Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Readers Respond
Below are a few of the comments received recently from disgruntled and sympathetic victims of Juice Plus. Thanks to all of you for sharing your stories and support. Stay tuned for more new content and do keep in touch.
From Anonymous:
Kudos and props to Sir Truth Seeker. Here in South Orange County (CA) we are bombarded with zealots selling their wares as though it were more precious than life itself. Two years ago there was little (although very valid) critical information about JP. Now, in fact recently, the information tide has turned and the truth is more readily available. Thanks for your efforts!
From Anonymous:
My wife tried juice plus. However we cancelled our order, then the rep proceeded to send the juice plus to us and to charge us for it even though we had cancelled. They then proceeded to leave disturbing messages about how serious it was they spoke to us, implying health issues.
From HolisticDoc:
Hysterically funny! So glad to find your blog. It's hard to believe that Dr. Mitra Ray could have said something so ridiculous. She recently defended her outrageous statement, saying that she still stood by it. I imagine there must be a few Juice Plus distributors who even winced at that one!
Dr. Delia Garcia deserves a Rotten Tomato Award #2 for calling the JP studies "indisputable." I see that the panel of this site has made available some very credible disputes from peer reviewers and universities.
However, my personal nominee for a Rotten Tomato Award would be the paternal head of the Juice Plus family of promoters, Dr. Bill Sears. This pediatrician has said on the Juice Plus website (his comments are now removed) that getting nutritious phytos into children by giving them Gummies (clearly a candy) is teaching them to eat fruits and vegetables. That is tantamount to saying that feeding children Nestle's Crunch Bars is teaching them to eat whole grain rice.
I have looked closely at many of the studies and find them to be more than misleading. They are fraudulent. I've learned, however, that the distributors consider any scientific dispute of the so-called studies to be "an inconvenient truth." They are spending good money on a cheap vitamin supplement which lacks many vital nutrients. They think they are getting fruit and vegetable powders but the product contains very little and mostly cheap added ingredients marked-up to support the network marketing structure. Truly, one of the most successful scams in the history of network marketing.
Congratulations on a much needed blog and for making all the studies available to the public, even the ones NSA does not want to publish.
From Steve P:
Truth Seeker,
I have had my own interesting experience with JP. I'm a father of 3 boys. A few months ago, my father started mentioning JP and feeding me the typical marketing BS he got from higher-ups. He would mention it every time we talked. This included giving me a marketing CD, brochures, and absolutely unbelievable claims about JP. He takes it and swears that it cured his "bad case of osteo-arthritis", which I was completely unaware that he had.
These claims include but aren't limited to:
1. "JP is the most researched nutritional product in history"
2. Dr. Sears is “possibly the finest pediatric doctor in this country. A true authority on nutrition.”
3. “He is not paid by Juice Plus. When seeking the truth about the subject of better health you could not find a more credible source.”
4. “The list of doctors who support it is a Who’s Who in the medical community and they are NOT paid by Juice Plus” (I’m paraphrasing here)
5. He claimed that my asthma "can be cured with this product"
I decided to look into it myself and what I found was amazing. Most of it was opinion from respectable people and not nameless, faceless people with a grudge. It was amazing what I found that contradicted what I've been told.
I compiled a 50 page document with the good stuff highlighted where necessary, my commentary out to the side. I'd like you to see it if there is some way I could send it to you.
My research was basically ignored and I was sent a JP postcard claiming my asthma can be cured. Nothing was refuted, even though my rebuttal research was very clear, and could be easily refuted by someone with factual material and not marketing BS.
Then I found that that he sent my research up the chain and eventually to the head of support at JP, Dr. Madero. He had my entire report and in his reply didn't even pick one item out to refute with their own evidence. He just blabbered on about how the Internet is full of opinion from nameless, faceless people blah blah blah. Then he talked about how Wikipedia can be abused so easily. Does he know that Miss JP Julia Havey is guilty of doing that? I'd like you to see that email conversation too if I can send it to you. It's so full of juicy stuff.
From Anonymous:
Over the past couple of years I've been in the company of several people who are proponents of both Juice Plus products and its accompanying business practices. I've heard them in conversation with others about the products. On every occasion when the product or stated research was questioned, the Juice Plus salesperson became very defensive and aggressive. Claims began surfacing stating "I know a person who got better from (name the health problem) by taking (name the Juice Plus product)." Then the Juice Plus person began putting their 'mark' on-the-spot, asking them to prove to them that their claims are not true. When their 'mark' continues to be disinterested or suspicious of the claims, products or practices, the Juice Plus salesperson dismisses them with ominous statements like "Well, I know people that will be around a lot longer because they're using Juice Plus". It reminds me of cult practices and thinking like "If you don't believe what I/we say is true, you're wrong/misinformed/against us." I feel sorry for both parties because one loses by alienation and the other by being accosted.
From Anonymous:
Juice Plus is a scam. Sellers of Juice Plus try to shame you into buying it..."well, if YOU don't want to be healthy, I guess you shouldn't buy it". And, how much do you want to spend to be healthy? It just doesn't work!! Eat the real thing--fruits and vegetables -- like all of the experts advise. Leave the multi-level marketing scams alone. It ISN"T the cure-all they claim and there is NO credible evidence to back Juice Plus.
From Anonymous:
Kudos and props to Sir Truth Seeker. Here in South Orange County (CA) we are bombarded with zealots selling their wares as though it were more precious than life itself. Two years ago there was little (although very valid) critical information about JP. Now, in fact recently, the information tide has turned and the truth is more readily available. Thanks for your efforts!
From Anonymous:
My wife tried juice plus. However we cancelled our order, then the rep proceeded to send the juice plus to us and to charge us for it even though we had cancelled. They then proceeded to leave disturbing messages about how serious it was they spoke to us, implying health issues.
From HolisticDoc:
Hysterically funny! So glad to find your blog. It's hard to believe that Dr. Mitra Ray could have said something so ridiculous. She recently defended her outrageous statement, saying that she still stood by it. I imagine there must be a few Juice Plus distributors who even winced at that one!
Dr. Delia Garcia deserves a Rotten Tomato Award #2 for calling the JP studies "indisputable." I see that the panel of this site has made available some very credible disputes from peer reviewers and universities.
However, my personal nominee for a Rotten Tomato Award would be the paternal head of the Juice Plus family of promoters, Dr. Bill Sears. This pediatrician has said on the Juice Plus website (his comments are now removed) that getting nutritious phytos into children by giving them Gummies (clearly a candy) is teaching them to eat fruits and vegetables. That is tantamount to saying that feeding children Nestle's Crunch Bars is teaching them to eat whole grain rice.
I have looked closely at many of the studies and find them to be more than misleading. They are fraudulent. I've learned, however, that the distributors consider any scientific dispute of the so-called studies to be "an inconvenient truth." They are spending good money on a cheap vitamin supplement which lacks many vital nutrients. They think they are getting fruit and vegetable powders but the product contains very little and mostly cheap added ingredients marked-up to support the network marketing structure. Truly, one of the most successful scams in the history of network marketing.
Congratulations on a much needed blog and for making all the studies available to the public, even the ones NSA does not want to publish.
From Steve P:
Truth Seeker,
I have had my own interesting experience with JP. I'm a father of 3 boys. A few months ago, my father started mentioning JP and feeding me the typical marketing BS he got from higher-ups. He would mention it every time we talked. This included giving me a marketing CD, brochures, and absolutely unbelievable claims about JP. He takes it and swears that it cured his "bad case of osteo-arthritis", which I was completely unaware that he had.
These claims include but aren't limited to:
1. "JP is the most researched nutritional product in history"
2. Dr. Sears is “possibly the finest pediatric doctor in this country. A true authority on nutrition.”
3. “He is not paid by Juice Plus. When seeking the truth about the subject of better health you could not find a more credible source.”
4. “The list of doctors who support it is a Who’s Who in the medical community and they are NOT paid by Juice Plus” (I’m paraphrasing here)
5. He claimed that my asthma "can be cured with this product"
I decided to look into it myself and what I found was amazing. Most of it was opinion from respectable people and not nameless, faceless people with a grudge. It was amazing what I found that contradicted what I've been told.
I compiled a 50 page document with the good stuff highlighted where necessary, my commentary out to the side. I'd like you to see it if there is some way I could send it to you.
My research was basically ignored and I was sent a JP postcard claiming my asthma can be cured. Nothing was refuted, even though my rebuttal research was very clear, and could be easily refuted by someone with factual material and not marketing BS.
Then I found that that he sent my research up the chain and eventually to the head of support at JP, Dr. Madero. He had my entire report and in his reply didn't even pick one item out to refute with their own evidence. He just blabbered on about how the Internet is full of opinion from nameless, faceless people blah blah blah. Then he talked about how Wikipedia can be abused so easily. Does he know that Miss JP Julia Havey is guilty of doing that? I'd like you to see that email conversation too if I can send it to you. It's so full of juicy stuff.
From Anonymous:
Over the past couple of years I've been in the company of several people who are proponents of both Juice Plus products and its accompanying business practices. I've heard them in conversation with others about the products. On every occasion when the product or stated research was questioned, the Juice Plus salesperson became very defensive and aggressive. Claims began surfacing stating "I know a person who got better from (name the health problem) by taking (name the Juice Plus product)." Then the Juice Plus person began putting their 'mark' on-the-spot, asking them to prove to them that their claims are not true. When their 'mark' continues to be disinterested or suspicious of the claims, products or practices, the Juice Plus salesperson dismisses them with ominous statements like "Well, I know people that will be around a lot longer because they're using Juice Plus". It reminds me of cult practices and thinking like "If you don't believe what I/we say is true, you're wrong/misinformed/against us." I feel sorry for both parties because one loses by alienation and the other by being accosted.
From Anonymous:
Juice Plus is a scam. Sellers of Juice Plus try to shame you into buying it..."well, if YOU don't want to be healthy, I guess you shouldn't buy it". And, how much do you want to spend to be healthy? It just doesn't work!! Eat the real thing--fruits and vegetables -- like all of the experts advise. Leave the multi-level marketing scams alone. It ISN"T the cure-all they claim and there is NO credible evidence to back Juice Plus.
