The question often comes up whether or not Juice Plus+® is the next best thing to fruits and vegetables, since that is the slogan used by the company. While fruits and vegetables are the best source of nutrition, it is true that most people are not getting enough of them in their diet.
This, in my opinion, is the reason that we have more health problems in the US and around the world than would be present otherwise. So it begs the question, if we're not getting enough fruits and vegetables, and we won't, then why Juice Plus+®?
Nutrition. Whole food nutrition. Or rather the lack of it. That’s why. The truth is, that cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, the scourges of our time, are mostly self-inflicted, diseases of affluence, largely unknown in the third world. It can’t really be that simple can it— poor nutrition as the cause of so many of our diseases? Sadly, the answer is yes.
Are we digging our graves with our forks? It would appear so. It is estimated that two thirds of cancers could be prevented by proper nutrition, i.e. a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. The incidence of stroke can be decreased by a similar percentage, simply be eating well. The single greatest risk factor for diabetes is being overweight. And the list goes on. Hypertension, coronary disease, osteoporosis—all diet related.
How does processed food, high in calories, but low in nutrient value, consumed over long periods cause cancer? By free radical damage. In order for us to carry out life’s basic processes, we must burn fuel for energy. Burning fuel is called oxidation, and whether we’re burning calories in our bodies or gasoline in our cars, the process is the same.
The byproducts of oxidation are called free radicals. Much like smoke from a fire, their production cannot be avoided as long as we are alive and kicking and burning fuel. The free radicals lack an electron, and once created, will attack our own bodies, in effect “stealing” an electron from healthy tissue to fill their ‘need’. Our bodies repair much of the damage at first, but over time, this process takes its toll.
This is why so many seemingly unrelated diseases can have a common source. The disease process depends upon which healthy tissue is damaged by the free radicals. DNA damage causes mutations resulting in cancer. Damage to the nerve sheath results in multiple sclerosis. Damage to the endothelium, the inner lining of blood vessels, causes plaque formation resulting in stroke or heart disease.
So where do fruits and vegetables come in? Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants, and when consumed in adequate amounts, these antioxidants neutralize free radicals before they can accumulate in the body and cause damage. It is the antioxidants which provide the extra electron the free radicals crave.
The formula is simple. Adequate amounts of fruits and vegetables in our diets, plenty of antioxidants to neutralize the free radicals, leaving our bodies healthy. Poor intake of fruits and vegetables, and free radicals predominate, damaging our cellular structure in unpredictable ways, a situation called oxidative stress.
The fireplaces in our homes provide warmth, and heat, and light—all beneficial things. But when the chimney is stopped up, smoke fills the house, and that same fire which was meant to be a benefit, now becomes deadly. Not eating enough fruits and vegetables is like stopping up the chimney. When we don’t do it, our bodies pay the price.
Great. No problem. Except that in our culture, almost nobody gets enough fruits and vegetables. The fast food culture is in full swing, and fast-paced, on-the-go living prevents most of us from eating as well as we’d like.
And this is why Juice Plus+®. It’s whole food nutrition. Seventeen different fruits and vegetables in capsule form. The fruits and vegetables are juiced, and the sugar, salt, and much of the fiber removed. The residue is then dehydrated to powdered form. Juice Plus is not a vitamin supplement. It’s food. Fruits and vegetables in raw form, with none of the nutrients lost by cooking. It’s the way we should eat them, but the way almost none of us do.
The whole food nutrition Juice Plus+® provides is far superior to fragmented multivitamins. Synthetically made multivitamins by and large are not absorbed in our systems, and may even be harmful. There are thousands of phytonutrients in fruits and vegetables, most of which remain unknown. They work together synergistically in ways we do not understand. An apple, for instance, contains ‘only’ 5mg of vitamin C. But it has the antioxidant power of 1500 mg of isolated vitamin C. Which are the key nutrients that enhance its’ function, and how do they work? Science has no idea. Which is why it makes so much more sense to consume the food as God made it, and tamper with it as little as possible.
For this reason, even Juice Plus+® is not a replacement for eating well. It is an insurance policy, so to speak. An added benefit in a world where it is becoming increasingly difficult to eat properly. It is meant as a place to start your search for better nutrition, not a place to end it.
I take Juice Plus personally, and my family does as well. Taking Juice Plus, along with other lifestyle changes, has dramatically improved the overall health of my family. It is a product I can recommend to you without reservation.
Part of the reason I can do so, is the large body of independent research which has been accumulated on this product. Patients who are taking Juice Plus have been proven to have significantly increased antioxidant levels in the blood, enhanced immune function, and a two-thirds reduction in free radical DNA damage. The same DNA damage which causes cancer.
Many more studies are currently in progress. Juice Plus is presently being studied in ovarian cancer patients at the MD Anderson Cancer Research Center in Houston, Texas, and the National Cancer Institute is currently funding a study on the effects of Juice Plus in head and neck cancer patients at Wake Forest University.
It is the abundance of peer-reviewed research, and their publication in journals such as The American Journal of Cardiology, Andrew Weil’s Integrative Medicine, and Nutrition Research, that sets Juice Plus apart from other such nutritional products. It is the most thoroughly researched nutritional product ever.
In my opinion, Juice Plus is an idea whose time has come. It is a nutritional product, the likes of which, until now, have been found only in the world of ‘alternative’ medicine. But because it is backed up by hard science, it bridges the gap between the ‘alternative’ and the ‘traditional’ medical worlds. A gap, whose closing is long overdue.
I suggest you try a risk-free 4 Month Supply of Juice Plus+®.
Dr. J. Patrick Havey
Official Juice Plus+® Independent Distributor
(from Thomas Hudson, M.D., Director of Women’s Imaging, Naples Diagnostic Imaging Centers)
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