Juice Plus Research Blog

Controversial outdoor survivalist and TV host Bear Grylls is a Juice Plus spokesperson and sells the product, according to information recently received by the JPRB.

Grylls, who is best known as the star of the Discovery Channel TV show Man vs. Wild, was at the center of a hailstorm of media criticism this week when it was revealed that survival scenes in his shows had been faked and misrepresented to viewers.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

Grylls had previously admitted that Juice Plus (i.e. National Safety Associates) was a financier of his 1998 climbing expedition to Mt. Everest[9][10]. Grylls also runs his own Juice Plus franchise,[11] profits from sales of the product, and has been a speaker at Juice Plus distributor training events[12]. He is featured on a Juice Plus promotional CD entitled Achieving Optimal Health,[13][14] along with fellow Juice Plus distributor/spokesperson Mitra Ray[15][16][17] and Nyjon Eccles[16] (Eccles has also been the subject of controversy as a result of his advocacy of highly questionable medical procedures such as magnetic bandage therapy for leg ulcers and light beam therapy lymph detoxification for cancer patients).[18][19][20][21]

Despite the existence of reliable, widely-available information in the public domain confirming the financial ties between Grylls and Juice Plus, at least one distributor of the product has falsely claimed that no such connection exists. In a March 24 post on the website Sparkpeople.com, Juice Plus distributor/spokesperson Julia Havey claimed to potential customers:

“I am at a convention for Juice Plus and the final speaker of the conference was a man named Bear Grylls…and, for those who care to know, Bear took a picture of himself on Mt. Everest holding up a Juice Plus T-shirt. He was not a paid spokesperson, or a distributor, nor did NSA/Juice Plus sponsor his expedition."[22]

The cover-up of Grylls' financial connection to Juice Plus is further evidence of the false and misleading claims being made by Juice Plus distributors and attests to the inability or lack of will of the marketing company, National Safety Associates, to prevent such claims from being made.

Follow-up Note
Havey’s comments at Sparkpeople .com were deleted on July 31 -- two days after this story was posted.

References

1. 'Wild' Grylls not so manly after all? Andrew Wallenstein; AOL TV News (7/24/2007). http://news.aol.com/entertainment/television/story/_a/wild-grylls-not-so-manly-after-all/20070724065109990001
   
2. Pilots doubt Bear Grylls’ Everest para-motor flight claims. Mount Everest.net (7/11/2007). http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?news=16114
   
3. Grylls' thrills bogus: expert survivalist charged with cushy shortcuts. Don Kaplan; New York Post online (7/24/2007).
   http://www.nypost.com/seven/07242007/news/nationalnews/grylls_thrills_bogus__expert_nationalnews_don_kaplan.htm
   
4. Bear Grylls a fraud? The Jellyfisher (7/23/2007). http://www.thejellyfisher.com/bear-grylls-a-fraud/
   
5. Bear Grylls 'faked Channel 4's Born Survivor'. Richard Edwards; The Sunday Telegraph online (7/24/2007). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/23/ngrylls123.xml
6. Survival show faces 'fake' claim. BBC News online (7/23/2007). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6911748.stm
7. TV 'survival king' stayed in hotels. Robert Booth; The Sunday Times Online (7/22/2007). http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article2116195.ece
8. Bear Grylls Not as 'Wild' as Advertised. Marcus Vanderberg; AOL Black Voices Blog (07/25/2007). http://blackvoices.aol.com/blogs/2007/07/25/bear-grylls-not-as-wild-as-expected
9. Sponsors. Bear Grylls.com. http://www.beargrylls.com/sponsors.html
10. Not just anybody: Bear Grylls. Amber Cowan; The Sunday Times Online (8/6/2006)
    http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/body_and_soul/article551621.ece
11. Bear Grylls Juice Plus Distributor Page http://www.juiceplus.co.uk/nsa/pages/Home.soa?site=bg026447
12. Juice Plus Post Conference Training. Prevention Denver Juice Plus website. http://www.preventiondenver.com/flyers/lbpostcon2007.doc
13. Juice Plus CDs. Juice Plus Tools.com. http://www.jplustools.com/acatalog/CD_s__Audios___DVD_s.html
14. Juice Plus CDs. Aireau and Network Marketing Support. http://www.aireau.co.uk/acatalog/CD_s__Audios___DVD_s.html
15. Shining Star International Juice Plus Distributor Page. http://www.juiceplus.com/nsa/pages/Home.soa?site=sr46450
16. What healthcare professionals say about Juice Plus. National Safety Associates. http://www.juiceplus.co.uk/nsa/pages/HealthProfessionals.soa
17. Readers Respond (June 2, 2007): Mitra Ray. Juice Plus Research Blog. http://juiceplusresearch.blogspot.com/2007_06_02_archive.html
18. This may be fair trading - then again, it may not. The Quackometer (1/15/2007). http://www.quackometer.net/blogarchive/2007_01_01_quackometer_archive.html
19. Magnetic needling. Ben Goldacre; The Guardian (7/25/2005). http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/aug/25/badscience
20. The cost of the Chiron Clinic/NHS takes up Cherie's magic magnets cure. DC's Improbable Science Page. http://www.dcscience.net/improbable.html#ne1
    http://www.dcscience.net/improbable.html#mag1
21. The Bad Science Forum.
    http://www.badscience.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=25928&sid=a2bcb4377e8674df18413c18b91546fb
22. Juice Plus: My experience. Julia Havey; SparkPeople.com. http://sparkpeople.com/myspark/team_messageboard_thread.asp?imboard=7045&imparent=5511629