I found out pretty quickly that there’s a product on the market called Benecol Smart Chews. You can buy 120 of them at that link for $28.99 at the time of this publishing. There might be more options available, but I chose this product because it was the first that I found.

Looking at Benecol Smart Chews, each chew has 0.85g of plant stanol esters. That makes Benecol Smart Chews $0.24 for 0.85g of plant stanols.

It’s worth comparing that to MonaVie Pulse. On one website (that I won’t mention here), I saw the market price for MonaVie Pulse to be $45.25. However, they were having a sale and a single bottle was $37.25. One bottle of MonaVie Pulse is around 25 ounces (750ml). According to MonaVie’s approved claims “Two servings of MonaVie Pulse juice (4 oz) supply 0.8g of plant sterols.” So one bottle (25 ounces) provides 6 servings (4oz) which are each 0.8g of plant sterols. At the SALE price per bottle, MonaVie Pulse is about $6.21 per 0.8g of plant sterols.

It looks like Benecol is the clear winner as I’d much rather spend $0.24 for slightly more cholesterol fighting power than MonaVie Pulse’s $6.21 price. However, I should note that the website selling MonaVie Pulse did have a bulk purchase option. If you wanted to spend $232, you could get 8 bottles of MonaVie Pulse… $29 a bottle. Even in this amount of bulk purchasing it is $4.83 per 0.8g of plant sterols. I don’t want to think about the costs of shipping 8 bottles that have to be added to that. I’d still rather pay the $0.24 with the free shipping from Amazon.

Plant Stanol Esters vs. Plant Sterol Esters

One thing that you might have noticed above is that one is plant stanols and the other is plant sterols. The stanol/sterol thing was confusing to me at first, but it seems that both are effectively the same in reducing cholesterol to the point where the same cholesterol claims can be legally made.

If you are looking for to lower your cholesterol through the use food, the choose is clear… Benecol Smart Chews are the way to go.

MonaVie Pulse is Inferior to Medicine

Many MonaVie distributors claim that MonaVie’s products are superior to medicine. It’s worth noting that MonaVie itself does not agree with this. From MonaVie’s Black Diamond University here is a list of claims (in quotes):

• MonaVie Pulse is not a substitute for medications – (Part 1) – “MonaVie products (including Pulse) are not intended to replace or mimic the activity, effects, or benefits of drugs or medications. Do not substitute or replace your medication(s) with MonaVie Pulse.”
• MonaVie Pulse not a substitute for medications – (Part 2) – Do not use MonaVie Pulse as an alternative to physician consultation or advice.
• MonaVie Pulse Not Effective against “Serious” Cholesterol Problems – MonaVie Pulse does not cure, treat, mitigate, or prevent serious cholesterol problems.
• MonaVie Pulse is Intended for People without Heart or Cholesterol Problems – “MonaVie Pulse is intended for healthy people, not for people with heart or cholesterol diseases.”

So to recap the above, MonaVie Pulse does not replace medications – because it’s completely inferior to medications. It can not help with serious cholesterol problems… is that because it’s not very effective against cholesterol?

With that said, here are a couple of other claims on plant sterols:

MonaVie Pulse and Plant Sterols

• MonaVie Pulse’s Plant Sterols not that Effective – (Part 1) – “The plant sterol activity, effects, and benefits in MonaVie Pulse as it relates to heart health and cholesterol are significantly less than that found in drugs.”
• MonaVie Pulse’s Plant Sterols not that Effective – (Part 2) – “Foods containing at least 0.4 g per serving of plant sterols, eaten twice a day with meals for a daily total intake of at least 0.8 g, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease. Two servings (4 oz) of MonaVie Pulse juice supply 0.8 g of plant sterols.”

This reinforces the above that MonaVie Pulse is inferior to medications. Also using the second claim, “Two servings (4 oz) of MonaVie Pulse juice supply 0.8 g of plant sterols.” we can do a little math to figure out potentially how effective MonaVie is.

From this SparkPeople article: “Consuming 1.8 to 2.8 grams of plant sterols and plant stanols per day over a period of 4 weeks to 3 months significantly lowered total cholesterol in participants by 7%-11%.” So considering that MonaVie Pulse has 44% of the lower amount of that range (0.8 grams of plant sterols is 44% of the 1.8 quoted), one may reason that it would have the 44% of the effect of the lower amount. That turns out to be a 3.1% effect in lowering cholesterol.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that lowering your cholesterol 3.1% is fairly insignificant. However, more importantly, there are cheaper ways to get plant stanols/sterols so you can get the amount in the studies without breaking your wallet.