# Juice Plus?



## pb_and_j (Feb 13, 2003)

Has anyone tried this? Does anyone have thoughts on this? Obviously, the best way to get nutrition is from whole foods, but try as I might, my kids do not eat as many veggies as they should (they're pretty good about fruits though).

Any thoughts on this while pg or bfing??

Thanks


----------



## FLDoula (Mar 16, 2002)

We take Juice Plus every day and I love it. It has done wonders for my children's health. They were getting sick all of the time, and about 4 or 5 months after putting them on Juice Plus their sickness was almost nonexistant. My husband takes it too.

I would look into putting your children and you on it seriously. It is great stuff. It is recommended by Dr. William Sears . If you go to his website at
www.askdrsears.com you can put Juice Plus in and you will see why he recommends it.

As far as you questions on pregnancy, I have a pdf file I can send you on a study that was done on it (retrospective) that spurred a full scale study at the University of Mississippi on pregnancy and Juice Plus. PM me if you want it sent to you with your actual email address.


----------



## guestmama9924 (Mar 16, 2002)

FLDoula, you sell juice plus right? And I think Dr. Sears does as well? Not trying to be snarky, just as fellow doulas , we know that you have to consider the sources for things right?








PB J, it is hard to find sources that are not funded by or sold by the company. Search the archives if you have time, this has been discussed several times.


----------



## FLDoula (Mar 16, 2002)

Yes, I am a distributor but signed up for the discount. I am a doula and medical transciptionist by trade!  I am not trying to push it, just trying to give info for those that ask questions. I did my fair share of research and am happy with what I found. The majority of the products that I took before had no research on them and I had nothing to read about them other than what I was told. I actually have seen the research and the conclusions on the research and this is what I needed in order to feel safe putting my children and myself on the product. I don't want to chance putting myself on something that is just "good for you" based on a "testimonial."

As far as Dr. Sears, he does sell it now but he did not use to. He took it first, as do most of the doctors that are recommending it.

As far as the research, I wondered too why it was funded by the company. Seemed strange. However, when you think about any research money is going to come from somewhere. If you are trying to get a prescription on the market for arthritis, etc., it has to be tested first. The manufacturer of that product has to provide the money for testing.

Just my thoughts.


----------



## pb_and_j (Feb 13, 2003)

Thanks for the info! I'll do a search for it here too... probably should have done that first... oops









I have read a lot about it, read what Dr Sears has to say. There does seem to be some "push" to it when ppl talk about it, so I'm trying to get past that and talk to ppl who use it and don't sell it. lol It's pretty spendy to put several ppl on it at once (like if dh and I both did it in addition to the kids it would be over $100 a mo... that's more than we can afford).

I think I do want to at least put the kiddos on it and possibly myself. We're going to ttc next mo so I was interested in using it during pg. FLDoula, I'm going to pm you about that study


----------



## Artmama (Apr 30, 2004)

I think GreensFirst is by far a superior product in every possible way. Just my opinion!


----------



## DLsGroovyMoM (May 7, 2006)

ftv


----------



## Brenda Damachuk (May 14, 2006)

I found this rather long but very interesting comment on the Juice Plus study conducted by Doug Odom in Mississippi:

"OK, let's talk about the JANA article. First, Doug Odom was the lead author, and not only does he have a financial interest in the product, he even has a video testimonial on the JP website. He is obviously not an unbiased investigator. He also has no experience or credentials whatsoever in conducting clinical research and has never published a clinical trial before. Secondly, if this study had any value whatsoever it would not have been published in JANA. That is a very low-level journal that will publish things that reputable journals would not touch with a 10 ft pole. I would be ashamed to publish anything in JANA. Third, this material was first presented in October 2003 and yet was not published until April 2006. Why? If it was so important, why did it take almost 3 years to publish? It makes me wonder how many other journals rejected this manuscript before the authors realized that JANA was their only hope. OK, now the design issues. This was a retrospective study (a study in which historical data is collected from patient charts). Retrospective studies are generally crap, or at least they are given far less weight than prospective studies (i.e. studies in which patients are enrolled and monitored and data is collected in real time). Odom's article is a good example of a poor retrospective study. No details were given about how many files were reviewed before they culled it down to the 356 cases presented. The study used charts from 178 patients who took JP and 178 who did not. What they didn't tell you was how many other charts from patients that took JP were not included (i.e. if they wanted to ensure a successful outcome for their study, they would select only charts from patients who showed good outcomes and would exclude charts from patients who showed a poor response on JP). The study also does not list any inclusion or exclusion criteria (i.e. patient characteristics that would qualify or disqualify them for participation), which would absolutely be expected for a clinical study of this type. Now here is another critical question; was there any monitoring of the subjects diets? The answer is no! So it's impossible to say that any effects observed were due to Juice Plus rather than differences in diet. Here's another critical oversight that shows how pathetic this study is. Did they report how many subjects were taking prenatal vitamins or any other type of supplment? The answer is no, they did not. Furthermore, did they report whether the subjects who said they took JP actually took it? No because they did not monitor adherence. These are crucial oversights. Now how about the results? Well, in contrast to what Bakerswife said, this paper only shows two p-values. For average gestational age, they show a p-value greater than 0.0001. We can't tell if this p-value is less than 0.05 (the level of significance); all we know is that it is greater than 0.0001. The only other p-value listed was 0.0003 for birth weight, which qualifies as significant. So, only two p-values were listed, only one of which indicated significance, and yet the authors state in the discussion that JP "significantly decreased the rate of complications, such as preterm labor, birth before 37 weeks, preeclampsia, NICU admissions, and infant respiratory distress syndrome". In fact, this statement is false; they did not show a significant difference for preterm labor, birth before 37 weeks, preeclampsia, NICU admissions, or infant respiratory distress syndrome. It would be surprising if an error like that ever went uncaught in a good journal but it is not at all surprising for a bad journal like JANA. There are so many good reasons to discount this study; take your pick from the list above. But I think the aspect that really bothers me the most is Odom's involvement and degree of control in the study. Odom recommends the product to certain patients, Odom decides which case files are to be included in the study (and most likely he arbitrarily rejected ones that were not favorable to Juice Plus), Odom makes the assessments of patient's outcomes, and Odom reviews the data. There is just too much room for this study to be influenced by Odom and his agenda to profit from Juice Plus. All these reasons I have described serve to highlight why this study appeared in JANA (an embarrassingly bad journal) instead of a reputable journal like the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, or JAMA, etc. And lastly, I'll leave you with an alternative interpretation of Odom's hypothesis that illustrates why retrospective studies are so weak. Let's say there was a difference in some outcome measured in this study which the authors attributed to JP. Who do you think would be most likely to buy and take JP? If you answered "people with money" you are probably correct. So essentially, wealthier people are more likely to take JP, and poorer people are less likely to take it. What's the single most important factor that correlates with fruit and vegetable intake among Americans, aside from educational level? If you answered income, you are correct. So wealthy people are more likely to buy JP, but they are also far more likely to eat more daily servings of fruits and vegetables and to have better overall health and nutritional status. This study did not consider baseline health status, income, or the level of education of the patients (and the authors even admitted that educational status could have been higher among the JP takers). This is just another lousy JP study that seeks not to learn the truth but to create a new lever for manipulating people to take JP and to make guys like Doug Odom wealthier. I would be furious if anyone ever tried to push this scandalous garbage on any pregnant woman I know. Let's close with a horrifying quote that I found on the internet which was attributed to Dr. Odom: "I cannot convince all of my patients to spend a little over $40 a month for Juice Plus. Over the past year I have almost come to the point that if they don't take it that they need to go find another physician." He is actually threatening to not treat his patients that refuse to take Juice Plus. Does that sound impartial to you? What are we to think of a physician who would say something like that, other than that he should be reported to the AMA?"


----------



## Panserbjorne (Sep 17, 2003)

Wow, Amy. That's horrifying. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I personally don't think (not that anyone has said this) that JP is harmful, I just think it's a waste of money. I also don't like that they lie (or exaggerate greatly) alot of their info. There are many superior products out there that aren't anywhere near the cost.


----------

