Juice Plus revisited

You may recall that in an earlier blog I asked about this fruit and vegetable extract supplement. To refresh your memory I said: “Juice Plus has been around for some time. Nutrition professionals are not that excited by it, as it is very difficult to get much dehydrated vegetable or fruit into a tablet. There is research to show that the tablets do increase antioxidant levels in the blood. You would have to eat at least 10 tablets to get even close to a single serve of a vegetable and even then, many nutrients will be lost through processing.”

Since then, there has been a short article in the American Journal of Medicine late last year. A 51 year old woman with endometrial cancer began to take Juice Plus as a supplement. It is very common for people with cancer to start taking what is perceived as natural supplements in the hope that this will reverse the cancer or halt its progression. In this case, the Juice Plus began to adversely affect her liver function. Stopping the Juice Plus returned the liver to normal after four weeks.

The authors from the University of Texas said it was important that doctors know of all the supplements being taken by patients and, conversely, that patients were open about what they took in addition to any prescribed medication. That way they can be alerted to potential side-effects of the supplement. Natural does not always equal safe or healthy.