to distributors to be in compliance with the FTC:

“1. MonaVie distributors who provide testimonials online AND offline must be truthful AND be subject to typical results.”

I should note that they call this out and bold it to emphasize it’s importance. This is clearly an online testimonial. It may be truthful (let’s assume it is). It is NOT subject to typical results. In fact, MonaVie even uses the word “miracle” in the title of the post to indicate that is not typical.

Vogel also mentions that either:

• Alexander Schauss broke the law by providing prescriptions, since he’s not an MD and is not legally allowed to do so.
• MonaVie is lying about Schauss providing prescriptions.

One would expect that if the prescriptions “significantly aided in Josh’s recovery”, we’d the story would focus on them. Instead there wasn’t even a mention of the medicine.

Let’s imagine for a minute that MonaVie can treat a medical condition or disease. What a medical breakthrough that would be! Fruit hasn’t been shown to do it, but if MonaVie stumbled into some formula it would be groundbreaking. It would make the company billions of dollars. Here’s how:

• Increased sales from doctors prescriptions – MonaVie likes to claim some pretty lofty sales numbers… however, those sales numbers are tiny compared to what a single drug can make for a single company. This would open up a whole new path of sales – one that would dwarf the currently way that MonaVie is distributed now, since it would be scientifically proven to help the people it’s being marketed to.
• Increased sales from distributors – Right now a distributor can’t do too much to sell the product. According to MonaVie’s guidlines “No testimonials of any kind will be permitted.”. With FDA approval, a distributor could legally use the claims that the FDA allow about what the juice has been tested to treat. That would be a huge selling point.
• Free advertising – If MonaVie were to prove that it’s juice could treat medical conditions, it would make the headlines of every newspaper and be on the 6 o’clock news for weeks. Distributors would never have to say, “I know of this juice called MonaVie.” They’d get people coming to them, saying, “I here you can get your hands on MonaVie that’s proven to work with my [fill-in medical condition X].” What a much easier sale to make!

If MonaVie could treat medical conditions, distributors should be very upset with MonaVie for not providing them with the iron-clad proof to make everyone’s lives easier. Of course if it can not treat medical conditions, it’s best not to embarrass yourself by failing in an attempt with the FDA. That seems to be the path MonaVie has chosen which makes the conclusion obvious

• MonaVie does not treat medical conditions.
• MonaVie knows their juice can’t treat medical conditions
• They come from anonymous people and are unverifiable – I could post on any forum that MonaVie gave me rabies or any sickness. As outlandish as it sounds, it’s true. Someone could argue that I’m lying, but how do they know? I could simply post back they don’t know me. I’ve seen time and time again, someone post their testimony about MonaVie helping them with some medical condition. It’s similar to me posting that MonaVie gave me rabies. There is no way to verify either fact. If you say it’s completely illogical for MonaVie to give someone rabies, I would respond with the first bullet point above – it is completely illogical for MonaVie to treat medical conditions.
• Testimonies are potentially biased – There’s a high probability that testimonies for MonaVie could be biased. Distributors could be putting the testimonies out there sway the public opinion, and to drive sales for the product. They understand that even if they don’t make a direct sale, they may be helping a colleague make a sale. That down the line might be helpful to them. One the other hand, people who claim that MonaVie doesn’t do anything, have nothing to gain. It’s not like, they are going to sell you another juice or product. It’s called being a good consumer advocate which has it’s own rewards – the warm fuzzies of having helped someone.
• Any perceived medical benefit of MonaVie could be due to the placebo effect.

It all adds up to MonaVie medical testimonies not being helpful for much of anything in deciding if purchasing MonaVie is the right thing for you.