Sooooo... Mona Vie.

[Gate2501]

My girlfriends mother is selling this overblown juicy juice, and I was wondering if any of you had experience in dealing with this product. It presents itself as a juice blend that contains the Acai Berry, and 18 other juices. The berry clearly does have a large amount of antioxidants, and there is no question that it is healthy.

What I have dug up so far:

-It costs 40-45$USD for ONE BOTTLE (lasts 1 week).
-It is sold via Multi Level Marketing (they call it network marketing).
-The company does not disclose how much Acai juice is in the mixture (they only say that it is the first listed ingredient, supposedly meaning that there is more of it than anything else?).
-Many of the distributors of this juice tout it's positive effects on health which are completely unsubstantiated.
-The Mona Vie company itself did a "study" on the antioxidant effects of the beverage, however they only used 12 participants that were all healthy adults.
-IT COSTS 40-45$USD FOR ONE BOTTLE!

Now my girlfriend's mother is claiming that it has helped her husband regain some motion in his arm (he had a spinal injury years back). And she is selling this crap to her friends at this insane price.

I require ammunition to bombard her with should she bring it up again in front of us. Does anyone know anything beyond what I listed?

[fuelair]

Is your girlfriend firmly on your side in this? If not, think it through very carefully.

[Gate2501]

She is, I am very sure of that.

[Gate2501]

And I just realized that this could have/should have gone in the business skepticism forums.

I was thinking of the supposed health effects of the juice when I posted it here.

[Tiktaalik]

If this juice is actually effective in restoring motion to spinal-cord injured people, the company should ethically be working to get it approved through the FDA as a medicine, not selling it for $40/bottle...

[joobz]

I do research in antioxidant enzyme delivery for treatment of vascular oxidative stress. The issue is that many diseases have an oxidative component to thier pathology, but it tends to be secondary. The main thought is that if we can eliminate it, then perhaps we can help short circuit the detrimental oxidative injury cycle that develops.

Unfortunately, there has been little to no success in any Large scale dietary antioxidant study performed. This could be a result of simply looking at wrong diseases or poor controls, but I have a feeling it is likely probably because oxidative stress isn't the primary pathology in most cases. It's like trying to put out a house fire with a garden hose in the middle of a tornado. Sure the fire is damaging the house, but there's a freaking tornado! And dietary antioxidants may only help in very mild stress cases. The oxidative stress that is occuring is enzymatically produced(meaning millions of radicals generated per minute). A typical antioxidant molecule will only be able to scavenge 1-2 radicals and that's it. So you need tons of dietary antioxidants to have any effect. It's one of the reasons why I work on delivery of antioxidant enzymes (which can continuously scavenge radicals).


Tell your mom she is just as well off drinking any number of fruit juices, many of which have greater antioxidant capacities than acai.

Seeram NP, et.al. "Comparison of Antioxidant Potency of Commonly consumed polyphenol-rich beverages in the United States." J Aric Food Chem. 2008. 56(4) 1415-22.
A number of different beverage products claim to have antioxidant potency due to their perceived high content of polyphenols. Basic and applied research indicates that pomegranate juice (PJ), produced from the Wonderful variety of Punica granatum fruits, has strong antioxidant activity and related health benefits. Although consumers are familiar with the concept of free radicals and antioxidants, they are often misled by claims of superior antioxidant activity of different beverages, which are usually based only on testing of a limited spectrum of antioxidant activities. There is no available direct comparison of PJ's antioxidant activity to those of other widely available polyphenol-rich beverage products using a comprehensive variety of antioxidant tests. The present study applied (1) four tests of antioxidant potency [Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), total oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), free radical scavenging capacity by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP)]; (2) a test of antioxidant functionality, that is, inhibition of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation by peroxides and malondialdehyde methods; and (3) evaluation of the total polyphenol content of polyphenol-rich beverages in the marketplace. The beverages included several different brands as follows: apple juice (3), açaí juice (3), black cherry juice (3), blueberry juice (3), cranberry juice (3), Concord grape juice (3), orange juice (3), red wines (3), iced tea beverages (10) [black tea (3), green tea (4), white tea (3)], and a major PJ available in the U.S. market. An overall antioxidant potency composite index was calculated by assigning each test equal weight. PJ had the greatest antioxidant potency composite index among the beverages tested and was at least 20% greater than any of the other beverages tested. Antioxidant potency, ability to inhibit LDL oxidation, and total polyphenol content were consistent in classifying the antioxidant capacity of the polyphenol-rich beverages in the following order: [B]PJ>red wine>Concord grape juice>blueberry juice>black cherry juice, açaí juice, cranberry juice>orange juice, iced tea beverages, apple juice.Although in vitro antioxidant potency does not prove in vivo biological activity, there is also consistent clinical evidence of antioxidant potency for the most potent beverages including both PJ and red wine.

note that for pure antioxidant function, Pom. juice and red wine beat Acai. And Acia's antioxidant potential is similar to that of cranberry juice. Further, Cranberry juice has KNOWN urinary tract benefits. So, it's my gut saying that there are much better, cheaper, and more enjoyable options to mona Vei that are likely to be as healthy(healthier) than the Mona vei.

Now, I will hedge my bet by saying that the chemicals in these juices may have other therapeutic effects that are unrelated to antioxidant potential(e.g., cranberry juice and the urinary tract), but that is entirely substantiated speculation at this point in regards to acai.

I would simply tell her that if the juice is good for you, she could probably buy another company's acai juice and get out of the creepy pyramid scheme. I do not like the mode of marketing or the use of non-scientific anacedotal evidence to sell the product. If they have something worth while, they have a moral obligation to test it and get FDA approval. Afterall, a therapeutic effect comes with the risk of drug interactions and complications. If they KNOW their product has a physiological response, they must protect their user base by ensuring it is safe. If they are uninterested in doing so, then that speaks much more clearly about thier true intentions.

For instance, I did a quick check and found that one study claimed a vaso-dilating effect from Acai. If this is true, people on blood pressure medication could be at increased health risks.


Rocha AP, et al. "Endothelium-dependent vasodilator effect of Euterpe oleracea Mart. (Açaí) extracts in mesenteric vascular bed of the rat." Vascul Pharmacol. 2007 Feb;46(2):97-104

the effect was found to be due to the induction of NO production pathway and not a direct stimulatory effect. I'm not an MD and do not know if such an effect would be counter-indicative in patients on vascular meds, I simply wanted to present this as a potential concern.

[joobz]

If this juice is actually effective in restoring motion to spinal-cord injured people, the company should ethically be working to get it approved through the FDA as a medicine, not selling it for $40/bottle...
interestingly, there is reason to believe that antioxidants would help in cases of spinal cord injury, but most studies show it may only help during the initial few weeks while wound healing is occuring.

[Wavicle]

My barber has gone off the deep end on the Monavie thing. I was really frustrated today while he was cutting my 4 year old's hair, taking phone calls for his Monavie business and pitching it to other customers who hadn't heard of it all at the same time.

Monavie was just one of those things that didn't pass the sniff test for me. If the product is as good as they say, it would sell itself. But it doesn't. A bunch of pushy people hoping it's the next Amway are the ones selling it. There are videos of MD's who espouse its health qualities (and also happen to have a financial stake in its success) but never get around to producing solid evidence.

All that aside, Acai itself does have kind of a pleasant flavor, it blends well with smoothies and comes in a variety of forms much cheaper than Monavie (1 gallon of Acai pulp goes for as little as US$45). I figure if it has health benefits too, that's just double-plus good.