Juice Plus is a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

ed line of

dietary supplement A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement one's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sources or that are synthetic in order ...

s. It is produced by

Natural Alternatives International Natural Alternatives International (NAI) is an American company based in Carlsbad, California which manufactures nutritional supplements such as Juice Plus. NAI was founded in 1980 by Mark A. LeDoux, and had 241 employees in 2007. NAI's manufactur ...

San Marcos, California San Marcos ( ; Spanish for " St. Mark") is a city in the North County region of San Diego County, California. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 94,833. It is the site of California State University San Marcos. The city is bordere ...

, for National Safety Associates (NSA;

Collierville, Tennessee Collierville is a town in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and a suburb located in the Memphis metropolitan area. With a population of 51,324 in the 2020 census, Collierville is the third largest municipality in the county after Memphis ...

). Introduced in 1993, the supplements are distributed by NSA via

multi-level marketing Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling th ...

. Juice Plus supplements contain fruit and vegetable juice extracts with added vitamins and nutrients. There is no good evidence that Juice Plus offers health benefits. Many marketing claims made about Juice Plus products are false or misleading.

History

Foundation and early marketing

National Safety Associates was founded in 1970 by Jay Martin, a schoolteacher-turned-entrepreneur, who continued as CEO as of 2012. NSA initially sold home fire-protection equipment via door-to-door salespeople. In the late 1970s, they expanded into

water filtration A water filter removes impurities by lowering contamination of water using a fine physical barrier, a chemical process, or a biological process. Filters cleanse water to different extents, for purposes such as: providing agricultural irrigation ...

products. In 1986, they began using

, then expanding their product line to

air filter A particulate air filter is a device composed of fibrous, or porous materials which removes solid particulates such as dust, pollen, mold, and bacteria from the air. Filters containing an adsorbent or catalyst such as charcoal (carbon) may als ...

s and educational games for pre-schoolers. In 1991, it was claimed that their sales structure constituted a

ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...

. In 1993, the

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

's office followed up on complaints that the company was deceptively requiring new distributors to make large upfront purchases of air and water filters. Each of the 32,000 distributors in Florida purchased an average of $7,000 worth of water filters, and many of these distributors were unable to sell all of them. The company's business in the United States decreased that year, requiring the layoff of dozens of employees. NSA later expanded its business outside the United States, and according to the company, was selling products in 33 countries as of 2000. NSA stopped manufacturing and marketing its water filter product line in 2007.

Nutritional products

Juice Plus was NSA's first nutritional product, launched in 1993. The primary products in the Juice Plus line include "Orchard Blend" (a fruit juice powder-based supplement) and "Garden Blend" (vegetable juice powder-based) capsules, which are sold together in a four-month pack at a cost of approximately $167 USD (2009). Other supplement products available in the Juice Plus line as of 2011 included Vineyard Blend (grape/berry juice powder-based) capsules, Juice Plus Complete (meal replacement powder), Juice Plus Chewables (Orchard and Garden Blends), and Juice Plus Chewables (Vineyard Blend). Discontinued products include Juice Plus Gummies, Juice Plus Thins (wafers), chewable tablets, and a vitamin formulation for dogs and cats.

Manufacturing

The main ingredients in Juice Plus Orchard Blend and Garden Blend capsules (vegetable and fruit juices) are reduced to powder through a proprietary process by an unrelated supplier, and then blended and encapsulated by NAI, who produce the finished product. Juice Plus capsules are "enriched with pure β-carotene, ascorbic acid, vitamin E, and folic acid". According to the manufacturer these are added to restore the levels of micronutrients lost during processing and to ensure uniformity." Two NAI-sponsored studies mention that the fruit and vegetable powders in Juice Plus include standardized levels of natural

β-carotene β-Carotene is an organic, strongly coloured red-orange pigment abundant in fungi, plants, and fruits. It is a member of the carotenes, which are terpenoids (isoprenoids), synthesized biochemically from eight isoprene units and thus having 40 ...

derived from ''

Dunaliella salina ''Dunaliella salina'' is a type of halophile green unicellular micro-algae especially found in hypersaline environments, such as salt lakes and salt evaporation ponds. Known for its antioxidant activity because of its ability to create large a ...

'' and soy-derived d-α-tocopherol (vitamin E), which are supplied by the Henkel Corporation (now doing business as Cognis Corporation), and

ascorbic acid Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits and vegetables, also sold as a dietary supplement and as a topical 'serum' ingredient to treat melasma (dark pigment spots) an ...

derived from

acerola cherry ''Malpighia emarginata'' is a tropical fruit-bearing shrub or small tree in the family Malpighiaceae. Common names include acerola cherry, Guarani cherry, Barbados cherry, West Indian cherry, and wild crepe myrtle. Acerola is native to Para ...

, which is supplied by Schweizerhall Pharma.

ConsumerLab product testing

Juice Plus+ Garden Blend was tested by

ConsumerLab.com ConsumerLab.com, LLC. is a privately held American company registered in White Plains, NY. It is a publisher of test results on health, wellness, and nutrition products. Consumer Labs is not a laboratory, but contracts studies to outside laborator ...

in their ''Multivitamin and Multimineral Supplements Review'' of 38 of the leading multivitamin/multimineral products sold in the U.S. and Canada. Testing included amounts of selected index elements, their ability to disintegrate in solution per

United States Pharmacopeia The ''United States Pharmacopeia'' (''USP'') is a pharmacopeia (compendium of drug information) for the United States published annually by the United States Pharmacopeial Convention (usually also called the USP), a nonprofit organization that ...

guidelines, lead contamination threshold set in California Proposition 65, and meeting U.S.

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

(FDA) labeling requirements. Garden Blend failed ConsumerLab's test as it contained only 76.4% of its claimed calcium, which was noted was low to start (labeled as just 4% of the

Daily Value The Reference Daily Intake (RDI) used in nutrition labeling on food and dietary supplement products in the U.S. and Canada is the daily intake level of a nutrient that is considered to be sufficient to meet the requirements of 97–98% of health ...

per serving.) On 23 June 2011, ConsumerLab was informed of misinformation circulated by a Juice Plus distributor incorrectly stating the variation was due to the analytical method used. ConsumerLab responded that their analytic method used was ICP-MS (

Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is a type of mass spectrometry that uses an inductively coupled plasma to ionize the sample. It atomizes the sample and creates atomic and small polyatomic ions, which are then detected. It is ...

), a "highly precise and sensitive method of testing calcium". ConsumerLab also noted that the calcium deficiency in Juice Plus was confirmed with this method in two independent laboratories prior to publication of their Review.

Sales

Juice Plus products are marketed by individual distributors who receive sales commissions ranging from 6% (for enrolling five customers in 30 days) to 14% (for enrolling 20 customers in 30 days). Detailed sales figures for Juice Plus are not publicly available, but NSA representatives claimed that Juice Plus achieved monthly sales of $6 million USD in 1993 and that it was the company’s most successful new product. According to NSA vice-president John Blair, sales of Juice Plus in 2008 were "approaching 300 million but have leveled off due to economic factors."

Product research

National Safety Associates, the owner of Juice Plus, claim that it is "the next best thing to eating fruits and vegetables", containing the "nutritional essence of 17 different fruits, vegetables, and grains" with key phytonutrients and that the product is absorbed by the body, reduces oxidative stress, promotes cardiovascular wellness, supports a healthy immune system, and helps protect DNA. Multiple studies have produced conflicting results as to the truth of these claims. Doubts have been raised about the advertised benefits of Juice Plus by

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute– ...

, University of California Berkeley,

Center for Science in the Public Interest The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit watchdog and consumer advocacy group that advocates for safer and healthier foods. History and funding CSPI is a consumer advocacy organization. Its f ...

, and other sources. The product has been criticized on the basis that: its marketing is unsupported by research data, it contains too little fruit and vegetable powder to offer significant clinical benefits, its effects can be attributed to the inclusion of added

exogenous In a variety of contexts, exogeny or exogeneity () is the fact of an action or object originating externally. It contrasts with endogeneity or endogeny, the fact of being influenced within a system. Economics In an economic model, an exogeno ...

vitamins and micronutrients, and it is excessively priced relative to its potential benefits. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Clinic referred to Juice Plus as a "pricey supplement" that is "distributed through a multi-tiered marketing scheme with exaggerated value and cost." Of the published

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

studies on Juice Plus products, most were funded and/or authored by the manufacturer, Natural Alternatives International (NAI); or the main distributor, NSA.; and two were funded by individual Juice Plus distributors.

Nutrients and phytochemicals

Concerns have been raised that the nutrients in Juice Plus+ capsules may not be

bioavailable In pharmacology, bioavailability is a subcategory of absorption and is the fraction (%) of an administered drug that reaches the systemic circulation. By definition, when a medication is administered intravenously, its bioavailability is 100%. Ho ...

or effectively absorbed by the human body, and that some of the nutrients claimed to be in the products may not be present in significant amounts. Studies on nutrient absorption showed that subjects taking Juice Plus had elevated blood levels of

folate Folate, also known as vitamin B9 and folacin, is one of the B vitamins. Manufactured folic acid, which is converted into folate by the body, is used as a dietary supplement and in food fortification as it is more stable during processing and ...

and

, but the effects on blood levels of

vitamin E Vitamin E is a group of eight fat soluble compounds that include four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. Vitamin E deficiency, which is rare and usually due to an underlying problem with digesting dietary fat rather than from a diet low in vitami ...

and

vitamin C Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits and vegetables, also sold as a dietary supplement and as a topical 'serum' ingredient to treat melasma (dark pigment spots) an ...

were inconsistent. Some studies have shown significant increases in vitamin E and C levels, while other studies have shown much weaker effects on vitamin E and C levels, and that the levels of vitamin E and vitamin C are not significantly increased. Juice Plus was found to increase blood

lycopene Lycopene is an organic compound classified as a tetraterpene and a carotene. Lycopene (from the neo-Latin ''Lycopersicum'', the tomato species) is a bright red carotenoid hydrocarbon found in tomatoes and other red fruits and vegetables. Occu ...

levels in several studies, while other studies have indicated that Juice Plus does not raise blood levels of lycopene or other phytochemicals in fresh fruits and vegetables such as

lutein Lutein (;"Lutein"

zeaxanthin Zeaxanthin is one of the most common carotenoids in nature, and is used in the xanthophyll cycle. Synthesized in plants and some micro-organisms, it is the pigment that gives paprika (made from bell peppers), corn, saffron, goji ( wolfberries), ...

, and β-cryptoxanthin. Concerns have also been raised about the accuracy of product labeling. Three studies which included chemical analyses of Juice Plus have indicated nutrient amounts that differ from the amounts listed on the product labels. According to ''

Consumer Reports Consumer Reports (CR), formerly Consumers Union (CU), is an American nonprofit consumer organization dedicated to independent product testing, investigative journalism, consumer-oriented research, public education, and consumer advocacy. Founded ...

'', in 2005, National Safety Associates used advertising featuring Dr. William Sears (a distributor of Juice Plus products), which implied that Juice Plus Gummies were low in sugar and a nutritional alternative to fruits and vegetables. This claim resulted in consumer complaints to the

Better Business Bureau Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a private, 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization founded in 1912. BBB's self-described mission is to focus on advancing marketplace trust, consisting of 97 independently incorporated local BBB organizations in the Unit ...

's National Advertising Division (NAD). The BBB issued a complaint that NSA's claims were misleading, and as a result, NSA promised to modify its ads and stop calling Gummies "the next best thing to fruits and vegetables". The Juice Plus homepage continues to advertise Juice Plus as "the next best thing to fruits and vegetables"; the Gummies product has since been discontinued; the product "Chewables" has been introduced. In December 2007, the

(CSPI) filed a complaint with the

U.S. Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food s ...

(FDA) to "halt the marketing of NSA's Juice Plus Orchard Blend and Garden Blend capsules because the products appear to be adulterated and misbranded". CSPI said it was "concerned that the products' claim, ‘the next best thing to fruits and vegetables,’ may lead consumers to believe the pills are closer to real fruits and vegetables than is likely to be the case." According to CSPI, the labels say the capsules contain high levels of vitamins A and C and folate naturally, but "do not disclose that these vitamins and minerals are added to the capsules during processing and are nutrients only characteristic of the original fruit and vegetable sources." Two nutrition specialists commented that "the promotional literature for Juice Plus, billed as a whole food concentrate, is a carefully worded blend of incorrect information, misleading health claims, and nonscientific jargon" and concluded that "Juice Plus probably won't harm you, but can hurt your pocketbook." Others have provided similar skeptical assessments of Juice Plus+. In November 2007, the Complaints Resolution Panel for the

Therapeutic Goods Administration The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is the medicine and therapeutic regulatory agency of the Australian Government. As part of the Department of Health and Aged Care, the TGA regulates the quality, supply and advertising of medicines, pa ...

Advertising Code Council ruled that statements on NSA’s Juice Plus website were in breach of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

’s Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code. According to the panel, the "clear message" in the ads was that Juice Plus tablets/capsules are "equivalent to fruits and vegetables" and that "consuming Juice Plus tablets would help Australians to consume the ‘recommended 5–7 servings’ of fruits and vegetables". NSA was sanctioned by the Council to withdraw any representations that the products "are equivalent to fruits and vegetables or that their consumption can aid in meeting dietary recommendations relating to fruits and vegetables."

Antioxidant activity

NSA claims that Juice Plus is an effective antioxidant, and quotes a study that showed a 75% reduction in

lipid peroxidation Lipid peroxidation is the chain of reactions of oxidative degradation of lipids. It is the process in which radical (chemistry), free radicals "steal" electrons from the lipids in cell membranes, resulting in cell damage. This process proceeds by ...

(an

oxidative stress Oxidative stress reflects an imbalance between the systemic manifestation of reactive oxygen species and a biological system's ability to readily Detoxification, detoxify the reactive intermediates or to repair the resulting damage. Disturbances ...

marker) in subjects that took Juice Plus for 7 to 28 days. This report was criticized as "a particularly poor study" by nutritionist

Rosemary Stanton Rosemary Alison Stanton (née Finley) (born 5 June 1944, Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian nutritionist and dietician, known for her media appearances. Biography Stanton has been called "the first 'celebrity' dietitian". As of 2018 ...

in the Australian journal, '' The Skeptic''. Other studies have also reported reductions in lipid peroxidation and

DNA oxidation DNA oxidation is the process of oxidative damage of deoxyribonucleic acid. As described in detail by Burrows et al., 8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG) is the most common oxidative lesion observed in duplex DNA because guanine has a lower one-el ...

. These three studies were not blinded or placebo-controlled, included few participants (in one case no more than 15), and did not include monitoring or control of the participants' food intake. Other studies conducted under more rigorous conditions (

randomized In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of pattern or predictability in events. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Individual rand ...

double-blind In a blind or blinded experiment, information which may influence the participants of the experiment is withheld until after the experiment is complete. Good blinding can reduce or eliminate experimental biases that arise from a participants' expec ...

, placebo-controlled, longer in duration and with more subjects), found no significant reductions in lipid peroxidation, DNA oxidation, or other markers of oxidative stress. One study, which measured

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning in glass, or ''in the glass'') studies are performed with microorganisms, cells, or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in biology an ...

antioxidant Antioxidants are compounds that inhibit oxidation, a chemical reaction that can produce free radicals. This can lead to polymerization and other chain reactions. They are frequently added to industrial products, such as fuels and lubricant ...

activity, found that 1 g of Juice Plus Orchard Blend/Garden Blend powder (500 mg of each combined) had the corresponding antioxidant capacity to approximately 10 g (fresh weight) of fruit or vegetable, amounting to 30 g (roughly one-third of a serving) per four capsules. Tests of antioxidant activity of polyphenols (such as those in Juice Plus capsules)

likely show higher results than the negligible antioxidant activity

in vivo Studies that are ''in vivo'' (Latin for "within the living"; often not italicized in English) are those in which the effects of various biological entities are tested on whole, living organisms or cells, usually animals, including humans, and ...

following oral ingestion and digestion. One

placebo A placebo ( ) is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like Saline (medicine), saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. In general ...

-controlled study conducted in 2002 found that Juice Plus Gummie candies did not significantly improve the antioxidant status of children, as indicated by negative results from 6 different antioxidant tests. The authors explained this by saying it was possible that the supplement did not contain enough of the proper antioxidants to make a significant difference or that the antioxidants extracted in the fruit/vegetable extract were not bioavailable. The study was originally sponsored by NSA, but because the results were disappointing, NSA officials elected to remove the company’s name from the published article. Jim Sears, a pediatrician and Juice Plus distributor/spokesperson who co-hosts the syndicated daytime television talk show The Doctors, claimed on a February 27, 2009 episode of the program that Juice Plus "helps fight cancer". In October 2009, Dr.

Barrie R. Cassileth Barrie Joyce Rabinowitz Cassileth (née Rabinowitz; April 22, 1938 – February 26, 2022) was an American medical sociologist and researcher of complementary medicine and a critic of alternative medicine. She published extensively on alternativ ...

, Chair and Chief of

Integrative Medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alte ...

at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, cautioned that while Juice Plus is being "aggressively promoted to cancer patients based on claims of antioxidant effects", the supplement should not be taken by patients because it can interfere with chemotherapy, nor should it be considered a substitute for fruits and vegetables.

Cardiovascular system

Several studies have examined the effects of Juice Plus capsules on biochemical parameters associated with

cardiovascular The blood circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the entire body of a human or other vertebrate. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, tha ...

function, again with conflicting results. In October 2009, Dr. Barrie R. Cassileth, Chair and Chief of

, noted that the results of Juice Plus studies on plasma

homocysteine Homocysteine is a non-proteinogenic α-amino acid. It is a homologue of the amino acid cysteine, differing by an additional methylene bridge (-CH2-). It is biosynthesized from methionine by the removal of its terminal Cε methyl group. In the b ...

levels were not reproducible, and that studies on cardiovascular effects, such as

blood pressure Blood pressure (BP) is the pressure of circulating blood against the walls of blood vessels. Most of this pressure results from the heart pumping blood through the circulatory system. When used without qualification, the term "blood pressure" r ...

and

cholesterol Cholesterol is any of a class of certain organic molecules called lipids. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a type of lipid. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells and is an essential structural component of animal cell mem ...

, were inconclusive. The effects of Juice Plus on blood levels of homocysteine have been reported in five studies, all conducted in subjects with normal homocysteine levels (15 μmol/L). An initial study, which was not

nor

-controlled, reported a 37% decrease in

levels in subjects taking Juice Plus. More rigorous studies, including three that were randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, found that

levels were not reduced or were reduced to a much lesser extent than originally reported. Two randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled studies have examined the effect of Juice Plus on serum

and

LDL Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is one of the five major groups of lipoprotein that transport all fat molecules around the body in extracellular water. These groups, from least dense to most dense, are chylomicrons (aka ULDL by the overall densit ...

levels. One study found that Juice Plus had no significant effects; the other found slight decreases in cholesterol (6%) and LDL (9%) in subjects that took Orchard/Garden Blend, but no reductions among subjects who took Juice Plus Vineyard blend in addition. A study reported that a combined regimen of Juice Plus Orchard Blend and Garden Blend significantly decreased the impairment of

brachial artery The brachial artery is the major blood vessel of the (upper) arm. It is the continuation of the axillary artery beyond the lower margin of teres major muscle. It continues down the ventral surface of the arm until it reaches the cubital fossa ...

vasoactivity A vasoactive substance is an endogenous agent or pharmaceutical drug that has the effect of either increasing or decreasing blood pressure and/or heart rate through its vasoactivity, that is, vascular activity (effect on blood vessels). By adjust ...

caused by a high-fat meal in healthy subjects. The addition of the Vineyard Blend product to this regimen had no additional effect on brachial artery vasoactivity and led to an increase in total

lipoprotein A lipoprotein is a biochemical assembly whose primary function is to transport hydrophobic lipid (also known as fat) molecules in water, as in blood plasma or other extracellular fluids. They consist of a triglyceride and cholesterol center, sur ...

and

as compared with Orchard Blend/Garden Blend alone. This study also found that Juice Plus had no effect on

. In a randomized placebo-controlled, crossover study in adults with

metabolic syndrome Metabolic syndrome is a clustering of at least three of the following five medical conditions: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high serum triglycerides, and low serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Metabolic syndrome ...

, 8-week supplementation with Juice Plus had no significant effect on vascular

endothelial The endothelium is a single layer of squamous endothelial cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels. The endothelium forms an interface between circulating blood or lymph in the lumen and the rest of the vessel ...

function, serum insulin, blood glucose, body weight, total cholesterol, or LDL cholesterol. The study, initiated in 2004 and published in 2011, was led by Juice Plus spokesman

David L. Katz David L. Katz (born February 20, 1963) is an American physician. He was the founding director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center that was founded at Griffin Hospital in Derby, Connecticut in 1998. Career Previously, Katz was a clini ...

who received a $200,000 research grant from NSA.

Adverse effects

Adverse effects An adverse effect is an undesired harmful effect resulting from a medication or other intervention, such as surgery. An adverse effect may be termed a "side effect", when judged to be secondary to a main or therapeutic effect. The term complica ...

of Juice Plus have been mentioned in three studies; no monitoring of adverse effects was reported in other published Juice Plus studies. The first of these studies (in 2000) reported adverse effects (upper-respiratory tract, urinary, and musculoskeletal) in roughly a third of the participants who took the products for seven days; these events resolved spontaneously and were deemed unlikely to have derived from use of Juice Plus. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center noted that in the second of these studies, some subjects who took Orchard Blend and Garden Blend developed a hive-like rash. In the third study, from 2007, some subjects withdrew due to gastrointestinal distress, possibly caused by the Juice Plus regimen (a combination of Orchard Blend, Garden Blend, and Vineyard Blend). In addition, a medical case report was published in which Juice Plus was identified as the probable cause of liver toxicity (hepatic inflammation) in a 51-year-old female patient with endometrial cancer. The liver injury was reversed upon discontinuation of Juice Plus.

Conflicts of interest in studies

In a critique of Juice Plus, consumer health advocate and alternative medicine critic

Stephen Barrett Stephen Joel Barrett (; born 1933) is an American retired psychiatrist, author, co-founder of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF), and the webmaster of Quackwatch. He runs a number of websites dealing with quackery and health frau ...

of MLM Watch remarked upon the previous association between two authors of a 1996 Juice Plus research study and United Sciences of America, Inc. (USAI), a multilevel marketing company that sold vitamin supplements with illegal claims that they could prevent many diseases. In 1986, lead author John A. Wise, who later co-authored several other Juice Plus research studies, was USAI's Executive Vice-President of Research and Development; and second author Robert J. Morin was a scientific advisor who helped design the products. State and federal enforcement actions drove USAI out of business in 1987. Wise became a consultant to Natural Alternatives International (NAI) in 1987 and a company executive (Vice-President of Research and Development) in 1992. Barrett noted that Wise was also an NAI shareholder and that production of Juice Plus for National Safety Associates (NSA) was responsible for 16% of NAIs sales in 1999. NSAs Juice Plus website cites various research articles in support of the company's marketing claims about the biological effects of Juice Plus, maintaining that these "studies were conducted by independent researchers" at various universities. Several of the studies were co-authored by Wise and Morin.

Advertising violations

In 2019, companies trading under the Juice Plus brand name in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

were levied a €1 million penalty by Italy’s Competition and Market Authority (AGCM) for deceptive marketing practices in breach of

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

advertising law. The AGCM cited evidence that the companies were posting fake user testimonials alleging that the products could help with weight loss and disease treatment. The parties involved had previously been the subject of an investigation on the Italian television program ''Patti Chiari'' that looked into the sales tactics used by distributors to market the products, and which revealed the use of secret

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

groups where distributors were posing as satisfied customers. In February 2020, the company that markets Juice Plus in

was hit with a $37,800 penalty by the Australian

(TGA) subsequent to the issuance of three infringement notices relating to the promotion of Juice Plus vitamin products for medical conditions, and to the use of endorsements by health professionals, in violation of the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code. In June 2020, the

US Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...

(FTC) issued a warning letter to the Juice Plus Company for making unlawful claims that the company’s products could treat or prevent

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, as well as misleading claims that business opportunity participants were likely to earn substantial income.

O. J. Simpson

University of California Berkeley Wellness Letter and MLMWatch commented on the unreliability of Juice Plus testimonials provided by former professional athlete O. J. Simpson. Simpson, known commonly as "O. J." and "The Juice",University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law: O.J.Simpson biography
signed a multi-year six-figure contract with NSA in January 1994 and became an official celebrity endorser of Juice Plus. In March 1994, Simpson was videotaped telling 4,000 Juice Plus distributors at a sales meeting that the product had cured his arthritis, improved his golf game, and freed him from using anti-arthritic drugs. However, regarding the

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

of his ex-wife

Nicole Brown Simpson Nicole Brown Simpson (née Brown; May 19, 1959 – June 12, 1994) was the ex-wife of the former professional American football player, O. J. Simpson, to whom she was married from 1985 to 1992. She was the mother of their two children, Sydney an ...

and her friend,

Ronald Goldman Ronald Lyle Goldman (July 2, 1968 – June 12, 1994) was an American restaurant waiter and a friend of Nicole Brown Simpson, the ex-wife of the American football player O.J. Simpson. He was murdered, along with Brown, at her home in Los Angele ...

, for which Simpson was tried and acquitted, Simpson claimed in his defence that he was too incapacitated by arthritis to have committed the murders and had continued to take the anti-inflammatory drug

sulfasalazine Sulfasalazine, sold under the brand name Azulfidine among others, is a medication used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease. It is considered by some to be a first-line treatment in rheumatoid arthritis. It is ...

. As a result of the controversy surrounding Simpson, NSA cancelled his endorsement contract and stopped using the Simpson videotape to promote Juice Plus.

Juice Plus Children's Research Foundation

The Juice Plus Children's Research Foundation (JPCRF), founded in 1997, is a non-profit medical research organization (

NTEE The National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) is a used by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and NCCS to classify U.S. tax-exempt organizations. A specialist from the IRS assigns an NTEE code to each organization exempt under I.R.C. § 501(a) as ...

code H99). Its stated goal is to promote better health in children. The foundation is chaired by executives of National Safety Associates and operates from the company's head office in

. In fiscal year 2007, the majority of funds donated to the foundation were disbursed to

Volunteers of America Volunteers of America (VOA) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1896 that provides affordable housing and other assistance services primarily to low-income people throughout the United States. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, the organiz ...

(a faith-based social welfare organization) and to the Boys & Girls Clubs of

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

. The Foundation's website shows results of an ongoing customer survey (The Juice Plus Children's Health Study) which suggests a link between Juice Plus consumption and a general improvement in diet and lifestyle habits. The

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

Wellness Letter and

of MLM Watch questioned the survey's scientific value, and claimed that the Foundation is being used mainly as a marketing gimmick to get families to buy Juice Plus products. Barrett's organization

Quackwatch Quackwatch is a United States-based website, self-described as a "network of people" founded by Stephen Barrett, which aims to "combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct" and to focus on "quackery-related information tha ...

includes the JPCRF among its list of "Questionable 'Research' Entities".

References

External links

Juice Plus
– official website
Watchdog on Three: Do the claims of this health supplement add up?
- BBC (video)

a home carbonation system formerly produced by NSA {{Multi-level marketing Dietary supplements Multi-level marketing products