Men’s Journal Proves MonaVie Lacks Nutrition

Tony,

So you are saying that I should talk to someone like LeBron James (a healthy and active sports person) about nutrition rather than the nutritionist he (or the team) hires? Why are the healthy and active sports people, trainers and coaches paying the nutritionists good money for their advice if they already know it all?

The point of this article is that MonaVie lacks nutrition. Your argument is that we shouldn’t take the a clinical director of nutrition’s word on nutrition. That’s like saying that we shouldn’t take a mathematician’s word on math or a dog trainer’s word on training dogs.

We are looking for logical arguments here and anyone can see that that’s logical.

By the way, nutritionists don’t always break things down individually. They look at things that work together. For instance, they know that fat-soluble vitamins work better when taken with food. There is significant peer-reviewed clinical research done on that.

Do you have peer-reviewed clinical research on “synergy” of the ingredients in MonaVie?

Can you tell us what other things we should be looking for in MonaVie than the four things mentioned in the article (and if MonaVie has them?)

what about the new “sozo” coffeeberry claims to be three times as potent as monavie?

ManaVie Scam i forgot, GO TO A MonaVie DISTRIBUTION CENTER AND GET A BROCHURE BEFORE YOU SPEAK AGAIN IDIOT.

Actually, I know quite a bit MonaVie – more than any single distributor I’ve ever come across. That’s probably because many distributors are less interested in the product’s benefits and more interested in marketing and making sales.

This is why you hear distributors tell people that acai has the protein profile of an egg. That may be a true statement, but the MonaVie label lists 0 grams of protein. So what’s the point?

Tony DeLacey couldn’t tell us what else the lab should have tested for. You don’t provide any suggestions either. Why shouldn’t we take the an unbiased professional nutritionist’s analysis?

MonaVie itself spreads this from the top of the organization. You see things where they openly lie about the ORAC score of MonaVie, where their employees calls people “Annoying Douches”, where their MORE Project misuses it’s funds. Chase: You’ll note in that first link, that I not only read a brochure, I cross referenced it with a clinical study done by MonaVie to prove that MonaVie is putting out false brochures.

Açai, white grape, apple, acerola, aronia, purple grape, cranberry, passion fruit, prune, kiwi, blueberry, bilberry, wolfberry, pomegranate, lychee fruit, camu camu, pear, banana, and cupuaçu. So how can welches be so much better and how can monaVie not be good . Welches also has so much more sugar. If you were as smart as you try to be you would realize that of course one shot of welches will have more Phenolic Acids, Anthocyanins, Vitamin C because look how much more fruits MonaVie has in a single shot. It would be impossibe to have those levels with everything else it has in it. AND who cares about Beta-carotene because Acai Berry is the highest antioxidant and answer this. What do antioxidants do? boost your immune system perhaps???

Chase,

It is my understanding that MonaVie Active is the same as MonaVie Original, but with glucosamine added. It’s almost more expensive. Given those two facts it should test better than MonaVie Original. If it’s completely different juice then please direct me to that information.

You realize that more types of fruit doesn’t make it better right? It’s not like I can take a drop of MonaVie add it to a gallon of blueberry juice and say the result is significantly better or worse now that it has 20 fruits. Also, I could take a few different types of V8 Fusion and mix them together to get something that has 19 fruits at a much cheaper cost.

Candace, it does look like Chase has a case of the “I am not a MonaVie distributor, but…”. It doesn’t look like he’s from MonaVie corporate as his IP is not Utah-based. Plus, if he was from corporate, he’d probably be able to make a better argument than listing fruits.

Also, about the sugars… Active has 5 carbs and 3 of those carbs are SUGARS! If you increase the ounces you would have just as many sugars. Simple math!

Exactly. It’s an independent test and MonaVie wasn’t close to other juices (i.e. the 15% is not significant).

Thanks for helping out Nate.

thats like buying one ticket and winning the lottery chances there bubba, and its got the same chance of being vica versa also (thin).

. MonaVie is not and never was meant to be a vitamin supplement, nor a source of significant proteins or omega- 3 fatty acids.

We are not an ORAC drink either, albeit this aspect is of significant importance and is becoming more widely understood by the public. ORAC values come from many phytonutrients. You will see other products marketed primarily on their touted ORAC values. But, here again the scientific literature is telling us a much bigger story than simply ORAC. It is precisely because MonaVie has 19 fruits that it is more effective, more powerful, more balanced, than any single fruit product, or even the Acai mixed with chocolate. Yeah, chocolate has high ORAC as well, but tens of thousands of scientific papers tell us it is the higher amounts of mixed fruits, wide varieties, whole fruits….this is key, not one fruit mixed with some other ingredient. Your job is to understand this and educate your contacts and customers about the importance of these compounds, what they do inside each of us and how vital they are. You have the USDA and the newly redesigned “Food Pyramid” firmly behind you, as well as the American Heart Association, and many other organizations.
This short document cannot hope to cover all the research out there on the power of these phytonutrients. There are over 300,000 published papers on various aspects of fruits!

Next you will be saying that V8 acai fusion is so much better.

V8 Fusion Acai Berry and MonaVie is “100% juice.” When you see “Fruit Juice from Concentrate” on MonaVie’s label, it’s reconstituted with water.

Sure looks like MonaVie is omitting the water from their label.

There’s potentially more acai in V8 Fusion Acai Berry than MonaVie as it’s diluted by fewer fruits. For example read this.

Yes, I’m going to come back with a logical post, because I’ve gone through these arguments a few dozen times in the 3700 comments here.

You are right that I’m Anti-MonaVie. Did you get it from the title of the blog? The reason I’m against it is because they charge $45 for juice that isn’t shown to be better than $4 juice. The Men’s Journal article mentioned at the top of this shows that through an independent lab testing.

The lack of water on the label is another reason why MonaVie is skirting things. There are people who are industry experts who have opined on this. See this post:

“I’ve mentioned my concerns with the MonaVie label before. Particularly with them not adding water as an ingredient. Anyone who has worked in a fruit juice plant knows that water is always an added ingredient.

Unfortunately, unless there is a potential health issue involved, the FDA rarely will use their limited resources for label verifications.”

So V8 Fusion is doing the right thing (probably because they are a publicly traded company responsible for millions of shareholders) by adding water. Don’t try to turn that into a negative thing.

You need to quit lieing to everybody. Here some facts for you.

http://www.RealHealthAnswers.com/acai-TV/Dr-Clayton-part1.htm

I’ve watched the presentation by Dr. Clayton, and I have a few quick questions:

1) What’s his PhD in? I understand his undergraduate training is pharmacology, but the info regarding his PhD seems to be scarce.

2) The entire presentation was pretty much about the benefits of Wellmune. I imagine he could give the same presentation to any group that adds Wellmune to its product.

3) I didn’t see where there was any synergistic benefit to adding Wellmune to MonaVie as oppossed to adding it to water.

4) So, by taking Wellmune, the study group was absent from work 1.38 times less than the control group? Yawn. Considering, a worker will take an entire day off when calling in sick, this is unimpressive. How often will a co-worker call in a half day sick?

This borders on Schauss-like weasel science.

5) Dr. Clayton mentioned the Wellmune dosage concentration as 2 mg. per kilogram.

So, a 170 lb. individual would need 154 mg. of Wellmune added to the daily serving of MonaVie to make it effective.

Is Wellmune added at that level? Or is it another “guess how much acai we added” game?

Actually, I clean the shelves down at 7-11. Does that change anything that’s been presented? You are always welcome back after you find a new stack of YouTube videos.

So this is your Mens Journal looking out for everyone? http://www.mensjournal.com/store/oakley-pit-boss-sunglasses/

You rant and rave about $37 a bottle juice, and use a Company that sells $595 sun glasses to help you. How can anyone pay any attention to a Company that sells $595 sun glasses?
You are naive to think Chromadex cant be bought off. So i dont think your sources are all you hope them to be. As for your Dr.Edell he could have been having lsd flash backs from when he was a hippie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Edell

Something seems fishy about this whole Mens Journal deal.

http://onesuperjuice.com/superjuices-on-trial.html

Id say the above paid a pretty penny for that.

Lets hear some more of your warped logic.

What’s fishy? You think they are happy that they are shown at the top? By that logic how much did MonaVie pay for this placement?

If you think that Vemma paid for that, because they own One Super Juice why weren’t they rated the best juice there? The regular grape juice was much better at a much cheaper cost. So what’s your logic there?

I give Vemma credit for putting up an article where they don’t come out looking that great. Why isn’t MonaVie being as truthful?

Candace has a good point in that you are pointing fingers are Men’s Journal, Chromadex, Vemma, and all the other juices rather than take the simplest, most logical explanation.

Here’s a logical explanation… MonaVie starts out with a tough road to hoe. Welch’s serving size is 8 ounces while MonaVie’s is 1 ounce. It’s like asking a 1-cylinder lawnmower to compete with an 8-cylinder car. It’s quite a battle to make that 1-cylinder perform equal to that 8-cylinder car.

The claim MonaVie is trying to make is that the 1-cylinder is better than the 8-cylinder and worth 50% more (using per serving costs). This is despite the fact that a large portion of that 1-cylinder engine (white grape juice) is similar to the 8-cylinder one.

No one would expect the 1-cylinder engine to win. When the results are that it loses badly it is no surprise.

MonaVie can easily perform better on these tests by upping their serving size and lowering their price to match it’s competitors.

you have done a great job, thank you for research and posting your findings. I also want to thank you for making sure everyone has a place to voice their view on the topic. The simple and main point is this. You either drink it and feel better or you don’t. You either find value in the business model or you don’t. If you do find value in both the juice and business model then you should learn from some one who has been sucessful. And my last point, no matter what you do in life, make sure that you can hold your head up high and say that you have lived your life and done business by a the proper code of ethics, do the right thing, treat people with love and respect and do what you say you are going to do.
I can not vouch for folks I do not know, but I can say that the group of people I work with are 100% real and I am 100% real.

Carter,

You ignore the possibility of MonaVie having a effect similar of a placebo. That makes your main point, not relevant. It must be proven that a person doesn’t “feel” better, but actually “is” better. Anyone who has ever seen an optical illusion knows that perception and reality are two different things. I don’t see how anyone can consider possibly selling an illusion a “proper code of ethics” or “doing the right thing”, so we are simply asking that you “treat people with love and respect” and show them scientifically that they ARE better off with your juice than someone else’s cheaper juice. The scientific evidence done by Men’s Journal and an independent lab here says that you are selling an illusion at best.

The value of the business model is pretty straight-forward. It’s been shown to be a bad business model for everyone, but the first few people in it. That’s why some 85% or so barely make minimum wage. And after buying juice and tools, they are pretty much break even, just wasting a lot of time.

Interesting note: I was searching the web to learn more about the Nutrition Facts label found on products sold in US. First I learned that I was not comparing products correctly, if you want to check it yourself
http://www.fda.gov/Food/LabelingNutrition/ConsumerInformation/ucm078889.htm#formanswer

Second, via a combination of data from other sites I found that in the “ingredients” section , the first item named makes up the largest % of the product. In the case of MOnavie the first item is acai (freeze-dried poweder and puree).
Some will say that the “proprietary blend” allows them to not tell you the exact mix ratio. Well, my question is this, has coke given the world a copy of the “secret formula”? They list the ingredients but not the ratio, why.. because we all would make it ourselves. Now, Mona vie is more protected than that.. you and I are not going to run out and buy up the exotic fruit on the label and pick the acai and process it in less than 48 hours to make our drink. Why, because it would cost us way toooo much money to do that.

I am ok with Monavie not telling us the exact % each fruit makes up in the blend. I am ok with just knowing what is in the blend and the label tells me that.

Do you have the label for grape juice, I don’t have any in my house to check. What is the first item on the ingredients list?

Carter, much of this has been discussed in How Much Acai is in MonaVie? The first ingredient is irrelevent. The chemical analysis here shows that “exotic fruit” is not “better fruit.” That’s really all that matters.

I’m fine with Coca-Cola not giving us information of it’s ingredients. It’s a beverage that is about quenching thirst. It does that job because it’s 8-12 ounces of mostly water. I don’t know anyone that disputes this. Lastly Coca-Cola doesn’t charge 20 times more than Pepsi or other cola products.

MonaVie is not a thirst-quenching beverage. Ounce for ounce, it is about 20 times more expensive than the Welch’s grape juice here. If MonaVie expects consumers to pay a 2000% premium, they should clearly show evidence why.

Carter, it is also possible to have all ingredients at the same percentage. Example: 100 grams of product. 10 grams ingredient A, 10 grams ingredient B, and so on. Using this formulation, the label would be legal no matter what order the ingredients were listed.

This is a common procedure in the juice industry when using purees and concentrates. Since there is no standard of identity for acai juice, the manufacturer can add as much, or as little water as he wants to make up a single ingredient. Orange juice has a FDA regulated standard of identity. Acai does not.

Look at it this way. There is no standard of identity for sugar water. Therefore, I can put one teaspoon of sugar in 1500 gallons of water, and can legally call it sugar water.

Now, I can add 1/2 teaspoon of various other ingredients, claiming that you need 100 gallons of water to reconstitute each ingredient.

I can still advertise sugar as my number one ingredient, since the water was “needed” to reconstitute the other ingredients.

So, don’t get too excited about acai being listed as number one.

Juice producers can be very creative. I know because I worked in a juice lab for five years.

Carter,

You asked:

“has coke given the world a copy of the “secret formula”?”

NO they haven’t. I haven’t had a coke in probably about 20 years or so, but last time I checked, coke was pretty darn inexpensive to purchase. Also, Coke pays for real marketing, they don’t sign up a bunch of uninformed distributors that run around claiming their soda will cure anything that ails you…at a huge financial cost, of course.

You also stated:

“Why monavie over the other products, it is a simple answer for me, I am not able to earn money when I recommend someone drink welchers, they don’t pay me.”

Here’s a thought: Buy the Welch’s. Put the same amount that you paid for that one bottle into a piggy bank. This probably comes close to the “profit” you make off one bottle of MonaVie, except you also saved between $25.88 and $41.88 per bottle on the purchase price. You can “make” more money by not buying MonaVie and buying a quality fruit juice available in virtually every supermarket in the US. Do that for a few months and see what fun you can have with your extra “earnings”.

I tried Monavie for the second time with the same friends who tried to get me onto their sales force last time was over. Now, besides the whole Americana – let’s create a vortex of Stepford Wives psycho-sales environment (very Amway, quite neurotic really,) the most disturbing thing about these over priced juices is that it’s just friggin juice! crap, I mean real estate is supposed to cost you a fortune – not juice! I try to explain to my friend that normal families, shouldn’t have to sell the product in order to afford to drink it.

And I must say, after haing the regular, heartwise and anti-inflammatory versions – I suppose a total of 6 ounces, I was crawling the walls. I realize there’s not supposed to be caffiene in that shit, ut there’s definitely an ample stimulant in it. I mean – aleast with Red Bull – they’re upfront – they tell you it’s a stimulant. Hiding that crap in a medicinal juice type product is really underhanded.

We started our juice samples at 9pm – I couldn’t sleep until 3am – and it took until 12 noon the next day to get rid of all the stimulant in my system. Judos to whomever developed the anti-inflammatory version, both my right foot and my right hand digit joints were swollen and arthritic for 2 days afterwards. I have to say for a slim, trim, healthy woman, with minor arthritic conditions, it was not fun having my feet, hands and gut swollen from a product that promises the opposite. Somebody needs to go back to the science lab over this ‘juice’ take out all the stimulants and try again. Oh hey, wait a second, my mom just picked up some juice that actually tells you whats in it on the label – for about a third the price.
Ya – guess that’ll do. Reasonable price, fair product,still has berries,tastes good – really isn’t that about all you really need? Unless of course you want to take a loan out to buy your next great panacea.

cheers juice drinkers . . . good health to you all

does anybody know the difference between the phytonutrient count in freeze-dried fruit products over non? ie: spray dried, concentrate (reconstituted)

also, does anybody have a link to whether or not Dr. Alex Schauss is a paid speaker? and whether or not his endorsement of MonaVie product and his 15 year research holds merit?

Thanks for the help!!

@ Food Tech

Thanks for the response but it doesn’t help me as much as hard fact. Your satement “quite certain” and “I doubt” doesn’t say yes or no backed with proof.

I’m curious because Dr. Schauss mentions MonaVie in his book, “An Extraordinary Antioxidant-Rich Palm Fruit – Acai”. Which I think all of you should take a read before making suggestions. I think we can agree that Dr. Alex Schauss, PhD, FACN is world respected and a leading if not “the” researcher on Acai.

In his book you might note the pilot study conducted by Honzel and colleagues funded by MonaVie in 2008-2009 and published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2008. He states all results lead positive in vitro and in vivo. Further test done by Jensen and colleagues which were randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design and also published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry all yield positive results using MonaVie’s Active product.

Chris said: “I think we can agree that Dr. Alex Schauss, PhD, FACN is world respected and a leading if not ‘the’ researcher on Acai.”

Check you facts and don’t make such idiotic statements. Poseurs who buy their cereal box-top degrees from diploma mills and who fake their credentials, as did Schauss, don’t get respect from anyone, other than perhaps the type of brainless dipshits that hawk Monavie.
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-7514117/diet-behavior-expert-fakes.html

BTW, I read Schauss’ book — I have a copy right in front of me. It isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. It’s nothing more than a misleading promotional initiative to fool prospective Monavie recruits. That’s why he had to publish it using his own “vanity press” publication company (BioSocial Publications). No reputable scientific publisher would touch Schauss’ garbage with a barge pole.

Schauss doesn’t have enough credibility to mop the floor at a university, let alone publish a book about the science of antioxidants.

Chris, you are coming into the middle of a conversion with a line like:

“I think we can agree that Dr. Alex Schauss, PhD, FACN is world respected and a leading if not ‘the’ researcher on Acai.”

Candace mentioned that there’s a lot of information about why Dr. Alex Schauss is not respected here. You’ll have to wade through some noise of distributors, but please don’t come to the site making assumptions like the above. It’s far unbiased. Also please read other articles and Vogel’s comments – you’ll find that he doesn’t need “gain an ounce of credit” as he’s already earned several tons of credit.

I also disagree with you on the credit part…he may have “earned” or “gained” credit for others but not me yet and by offering a childish response with profanity in it as a way to argue is hardly the way to keep such so called “earned credit” or gain it.

Either way I am looking for merited facts and new references and appreciate any response or path given.

Chris, are you looking for merited facts, or for ammunition to support your product?

Facts can be verified, propaganda is mostly opinion-based. You need to choose which path to take.

This site isn’t going to help you much if you’re looking for pro-MonaVie references.

Did it Dawn on you Chris that your posts so far have had absolutely nothing to do with the subject title (i.e., Men’s Journal Proves MonaVie Lacks Nutrition)?

It looks like Chris is another one of the Monavie minions dispatched to drown the signal in noise.

Might I suggest that our admin stem such efforts by deleting or moving posts from those who distributors who chronically derail discussions with off-topic comments.

Chris, after what you’ve been recommended to read, all you can come back with is that you are angry that MonaVie Scam lists the benefits of nutrients that should be found in juice?

This site doesn’t sell juice.
Nor claim that juice will cure (insert any medical condition here).

But you, as a MonaVie distributor do both, one by choice and the other either on purpose or by inference.

When shown the factual error of your assumptions, this is the only rebuttal you have? It’s a new one, so congratulations for that, I guess. You are disappointing in your lack of admitting that the facts are not on your side or the side of MonaVie, Mona Vie, Monarch Health Sciences, et al, but not at all surprising.

Chris, you made a good point but then tripped in your conclusion.

The Men’s Journal article did not say that all phenolics, anthocyanins, vitamin C and beta carotenes need come from juices. The suggestion is if you want to look at any juices in terms of nutrition, then look at those particular criteria.

I agree with most dieticians that any juices should only be consumed in moderation. Most juices, including MonaVie has high sugar levels, and often, low levels of fiber.

Whole fruits and vegetables are far better. Somewhere, sometime, people started getting the idea that drinking juices is somehow superior to actually taking a bite and chewing a piece of fruit.

Bottom line is eat whole fruits and vegetables, drink juices only in moderation. Avoid juice scams such as MonaVie.

Thanks for coming Chris. I will only speak to your point about the spelling, because I don’t have much to say about your other points.

I’ve seen the label. MonaVie most certainly could having spacing and/or the period in their link text. See Mona Vie and Mona•Vie. It’s fairly basic HTML. If their webmaster can’t manage that, they really shouldn’t have a website.

Where is the Men’s Journal report on the study?

How many ounces of Monavie did they test? 1 oz? So 1 oz of juice compared to 8 oz? They should of tested 2-4 oz.

Was the bottle a newly opened bottle?

Where are the specifics of this study…..

Did they test it on humans and do a cell based study? Some of these juices could of tested higher for certain things but do they penetrate the cells like Monavie has already proven to do? They also didn’t even mention the vegetable based glucosamine that Monavie uses which is very high quality as well as the esterified fatty acids it contains. That was not mentioned at all.

The Men’s journal test leaves alot to be desired in my opinion

Have a good weekend everyone!

Actually Steve has a mildly interesting point here. Too bad it was brought up in the comments before him…

It seems that Men’s Journal is testing the serving sizes on the label of all juice. This seems fair to me because it is also giving a price per serving. So if you want Men’s Journal to use 2-4 ounces, expect them to also factor in the price per serving to be $2.40 to $4.80.

Since Men’s Journal commissioned an independent testing lab, I think it’s reasonable to assume that all juices were tested amongst the same circumstances. I think by getting an independent lab to do the testing the Men’s Journal is the most accurate test to date. Steve, if you can find a better independent comparison of MonaVie and other juices to date, please submit it. I would love to take it into account.

The reason why the Men’s Journal article did not mention glucosamine is because it is an additive to the juice. One can simply add glucosamine to one’s diet through other means very cheaply.

It should be noted that Men’s Journal did a tremendous favor to MonaVie by not using the suggested retail price of $1.80.

The lab was chosen by the MonaVie distributor. Phytonutrient testing is only done by a handful of labs in the U.S. Chromadex is one of them. They are certified and their reputation is excellent, unlike MonaVie. The distributor received a copy of the results as well, so he had the option of sharing as well.

The results have been released previously.

Unless you have a science background (judging from your comments, you don’t) they won’t make much sense to you.

When I say total phenolics, I mean just that. So, the answer to that question should be obvious. They tested for more anthocyanins than the AIBMR analysis.

Again, your lack of knowledge in this area is obvious when you ask if they tested for all phytonutrients. There are thousands, so no they did not. AIBMR did not, and no lab would waste that type of time and money on a wild goose chase. There is absolutely no reason to believe that the phytonutrient profile of MonaVie is any more beneficial than any other combination of produce. If MonaVie believes different, they can fund another study. They will not, of course.

In fact, the opposite may be true. We don’t know what types of toxins may be produced by combining these types of products. The FDA is currently evaluating possible regulations involving foreign products with little history in the food industry. They should have done this a long time ago. Plants are nothing more than a combination of chemicals. We don’t know if this particular combination has any potential carcinogenic tendencies or not.

I’m not answering any more questions on glucosamine. They’ve been answered before. Asking the same ones over is very juvenile.

“Scam, Monavie has advised me that further tests are coming in the future but would not give me a timetable.”

When you say that “Monavie advised” you, presumably you meant that you spoke with a person at the company and not that a bottle of Monavi was talking to you.

How about someone in this organization taking responsibility for their claims for once, so that if/when we find out that they’re lying, we’ll have someone to hang for it. Talk to a senior person, get their name, position and contact number, and then come back and try to make your point.

Steve said: “…even if you got a positive test you probably wouldn’t reveal it because you are at the point of no return in your argument…Also please post these results that you did so we have evidence.”

That’s a rude and uwarranted accusation. I can see how this is playing out. You accuse Food Tech of ignoring/supressing data, demand evidence, and then when it is presented and you see that the results do not jibe with your immutable opinions, you will arbitrarily dismiss it, while failing to acknowledge your own blatant hypocrisy.

Bitter party of how many??…The bottem line is that there are many products available for the health conscious. Find the one that works for you….and stick to it. It is fact that MonaVie is VERY good for a majority of the public…and it can also help with those interested in a business that can take them away from corporate crap. Bitter party of ONE…signing off.

Chromadex is lying about its top guns on their own webstite – CEO “Frank Jaksch has management experience in analytical chemistry, diagnostics, sales and marketing, and general management experience with global industry leaders such as ICN Pharmaceutical and Phenomenex”

Excuse me, but ICN Pharmaceuticals was not a global industry leader. I worked there and never heard of that guy.

Info here is about the company which did its unbiased test of superjuices for Men’s Health Journal: ChromaDex Corporation (OTCBB: CDXC), a natural products chemistry company
which provides novel and innovative ingredients to the dietary supplement, food, beverage and cosmetic markets,
announced today The Frost Group, LLC, led by Miami entrepreneur and billionaire Dr. Phillip Frost, has agreed to make an investment in ChromaDex. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
The investment will allow ChromaDex to pursue clinical studies and commercialization for its new pTeroPure™
pterostilbene (http://www.pteropure.com/) as well as to continue development of several other novel natural ingredients. ChromaDex separately announced today its has entered into an exclusive worldwide license with the
University of Mississippi and the USDA Agricultural Research Service (“licensors”) for all patent rights of pterostilbene
(tero‐STILL‐bean), a promising botanical compound.
Pterostilbene, a derivative of resveratrol, is a botanical compound found in blueberries, grapes and other small fruits, as
well as the bark of some trees. In laboratory tests, pterostilbene has shown promise for improving cardiovascular health,
glucose levels, cognitive function, and possessing cancer‐fighting properties. Various scientific publications have shown
that pterostilbene has significantly higher activity compared to its brethren compound, resveratrol.

The company is interested in promoting its pterostilbene – which is found in grapes. No wonder Grape juice was ranked so high.

Food Tech – where are you hiding now?

Hmm, last week you claimed that Vemma paid for the study. Your new conspiracy theory is ChromaDex is unbiased. I wonder what it will be next week.

Your theory doesn’t make much sense. Do you think ChromaDex was just waiting for Men’s Journal to commission them for the test? Would ChromaDex risk it’s reputation, for something with no benefit for them? Even if it did, it wouldn’t want to help a company it potentially would be competing against.

It’s worth nothing that the 2nd fruit this MonaVie label is “white grape.” So your conspiracy theory about ChromaDex being biased towards grape juice doesn’t really hold. If true, it would rank MonaVie higher than other juices in the article.

Vemma could have paid for it anyway, but looking at ChromaDex one has to consider whether they were biased based on their interest in promoting their ingredient found in grapes. MV is their competitor with resveratrol too, so they had no interest to show MV in good light with any of their product. Is it not suprising for you that MV ranked so low, knowing what ingredients are in MV, knowing the rich texture, color and taste of the juice, considering that grape was number two ingredient? It is really easier for you to agree with Pharma and Food companies that they offer a better solution to the public than MV? Are grapes in Welch’ Grape juice organic – do they test them for pesticides?

Don’t you see you are a toy in the hands of big companies that are using your naivity? You based a lot of hypotheses regarding MV based on this great report. And now what? Maybe your great food expert can help you now – but tell us first what companies he worked previously for.
ChromaDex is now part of big pharma business, their CEO has lied about his previous experience being part of the global industry leader – Milan Panic was the big boss at ICN Pharmaceuticals – this was a company with big desires but unable to reach $1 Billion a year in sales – far from being a global leader in anything. When I first looked at MV I compared this company to ICN from the time they were similar in size and was amazed at how it was possible for a juice company to surpass this $1 Billion when I knew that for ICN it was impossible despite of having so many drugs, and royalties for ribavirin for Hep C treatment. It was amazing to me also how many more top sales people made great money in MV compared to ICN.

If ChromaDex lie about previous management experience of their CEO, how can you trust anything they say – is this not a logic you use here on this website all the time? I don’t trust this company to be unbiased in this situation.

All the time you come up with much stronger conclusions based on weaker data – so live with that.

This Men’s Health Journal report sucks – biased company promoted their own interest.

You asked for it. Read this carefully. It confirms what I said about other things being responsible for acai benefits that cannot be measured easily. This is why the report in Men’s Health Journal is flawed for products containing acai.

From one the latest studies: “Anti-oxidant capacities of flavonoid compounds isolated from acai pulp”. Kang et al published in Food Chemistry 122 (2010)

Anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins are considered major anti-oxidants in fruits, but their concentrations are relatively low in acai (Schauss et al., 2006b). The contributions of the anthocyanins to the overall anti-oxidant capacities of acai were estimated to be only approximately 10% (Lichtenthäler et al., 2005). A recent paper also suggested that the components other than anthocyanins in acai contributed to antiproliferative activity against C-6 rat brain the major polyphenols in acai (Gallori et al., 2004; Schauss et al., 2006b). Many studies have demonstrated that flavonoids have
strong anti-oxidant activities and anti-inflammatory properties (Beara et al., 2009; Leong et al., 2010; Li et al., 2009). However, very few studies have determined the anti-oxidant capacity of individual polyphenol compounds found in acai pulp. There is only one
study that has primarily studied lignans (Chin, Chai, Keller, & Kinghorn, 2008).

On the other hand, due to given limitations in analytical procedures, flavonoids have only been tentatively identified by HPLC or mass spectrometric methods, resulting in many flavonoids in the pulp remaining unidentified, much less determined for possible bioactivity.

Therefore, the first objective of this study was to identify the major flavonoid compounds in acai pulp. Systemic isolation and fractionation in freeze-dried acai pulp is being reported in this paper. Seven flavones and their C-glycosides were obtained from
freeze-dried acai pulp and their structures were elucidated by NMR, MS and the results compared to the literature. Among them,
two compounds were identified in acai pulp for the first time.

The vast majority of studies that assess anti-oxidant capacities of acai and other anti-oxidant rich fruits and berries have utilised chemical-based assays. Unfortunately, such assays do not reflect or correlate with the test item’s cellular response.

The second objective of this study was to evaluate the anti-oxidant capacities of these flavonoids with one chemical-based assay and two cellbased assays: ORAC, CAP-e assay and ROS PMN assay. By doing these additional assays, we hope to understand not only their in vitro anti-oxidant capacities, but also their behaviours in living cells to reduce oxidative stress.

If I were you I would be worried for making all your accusations without merit. Maybe they will try to get you for the third time. I hope they will. Vogel – Beware of the paper tiger. You’re screwed – where is your Food Tech – hiding somewhere already? Chew on this – eat a lot of apples – you will need them to reduce oxidative stress I just created for you.

I’m not sure why Tom continues to treat Monavie like it’s acai – considering it’s not.

I think the only oxidative stress that’s occurred is to Tom’s brain while he cut and paste that information.

You’d be better off eating an apple given Monavie is doing nothing to improve your thought processes…

This is all you can come up with? Pathetic!
Biological response modifiers – this is what makes scientists excited about acai.

You are basing your knowledge on the previous research that does not show acai cellular activity. [Editor's Note: This is simply untrue. I only ask for a comprehensive independent comparative study of the end product. Acai is irrelevant when almost the vitamins and minerals are stripped out of the end product.] Do you think that MV could have not provided Dr Schauss with the improved version of the juice if it wanted to cheat like you suggest they would in their own study? [Editor's Note: Dr. Schauss isn't against cheating anyway. He used 4 ounces of MonaVie (which is double the recommended amount and 4 servings so that he could get the results he wanted.] So drop this stupidity! Use scientific analysis. There is obviously more to acai, and acai contained in MV products. [Editor's Note: According the Food Matters movie that Tom loves to talk about there are only a couple of dozen nutrients. There isn't more to acai.] Much of the stuff you wrote was based on very little content of acai in MV. This was your main assumption of all your lies. [Editor's Note: I should add that MonaVie is mathematically proven to have little freeze-dried acai. Tom does not debate the simple high school (or middle school) math with his MBA degree] Now you totally ignore the fact that there could be around 25% of acai in US formula because you are not ready to accept it. [Editor's Note: No, I'm perfectly happy to accept it if MonaVie is willing to own up to it. They are still on record as saying that it's one their biggest trade secret and they aren't releasing that information.] Your whole line of thinking would be proved wrong. Where is your Food Tech expert now? Unable to comment – or he understood that by staying with his point of view he will lose his credibility.

Why would anyone else not study freeze-dried acai? Because it is patented! [Editor's Note: That patent apparently doesn't apply to the ton of products here. And the studies with Dr Schauss focus on freeze-dried acai that MonaVie uses [Editor's Note: again less than 2% of MonaVie. Fact that Dr Schauss is on most of these studies, only proves to me what other people already know that Dr Schauss is the world renowned expert on acai. [Editor's Note: Or that MonaVie is funding the studies so that a "pyramid marketing company" can sound like it science means something. That's a Forbes quote about a similarly-structured juice scam XanGo.] Other scientists from National Institute of Health, or USDA,or any other research institutions do not have problem with them, but you – the great expert – do! [Editor's Note: Because they can't be bothered with such an insignificant study. Bring together a few hundred people. Use actual serving sizes of MonaVie. Give another group some blueberries instead of MonaVie. Have one group take a multivitamin. Schauss isn't showing the scientific community anything new, so they are content to continue with their research and let him play in his sandbox.]

MonaVie Scam – nothing is proved regarding how much of freeze-dried acai is included in MV!!! These are only your calculations that fit flawed way of thinking! I do not have time to dissect them now. I think they are irrelevant. [Editor's Note: I take back the above about Tom not using his MBA on the math - he hasn't had time because he's been going on about acai. Actually, they are not only "my" calculations. They came from a commenter. I checked the math out and it makes sense. No one has debunked it yet and a few have vetted it for accuracy. It only makes sense that if freeze-dried acai has a ORAC score of 1000+ it can not be prevalent in a juice that has been tested to have an ORAC score of around 22mg/ml.]

Based on European formula which has 25% overall content of acai, US formula could be similar in the amount of acai. I have no reason not to believe that majority of acai used in MV is not freeze-dried. [Editor's Note: I gave you the reason why the majority of the acai is not freeze-dried. That's your reason not to believe it.]

From British label of MV Original:
(GB) Ingredients: water, acai juice (25%), concentrated fruit juice (apple, grape, pear, pineapple, craberry, passion fruit, elderberry, prune, kiwi, blueberry, blackberry, wolfberry, cherry, pomergranate, lychee), fruit pulp (acerola, pear, banana, bilberry), acidity regulator E 303, natural fruit flavour, preservatives E 202 and E 211.

[Editor's Note: It's interesting that the British label doesn't even mention any freeze-dried or acai pulp like the US label. Also the British label shows water as the first ingredient as Food Tech and others have suspected is missing from the US label for some time. How much water is added? One would need to know that too as one can always add more water to dilute the product and produce more of it.]

Some more interesting stuff from the paper published recently:

“Conclusions
In this study, seven flavonoids (flavones and their C-glycosides)were isolated and structurally identified from freeze-dried acai pulp. Vitexin and quercetin (3 and 6) were reported from acai pulp for the first time. Our data confirmed that flavonoids are major polyphenols in acai pulp. In order to determine the major anti-oxidants in acai pulp, the anti-oxidant capacities of these flavonoids were evaluated with one chemical-based assay and two cell-based assays: ORAC, CAP-e assay and ROS PMN assay.
However, anti-oxidant capacities of these compounds varied significantly based on their chemical structures and the assays used. In general, flavonoid aglycones showed not only higher anti-oxidant capacities than their C-glycosides, but also the ability to penetrate into living cells. Except for sugar moieties, the methoxy group appears to be another important structural factor that could lead to dramatic changes of flavonoids in terms of their anti-oxidant capacity and the ability to penetrate into living cells.
Due to the complexity of the anti-oxidant defense system in the body, a single anti-oxidant assay cannot reflect all aspects of activities of a given compound. In evaluating the anti-oxidant capacities of natural products, combining both chemical and cell-based assays will provide a useful approach towards understanding the anti-oxidant effects of natural compounds and their biological relevance to any health benefits observed in vivo. Such combined use of assays may prevent premature conclusions being made about which compounds are responsible for a foods biological effects, based on reliance of chemical assays.”

You’re losing your argument again. Deal with this. I would not be surpirsed if one day Dr Schauss gets Noble price for his work on acai – one of the most interesting fruits in the world.

[Editor's Note: There some good information about the CAP-e assay in comments 27 on here. It is something this site should perhaps delve deeper into this. It's worth noting that Wikipedia gives credit to Schauss for coming up with this test and that "To date, the assay has been used in 2 published studies, both conducted by AIBMR and Holger NIS." Perhaps that's a little out of date (it is Wikipedia after all), but it's hard to say CAP-e assay has much credibility in the medical community.

So that leaves us with the ROS PMN assay. I don't have much time to study that now... but I think that since we can BS on two of the three tests... this doesn't really add up to much of anything. Especially since MonaVie was not involved in any of this study.]

Don’t you see you act like Inquisition – prosecuting science to defend the current world order? Let go, MonaVie Scam! Don’t be like a boat which is anchored when the tide is rising. [Editor's Note: Again, this research is headed up by one person, funded by MonaVie, who got his degree from California Coast University, which is a non-classroom, non-laboratory, correspondence "school" (to borrow Food Tech's words. He is using tests that he made up which no one else uses on products not significantly related to MonaVie in any way. Don't pretend this is neutral science.]

If MV was not about acai why would MV invite Dr Schauss to be on their scientific board? This is ridiculous. [Editor's Note: For MonaVie to be successful, it has to give an illusion to its workforce (distributors) that justifies spending $40 (or even $20) on it. Most of that workforce doesn't dissect these reports Schauss puts out and thinks, "Wow that sounds impressive."

Anybody who drinks MV knows without a doubt that the juice they drink is rich in phytonutrients. We all can see what is inside of the bottle, can feel the thick texture, and taste which is great - unless someone is blinded like yourself who writes about something that he does not really know or tries on a regular basis.

How is this pushing more weight to Sambazon? If Sambazon is going to benefit from this research - are you suggesting that Sambazon uses acai purchased from Earth Fruits LLC? Nobody is buying freeze-dried acai that MV is buying - it is patented - if they buy something from Earth Fruits LLC (as this is the source of freeze-dried acai for the plant material for this study) it is the lower grade material - could be organic if this is what they claim.

[Editor's Note: Sambazon quantifies how much acai is in their drinks (at least some of it) and it is certified organic. If it turns out that acai is all that you say it is, one would be silly to go with all the filler ingredients in MonaVie.]

Tom, I read the abstract In Food Chemistry magazine.

I noticed that you “accidently” left out a key point from the article. It lists the ORAC value from acai pulp (the pulp may or may not even be what is used in MonaVie) as varying from 1420 to 14800 umole TE/gm.

This is important, because it can give us a rough idea of how much acai is even in the product.

MonaVie’s ORAC is valued at 22.81 umole TE/gm. (AIBMR). So, diluting the acai down with water and other ingredients, you’ve gone from 1420 or 14800 down to a mere 22.81!

The anthocyanin level drops from 3.19 to 0.177 mg/gm. (Schauss/AIBMR)

Just using these two values, we know that what little acai may be in the product, contributes almost nothing to MonaVie’s nutritional profile.

Again, I’ll use this simple analogy: Throwing an orange into a swimming pool isn’t going to give you orange juice.

Tom we keep pointing out the same heralded point over and over again, because you miss the straight math that proves why your acai studies are pointless. There’s little acai in MonaVie.

It doesn’t matter if ORAC is important or not… it is something that can be measured consistently with regard to acai and MonaVie. If acai ranks really high and MonaVie ranks really low, there’s not much acai. Tom says he has an MBA… I guess he can’t figure out it doesn’t matter if one holding in his portfolio has a 10,000% return (really good), if his overall portfolio’s return is 3%. As an MBA he should know that means that one holding with the 10,000% return is a very small part of his portfolio. He’s trying to wash this issue under the table as a pointless hypothesis, because he knows it’s true and he can’t argue the point. The burden of proof is on MonaVie showing a study that justifies its premium price over other forms of antioxidants such as other juices, eating a variety of fruit, and taking multivitamins. They notably prevented all subjects from having any antioxidants in their diet to create an unnatural deficient that is not representative of MonaVie’s customer-base (people interested in their health)

Tom it is HUGE lie that the studied showed without a doubt any of those things that you mentioned above. Read the studies conclusions where they say there are doubts (i.e. paraphrasing, but “more studies need to be conducted” – ones that were never conducted) and that fruit in general would have similar benefits (that’s your apple theory for you right there).

Based on the label info in UK – it is clearly said there is 25% acai in the bottle of ACTIVE – Food Tech also said that he accepts that ORAC values of acai can differ –

Everybody who drinks MV noticed that often taste and content varies. This is normal with products biologically active. Wines vary in taste too based on the harvest place and type of grape used.

So why don’t you accept that ORAC values of MV vary too? Go and do another test or stop refering to the one from 2006 as something set in stone.

Why don’t you say anything about biological response modifiers? You have no clue?

Why don’t you answer the following questions I posted earlier:
1) do you have any studies to show in vivo anti-oxidant capacity of your famous apples? [Editor's Note: Tom has no relevant studies on MonaVie either. The closest one is this obviously flawed one The Multitude of Problems with Schauss’ “Double-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled Study” on MonaVie.]
2) is it possible that MV ORAC varies based on what you noticed regarding variability of acai ORAC values?
3) what are your comments about cell-based assays that were done in that Food Technology study?
4) can you say with any degree of certainty that study done by ChromaDex for Men’s Health Journal is not biased given the company interest promoting its own ingredient found in grapes, and inadequate measuring techniques for antioxidant capacity of acai given the biological activity of acai?
5) As you appear to be main food technology expert for MonaVie Scam could you provide your own credentials?

Vogel did not prove anything regarding MV’s purchasing lower grade acai puree – Earth Fruit is owned by MV as is able to produce high quality products, including freeze-dried powder both organic and conventional, frozen acai pulp – Bella Iasa is also state-of-art producer of acai. Why would MV need to buy something lower quality – just because you say so? If you say to save cost you are bullshitting – The cost od product is not that high even with the freeze-drying process which adds most to the cost.

First, I am not the “main food technology expert” for MonaVie scam. I offer my expertise in the area that I am qualified. That is food science. I have a MS in Food Science from UC Davis, in California. I have worked as a food scientist, in varying degrees for over 30 years. Five of those years in a fruit juice production plant.

You seem to be having trouble grasping the issue of discussion here. It’s not the antioxidant bioavailability of acai. It’s the question: How much, if any, acai is in MonaVie?

Without doing a complete profile on acai and HPLC analysis, which is pointless, all we need to do is look at what has already been tested. ORAC, which is documented in the acai freeze-dried powder and in the pulp (not the puree), and anthocyanins, the major polyphenol found in acai.

As I’ve pointed out numerous times already, if you start off with a high ORAC and anthocyanin level in the acai, but analysis shows low ORAC and anthocyanin levels in the finished product (MonaVie), the conclusion is quite simple. The acai has been diluted by water and other ingredients so much, as to be considered negligible in the product nutritional profile.

Either, you have some type of comprehension issue, or you are just trying to blow smoke to cover what’s obvious to rational readers of this forum.

You need to deal with the simple points I have made before attempting to rave about the benefits of acai. Until you do so, anything you bring up acai-related becomes a moot point.

In my opinion, what makes fruit nutritious to our body is not just the amount of polyphenols found in fruit but in vivo anti-oxidant activity that fruit has. As anti-oxidants we need are only found in plants so we need to make sure that we eat these fruits that give us the best leverage and in cell activity.

However, perhaps some of the points you made about how low MV tested in certain tests prompted MV product management to work harder to bring some changes. MV came up with reformulated formula that should help alleviate some of the concerns you and other people expressed here.

From the website of reformulated MV Original:

“THE PREMIER AÇAI BLEND®

Now fortified with new superfruits, beneficial fiber, and key vitamins A, C, and E, MonaVie Essential is a delicious blend of body-beneficial fruits and is designed to nourish your body with powerful antioxidants and nutrients.

AçaVie is an antioxidant packed ingredient that combines our patented açai and juçara freeze-dried powder and puree with Enlivenox™, a proprietary açai compound boasting 10 times more polyphenols than traditional açai.”

So, here is the answer to your crying – are you happy? And learn something about biological response modifiers as your old testing methods are not adequate for products containing acai.

I’m beginning to think that Tom has feathers and is fed crackers – particularly considering his inability to present any type of argument outside of what is provided within Monavie literature or beyond parroting what Monavie have taught him…

My husband’s Monavie dealer says it costs $4.00 per day for the recommended 4 ounces. But the cost is $35.00 for a 25.35 oz. bottle. That calculates to $5.52 per day. So far his only noticeable result is diarrhea. So I don’t know how “Men’s Journal” figured that MonaVie cost $1.20 per serving. My Welch’s Grape Juice from concentrate only costs about half that reported in the “Men’s Journal,” $.30. So the report is as questionable as the Monavie claims. I’m still looking for meaningful info on Monavie. At any rate Monavie costs way too much.