First the only reason I have shown any interest in this product is because a good, long time friend spoke to me about it. No sales pressure (that’s not her style). She simply shared her own experience with Juice Plus+ after I shared my personal experience with Usana. However, I have looked into this product enough to want to give it a try.

When taking vitamins, our bodies only absorb around 15%. Usana products seem to be highly concentrated and contain amounts greater than the U.S. recommended daily/dietary allowance for vitamins and minerals. (I was actually concerned about this when I first started taking them – especially vitamin A as too much can be toxic.) Consequently, because of quality and quantity, I was probably absorbing higher amounts and benefited. However, I was taking 14 pills a day.

Juice Plus+ is not a vitamin supplement product as we know it. It is basically concentrated whole foods in pill form. Their claim is that they have a process to reduce whole foods to nutrient rich juice, convert it to pill form and still maintain the healthy quality.

Juice Plus + is trying to give the benefits of whole foods, which contains a variety of vitamins and minerals in pill form. While vitamin supplements try to reproduce (often synthetically) specific vitamins and nutrients, usually in pill form. Juice Plus+ requires taking just 4 pills a day for healthy results. 

So far I’ve found the following to be favorable reasons to use Juice Plus+”

Cost – It’s fairly economical

Children’s Program- Right now they have a program that allows children to get their vitamins for three years free. In other words, for each paying adult, a child receives their supply at no extra cost.  The current program is for children ages 4 -18 and full time college students up to age 22. For parents of children who don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables this is extra incentive.

Independent Research – The have been independently researched by multiple universities in different countries. The research was done as double blind placebo clinical studies and the findings supported health benefits to the immune system, cardiovascular wellness and delivering antioxidants to reduce harmful oxidative stress. (Oxidative stress is involved in many diseases, including heart failure. (I haven’t personally read up on the reports, yet).

Most people probably hear terms such as antioxidants and free radicals as it relates to anti-aging products. However, lots of people don’t exactly understand it so here’s a good explanation by Dr Richard E. DuBois (former Chief of Internal Medicine Atlanta Medical Center):

“When you burn a pile of wood, you get smoke. When your body burns fuel, oxidation occurs. You’ve got billions of cells. Each one of those cells gets thousands of oxidative hits every single day. You’ve go to have some antioxidants there to fight that kind of oxidation.”

So in other words, think of what would happen if you created a fire pit in your living room and kept a continuous fire going. The smoke damage that would occur in your home (body) is the oxidation. The floating soot that would find its way to your walls (skin) would be considered the destructive free radicals. So the importance of antioxidants to slow or prevent oxidation is not overstated.

The timing between my last Usana vitamin and my first Juice Plus+ will be at least thirty days. I want to keep up with the Usana Omega 3 product, but for now, I’ve back off of that, too.

Wish me luck!