A lot of the nutritional products sold to athletes don't work very well, so it's refreshing to find a reasonably priced supplement which actually does some good. And that would be the case with a neat little product called Juice Plus.

Juice Plus is actually sold in capsule form, the capsules containing dried extracts of either fruits (the 'Orchard Blend') or vegetables (the 'Garden Blend'). Most of us know that increasing our fruit and vegetable intake is a good idea. After all, there's the fibre, the antioxidants, and all those good vitamins and minerals. But how many of us have the time and discipline to pack away a rich variety of fruits and veggies each and every day? That's where Juice Plus comes in. With a couple of capsules of the Orchard and Garden Blends, we can obtain all the great antioxidants found in rather copious quantities of fruits and vegetables. And those antioxidants become active very quickly once they're inside our bodies. There's good research to back it up.

Recently at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, 15 healthy adults (10 women, five men) aged 18 to 53 consumed the Juice Plus capsules twice daily with meals (two Orchard Blend pills with breakfast and two Garden Blend capsules with dinner) for a total of 28 days. None of the subjects were taking vitamin or antioxidant supplements, aside from the Juice Plus.

The Orchard Blend extract is composed of fruits (apples, oranges, pineapples, papayas, cranberries and peaches) which are rich in three key antioxidants - lutein, zeaxanthin, and beta-carotene. Studies have linked lutein with a reduced risk of lung cancer and macular degeneration of the eye; zeaxanthin also seems to have a protective effect on eye tissues. The Garden Blend extract is made up of vegetables (carrots, parsley, beetroot, broccoli, kale, cabbage, spinach, and tomatoes) rich in the same anti-oxidants, as well as alpha-carotene and lycopene (it's the carrots and tomatoes that really specialise in the latter). If you've been following anti-oxidant research, you know that alpha-carotene is more powerful in suppressing liver, lung, and skin cancers in test animals than its more powerful sibling, beta-carotene. Alpha-carotene has also been linked with a lower risk of cervical cancer in women, and lycopene is associated with a lowered risk of prostate cancer and all types of digestive-system tumours, including cancers of the mouth, esophagus, stomach, colon, and rectum. Lycopene also seems to provide the skin with protection against the damaging effects of ultraviolet light.

Amazing results!
After the 28 days, blood levels of beta-carotene increased by 510 per cent, and lycopene soared by 2046 per cent! Meanwhile, lutein strolled upward by 44 per cent, and alpha-carotene advanced by 119 per cent. Alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E), which is also included in the Juice Plus formulation, rose by 58 per cent. Overall, the gains in antioxidant levels were greater than those associated with hefty intakes of antioxidant-rich food, suggesting that the antioxidants in Juice Plus were extremely well absorbed. In one prior study, subjects had ingested either two-thirds of a pound of broccoli or .6 pounds of carrots per day, with only modest rises in blood antioxidant concentrations.

Did all of those changes do the subjects any good? Concentrations of 'lipid peroxides' represent an indicator of damage related to oxidant stress within the body, and average lipid peroxide levels decreased by a rather remarkable 75 per cent in the study subjects. In addition, all 15 participants reduced their peroxide levels, with five individuals actually ending up with non-measurable quantities of peroxides in their blood.

We don't know yet by how much the increases in antioxidants and declines in peroxides observed in this study would lower the risk of atheroslcerosis and various cancers, as well as hasten the recovery process during strenuous training. However, it's clear that Juice Plus capsules represent a rather decisive and convenient way to get one's blood oxidant and antioxidant levels headed in the right direction.

Jim Bledsoe

juice plus research