MonaVie Scam? |
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[MonaVie has threatened legal action against me twice in an attempt to prevent you from reading this article below. Probably more important, the 3600+ comments which follow this article are jam-packed with research. While the organization of the comments are not ideal, you can find a subset of that information in a more organized form at the MonaVie Scam website.]
Is MonaVie a Scam?
Is MonaVie a Scam?
Was my wife targeted to buy snake-oil? Hundreds of people weigh in.
My wife is an active member in a nation-wide, young adults group. I am a member as well, but I'm not nearly as active (lack of time, plus my Laziness kicks in). The groups' goals are very noble. They aim to help members with public speaking and event planning skills while raising money for charity through local businesses. Recently my wife went to a meeting and was gone longer than usual. I got a little concerned, so I called her to find out how the meeting was going. It turned out that it wasn't a typical meeting any more - one of the members had invited some business acquaintances of his. When she got back, she told me about the meeting. It turned into a presentation of an energy/antioxidant juice called MonaVie.
About MonaVie
This juice is a blend of 19 juices with the most referenced being the açaí (a-sigh-eee) berry. The açaí berry supposedly has many, many antioxidant properties. I like to be as healthy as I possible, so why wouldn't I incorporate MonaVie into my diet?
The Price of MonaVie
The business behind the juice detracts from its value. The juice itself is not cheap. It's $40 a bottle with a bottle lasting only around one week. That means you can expect to pay around $175 a month for this juice. For many people, that's a significant car payment. For this kind of money, one would expect some sort of guarantee, perhaps a popular, publicly-traded, pharmaceutical company standing behind it. The company also doesn't publish how much of the acai berry is each bottle.
MonaVie and Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)
Beyond MonaVie juice being expensive, it is sold by distributors who are compensated in based on a multi-level marketing structure. Some of you familiar with Amway or Quixtar might understand how this works. For those who are new to multi-level marketing, the goal of the organization is to recruit more sellers and "incentivize" them for recruiting them. I'm not a big fan of such systems, it seems like the founders of the company always make a fair amount, and the people who join later end up with few sales and no one else to recruit.
The people the other night were trying to coerce my wife to buy two bottles, at nearly $100, and potentially become a distributor. My wife balked at such a thing, largely because she knew that I would want to do some research before spending that kind of money. They ended up giving her two bottles of juice to try for free. I fear that my wife may notice a placebo effect and grow a taste for the expensive juice.
MonaVie: Perhaps not a Scam?
Is it possible that it could work? Well Wikipedia references that Red Sox players Jonathan Papelbon and J.D. Drew as fans. As Red Sox fans ourselves, this is high praise. I read an article from Fortune magazine that had high praise of MonaVie coming from Sumner Redstone. That's a very influential person and a very influential magazine. I did find one scientific piece of research, a PDF by AIBMR Life Sciences (update: it seems to have been removed from the site). The clinical research shows that it does indeed deliver more antioxidants than a placebo (update: in the comments it has come out that the researcher of the study was supplying MonaVie with its acai - sounds very biased to me). However, it doesn't compare to less costly solutions, like a multivitamin, V8 Fusion Acai Berry
Update: There have been thousands of comments here... I urge people interested in making a decision about whether to buy or sell MonaVie to read them.
Further Reading from MonaVie Scam:
- MonaVie Medical Testimonies are Pointless - A lot of visitors here leave a testimony about how MonaVie may have been responsible for helping them with some medical conditional. These should not impact your decision whether or not to buy MonaVie and it's explained why here.
- MonaVie Lies about the ORAC score of MonaVie?
- Oprah Sues MonaVie
- Men’s Journal Proves MonaVie Lacks Nutrition
- MonaVie vs. an Apple (Hint: the apple wins easily)
mona vie, mona vie scam, MonaVie, monavie scam
... and focuses on:MonaVie
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4,678 Responses to “MonaVie Scam?”
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It seems that with over 4500 comments people are finding this page slow to load and difficult to leave additional comments on. You can find a nearly complete archive of comments here. and can click the "Older Comments" link above for the most recent ones. I highly recommend reading them before posting. There's a high chance your concern has been addressed already.
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Here is my favorite, likely unnoticed, part of that video (for those who aren’t going to click on the Older Comments link see http://www.vicksburgpost.com/articles/2010/01/10/features/doc4b47880b24c19464623728.txt and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuP5ia7-vHo).
Raggy Ragsdale wrote:
“Yeah, we’ve noticed. There are folks in the contest using ip changers & view boosters. The rest of us don’t stand a chance. If I watch my video 10 times today, it MIGHT count as one hit. Some of these folks have broken videos, no soundtracks (they could have secured the rights in about 10 minutes but didn’t bother.) They get 5000+ views a day because they have software, which is legal so who cares? Sad, but that’s life. In the real world of greed vs creativity – greed wins every time. raggy”
The irony of a MonaVie distributor lamenting that MonaVie created a contest that was easily gamed and then ending with “greed wins every time” is just too much for me.
I liked that the Vicksburg Post wrote, “Raggy Ragsdale, a MonaVie distributor and minister of Porters Chapel United Methodist Church, entered the contest by writing a song about the healthy effects of MonaVie…” I am still trying find something in the song about any healthy effects from MonaVie. Did I miss it?
By the way, there’s an interesting defense of Dr. Schauss “double placebo” test and a response to some of Vogel’s criticisms of that here: http://www.juicescam.com/monavie-vs-an-apple/. I don’t know why he didn’t put it here, but I thought I’d mention it. Some of it is over my head scientifically.
Some defense! Couldn’t have been much more feeble. I posted my reply.
Drat, they have comment approval turned on. I’m sure my comment won’t ever be approved for posting.
What a joke of a video!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuP5ia7-vHo
Let me give you an example of one snake oil salesman from Victoria,BC. who represents this brand.He owned and operated a pedicab business for over 20 years in this city.He made hundreds of dollars by hiring undocumented foreign workers as well as putting out unlicensed vehicles.He is also an unsuccessful financial advisor.Perhaps the reason he may not be doing too well as an advisor
is because he has been calling on people he has screwed over in the past.Swallow that.
This one isn’t by MonaVie, but I noticed some probable MonaVie distributor committing trademark infringement against Google with the t-shirts he has for sale on Ebay.
Read: MonaVie is Liquid Google?!?! (Trademark Infringement Inside).
On the positive side, it kind of makes Raggy Ragsdale look a little better.
The video submissions in the Emv content/promotion were, sorry to say, all pretty bad – http://monaviemediacenter.com/vote-for-your-favorite-monavie-emv-youtube-video
Monavie Brutally Rapes Its Distributors — Part Deux
The latest batch of crap from Monavie HQ has been unveiled.
http://monaviemediacenter.com/monavie-mall-stocked-with-brand-new-sales-tools
Is there any doubt that the real end game of the Monavie scam is to sell grossly overpriced sales tools to their own distributors? What kind of deluded idiot would pay $3.25 for a 10-cent promo brochure?
http://monaviemall.com/sales-tools/brochures/m-mun-brochure-10-pk-en.html
Obviously, it’s the same kind of idiot that would pay $45 for a $3 bottle of benzoate-laced grape juice concentrate.
This isn’t a juice business; it is an overpriced brochure and substandard motivational training business.
my blood pressure and sugar level decreases after a week using monavie
That makes your opinion of MonaVie a very positive one; it doesn’t make the juice “miraculous”.
Health problems come for a myriad of reasons.
We can use 1001 different things for a problem, and most of them will help.
Placebo has a lot to do with our health, remember.
I’ve seen advertised “pure, organic Acai juice” for $19.95.
MonaVie, according to Forbes Mag, used less than $5.00 worth on their juice. The rest is juices you can have for a few quarters.
I hope you take time to really research and find out how to get rid of you HBP and SL; MonaVie wont do the “full” trick.
I’d be interested to hear any opinions on the product Wellmune that is in the new Monavie juice. I know this site has some great researchers so I thought I’d ask. Paul Clayton, PHD is on the Wellmune advisory board and I can’t find anything negative about him on the internet. I was told by a distributor that he was at a convention last weekend talking on Wellmune and Monavie. I’d be interested in finding out if Wellmune could be gotten cheaper than through Monavie. I’ll continue to try and research. Thanks!
Comments here discuss Wellmune quite a bit as well as reference a few cheaper places to obtain it.
I have not read how much Wellmune is in M(mun) and would be curious to find out that amount.
I just made $1800 last week as a distributor. A lot of people complain this is a scam because they have not put in the effort to train properly and end up failing.
As for the price of the juice, check out the fruits in it: acai berry, white grape, aronia, acerola, purple grape, passion fruit, camu camu, banana, lychee fruit, apple, kiwi, pomegranate, prune, wolfberry, pear, bilberry, cranberry, blueberry, cupuacu. How many do you recognize? The fruits in there are rare, thus expensive
Monavie Distributor,
The only fruit that you need to consider is white grape juice. Very inexpensive, and added by many juice producers as a filler. The FDA regulations only require that the ingredients are listed in order of predominance.
So, theoretically, they could produce a batch using mostly white grape juice, and adding a pinch of each of the remaining fruits.
The low anthocyanin levels of MonaVie certainly indicate a lack of pigment producing fruits (acai, bilberry, cranberry, etc..)
Let’s see. You’ve not provided your name or your distributor number, and so you’ve left us no possible way to verify your well-worn claims. Par for the course, really. If it wasn’t for your admittedly novel attempt to equate unfamiliarity with rarity, you’d pretty-much be a carbon copy of every other one of the countless shills who attempted unsuccessfully to peddle their magical Jesus juice on this blog.
Thanks for the amusing deviation. That’s about the only thing of any value you’ve brought to the table here today.
Someone pointed me to an interview of Dr. Ralph Carson a co-founder of MonaVie. Beyond violating quite a few of MonaVie’s own FTC guidelines, the interview was quite illuminating (in that it further shows that MonaVie is a scam).
Check it out here: MonaVie’s Dr. Carson on CBS Radio with my commentary.
YouTube Dr. Paul Clayton part 1-4. You will see wht m(mun) does. He is one of the leading health scientists in the world and said tht M(Mun) is critical to health, and the best he has seen 50-100 years! Monavie is not a scam. Ernest and Young would not tag their name to it if it was. Nor would the Boston red sox, anaheim angels, or houston rockets if it was. And it definitely wouldn’t have project (MORE Project) in the slums of Brazil to get homeless and orphaned children fed, clothed and educated, if it was a scam.
[Editor's note: Fixed a lot of typos above]
There looks to be a lot of controversy on Wellmune, the main thing that M(mun) touts. For one, tests seemed to show that it didn’t prevent colds, nor did it make them last any less long. For another it can be gotten for a lot less money. The studies are done on something called WGP 3-6 (which as far as I can tell is the generic version of MonaVie — think Bayer vs. Aspirin). You can get a couple of months supply for around $40 at this place: http://www.lifesourcebasics.com/products.cfm as well as other retailers (just do an Internet search). How long does $40 of M(mun) last you?
Those sports teams are in the business of winning games. They are too busy evaluating players and conducting their core business to evaluate their PAID sponsors. Yes, MonaVie pays the Red Sox to be their Official Fruit Juice. How is Ernest and Young attached to MonaVie again?
Unfortunately, they are hurting those people in Brazil. They admit that they are “suffering” because they are losing the acai they depend on. Bloomberg wouldn’t lie about that.
I’ve watched the presentation by Dr. Clayton, and I have a few quick questions:
1) What’s his PhD in? I understand his undergraduate training is pharmacology, but the info regarding his PhD seems to be scarce.
2) The entire presentation was pretty much about the benefits of Wellmune. I imagine he could give the same presentation to any group that adds Wellmune to its product.
3) I didn’t see where there was any synergistic benefit to adding Wellmune to MonaVie as oppossed to adding it to water.
4) So, by taking Wellmune, the study group was absent from work 1.38 times less than the control group? Yawn. Considering, a worker will take an entire day off when calling in sick, this is unimpressive. How often will a co-worker call in a half day sick?
This borders on Schauss-like weasel science.
5) Dr. Clayton mentioned the Wellmune dosage concentration as 2 mg. per kilogram.
So, a 170 lb. individual would need 154 mg. of Wellmune added to the daily serving of MonaVie to make it effective.
Is Wellmune added at that level? Or is it another “guess how much acai we added” game?
You know what makes me irritated, people that bash a company without giving their 110% at it. all these people that try something for two weeks and they don’t make a million dollars at they call it a scam. Monavie is a business not a get rich scheme. What people don’t understand is that the product does work, the componsation plan does work,and it has saved many relationships along the way.
what people don’t understand is how the compinsation plan actually works. well i’m going to explain it the best way it can.
you get signed up wiht a left and right leg. you want to get at least two people signed in on your apprentice leg (left leg). once either you or someone upline gets ten people in the left leg you start your own business leg (right leg). you then put your own five people in that leg and repeat the process for each person in that leg. yeah you get paid off your shortest leg, but what people don’t relize is you can have someone in your left leg that puts in 20 people they will be at a higher level than you because you get paid off your shortest leg. whats nice is monavie banks your points off your longer leg as long as you stay on autoship. once you build the shorter leg longer than the leg that was long you get paid that week on the banked personal volume (pv). so lets say i had 30,000 points in my long leg and 1000 points in my short leg, i would get paid $100.00 for that week. now lets say i work hard on showing plans that week and pass up that longer leg. i would get $3000.00 that was banked on my now short leg.
i hope that explains why this is not a pyramid because ITS NOT!!!!
in a pyramid a lot of times you only get paid on three tiers down by percentage. were with monavie you have your upline helping you build your business together.
Did you read the article Thomas? I didn’t try to make any money from this company. My complaints in this article were not about the business of selling MonaVie… it was that it doesn’t make sense for a consumer to buy it.
What does the product do? What is the work that is done? No one mentions it, so obviously it doesn’t “work.” The compensation plan obviously doesn’t “work”. It has killed many relationships along the way. Thomas it looks like you are just throwing out marketing with no evidence… which is an epic fail on your part.
Hmm, just look at the Income Disclosure Statement, explain all you want, it’s looks like a pyramid… it is quite obvious to all
Still chuckling …I now have a bizarre mental image of a Hieronymus Bosch type of pyramid made of legs….
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights
Thanks Thomas. It made me laugh, at least.
Put your left leg out, shake your right leg all about…that’s how you do the MonaVie hustle
Not sure if this has been shared, but found a site that noted that earlier this month, MonaVie filed a lawsuit against XOWii and related buisness associates (most of who left MonaVie) for bad mouthing MonaVie and its products in the hopes of bringing MonaVie folks over to XOWii. The claims being made by MonaVie are very similiar to the ones used by Amway when it went after Orin and folks. I’m an unfortunate spouse with a wife whose been sucked into MonaVie, and would love nothing more than to see MonaVie implode. Wonder if the claims that MonaVie states is being made by the defendants have any truth?? http://www.theadvocategroup.net/monavie-vs-xowii-et-al/
Being reading this blog for months, and love the insights and comments. To bad I can’t get my wife to at laest read Food Tech’s sensible analysises. By the way, don’t know if any of you venture out to the MORE Foundation website, but Kathy Larson (lets keep it all in the family!!!) who heads the MORE foundation on behalf of MonaVie, has been stating for over a year that they would be filing a financial statement so that one can see the monies and how their being used (this was suppose to be for 2008), but still no posting. MonaVie used to pay for 7 US associates supporting MORE, but that has been reduced to 4, though they do have an opening for an assistant. Anyways, I work for a finacial organization that supports charities/foundations, and thought I would try looking up financial information for the MORE foundation using an availiable vendor that the general public can use to research registered charitable organizations for tax filings, financial statements, etc. No surprise that if you look up the MORE Foundation, you will find no available filings. What kills be about the MORE Foundation, is the comments of Dallin that they didn’t want to create a charity that would be fore the use of promoting MonaVie, from everything I’ve seen and heard, that has to be the biggest false statement of all. They should admit that it was all about the marketing, and what better way to get folks believing in your company than tugging at the hearts of folks by stating its all about the children and environment of Brazil. Oh by the way, when you do a fund raiser by setting up a booth where folks can sample MonaVie and give a donation, do you think the upline and Monavie do still collect their cut. Talk about a conflict of interest.
@Unfortunate Spouse,
I have been watching and waiting for the same information from Katy Holt-Larson at the MORE project. It’s been almost 2 years now, and nothing.
Smoke and mirrors.
Hmmm, as to this:
http://www.theadvocategroup.net/monavie-vs-xowii-et-al/
I have one thought provoking question and one comment.
Question: Why would MonaVie demand a Jury Trial?
Comment: Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Dallin Larson declares 2010 as a “Year of Miracles”.
There are quite a few things that might grab your attention here, namely the MORE project and what’s up with Dallin’s niece? Thought she and her Mom were in an entirely different MLM.
http://monaviemediacenter.com/2010-anaheim-regional-meeting-recap
Also of note…still no new diamonds in the Rank advancement section. Wonder why that is???
http://monavieonthemove.com/rankadvancements.php
Oh Geez, this might get me in trouble…but…ummmm…does the wording in this first paragraph from Blog MonaVie’s post dated 1/28/10 look or sound at all familiar???
http://monaviemediacenter.com/blogs/a-year-of-miracles-take-the-attitude-of-gratitude-challenge/
Odd coincidence? Unfortunate slip? I’m not going to debate this with anyone, I am just linking to a blog by Shante that unfortunately sounds pretty similar to something that someone from somewhere posted here quite some time back.
Some interesting reading here, too:
http://www.facebook.com/MonaVie
I am thinking of joining monavie. What if I go from zero to 2k per month in 6 months? Does that mean monavie is not a scam? what I dont make any money? is it a scam then? what is the purpose of this website? are you compensated for this site?
Whether you are able to sell MonaVie or not sell MonaVie is irrelevant to whether it’s a scam. It’s the value of the product to the consumer that determines if it’s a scam. If I sell 1987 Yugos for $50,000 by claiming they’ll take you back in time when they reach 44 miles per hour is that a scam? It most certainly is… and it doesn’t matter if I con zero people or 2000 people.
What’s the purpose of this website? Did you think to click the big link at the top that says “About?” Read it for yourself: http://www.lazymanandmoney.com/about/. I am compensated on this website by advertising. I do not sell any juice and am not paid by any juice maker.
Are you really just considering joining Monavie, Gordon? One would imagine that if your claim holds true, then you found this site while searching for information on Monavie, no? And yet your line of questioning is awfully defensive. It doesn’t seem like you’re considering joining as much as it does that you’ve already made up your mind.
Listen, Monavie relies on claims both it and its distributors make about it’s juice’s scientifically implausible properties as a magical cure-all in order to justify its high price. In case that didn’t register, the juice is sold on lies and deception. Nobody would spend ten times what they have to on fruit-juice unless it’s made to appear to be something fantastic, which Monavie most certainly is not. That is what makes Monavie a scam, Gordon. Whether or not you’ll be able to effectively lie to the sick and weak of will doesn’t make the product any less of a scam.
Now as for why that matters to us, besides being responsible consumerism to question why Monavie sells its fruit-juice for ten times what other businesses sell essentially the same product for, I personally think it’s evil of Monavie to lie to sick people to sell this crap. It doesn’t have any healing properties, so telling someone to drop his or her medication in favor of this overpriced snake-oil is beyond irresponsible, and I find it to be incredibly inhumane that distributors routinely do it. What makes it all the worse is that according to Monavie’s own earnings reports, most distributors are making just under minimum-wage.
So for some of us, this is more than simply being a consumer-advocacy issue. For some of us, this is about undoing the damage that Monavie and its distributors are doing to people looking for a cure for what ails them, and who buy into the Monavie hype out of desperation. I would hate to see one of you kill someone, especially for chump-change.
My name is Cole Thornton and I am a 19 year old college student. I will try my best to go through the mess that is this blog. It appears to me that many of you have never tried the product itself. (If this is not true please feel free to let me know.) The reality is this product is a live food. It can’t be classified or broken down into a an itemized recipe. The main berry acai is harvested four times a year. As I hope you know fruits hold different nutritional components based upon what time of year they are harvested and how ripe they are affects what they fruit has to offer nutritionally. Many of you wonder why Mona Vie is said to be better than other fruit juices. This is due to the fact that the acai component is actually a puree. The pulp and skin go into the juice and this is key because the only nutritional components of a fruit are in the skin and pulp. Another thing to be taken into consideration as soon as a fruit is picked it begins losing its nutritional content. Mona Vie uses a patented flash pasteurization process that it performs on site and only it has access to. This has been proven to retain 80-90% of the antioxidants. Other juices are not the same because they only use concentrate and do not have the same quality fruit going in, if any fruit at all.
In regards to Mona Vie’s latest product the M(mun) which includes the component Wellmune if any of you would like to get a good glimpse at what it actually entail I suggest you watch the Webcast of their latest Regional in Anaheim. Now I know you will probably will balk and be like that is a corporate sponsored event and Dr. Paul Clayton is “supposed” to say that, but I think some key things need to be remembered. He is third party. Also, why would you not want to be part of a movement that is trying to allow for people to become healthy again? A key quote Dr. Clayton talks about is that most pharmaceuticals that target viruses are useless now. So when all of you who say we can just take some for of over the counter do that you are contributing to the overuse of drugs and the continuation of super viruses that are resistant to them.
Now a major part of most of all of your arguments is that the testimonials are too much. I can understand that for many of you it is hard to see how a food can really affect your diet. I however spent four months this past summer researching heavily into this topic. Now Mona Vie the company tries very hard to keep “claims” out because there is no way for them to effectively document and prove the stories true 100%. I have have read labs performed by a Homeopathic Doctor and Chiropractic Doctor in my area and have seen the results first hand. I could give specific examples if you would like but it seems that many of you do not care to hear.
Also, most of you seem to think that drinking this juice to “feel an effect” is a casual event, like once every few days. The truth is there is no time table for as to when you may actually feel better. Some feel it in the first glass others after three months. Everyone’s body reacts differently this is something that you need to take into consideration.
This is all that I have time for right now but feel free to post back and I will try my best to respond.
Another thing I would like to add is someone commented about the lack of new diamonds, i think you failed to see to two new Blue Diamonds who accomplished this feat in a little under two months.
To your health.
Cole
There’s some good discussion heating up with MonaVie presenter Dr. Paul Clayton responding to my post.
In quick reference to your comment that a similar brand can be bought for less, I would like to inform you that Mona Vie has over 40 patents on M(mun). (Some are still in the approval phase.)This includes the Wellmune component which means that it is again exclusive to Mona Vie. As also have taken to reading about 200 or so of the archive blogs, interesting but there is still a lot to be addressed. I will to try get back on later this evening.
To your health.
Just fyi, you might want to do your homework before posting your comments tonight: http://www.wellmune.com/patents.html. The posters on this blog have done their homework. As you can see, Wellmune is patented by biothera, NOT Monavie(which btw, makes it NOT exclusive to monavie as I can buy Wellmune as an individual). I found this information out in less than 3 minutes using Google.
Thanks Jeff, I was out to lunch (literally) and couldn’t point out that Cole Thornton is misinformed about MonaVie having any kind of patent on Wellmune.
If he wants a much cheaper source of Wellmune, he can try this place as an example.
I’ll try to circle around to address his other comment above.
Cole, a few things.
First of all, Monavie is a drink, not a drug. You treat on dangerous ground when you compare the two. Furthermore, for Monavie to be classified as a drug, they’d have to get FDA certification, which is something that Monavie doesn’t appear to be all that interested in doing. Why is that? Because it would expose the Monavie lie. Why else would they sit on such a goldmine?
Second, nobody has ever bothered to establish just how much Acai berry goes into Monavie, including Monavie itself. However, Food Tech has shared some interesting studies about Monavie that show that whatever the amount of Acai in the bottle, it’s not doing much for the product. Same with the processes Monavie use to get the Acai in the bottle. It’s all irrelevant.
Third, your assertion that it might take longer for some to feel the effects of Monavie than others has already been established to be one of those things you folks conveniently say in order to explain away why it’s not working for people. Truth is, if anyone is feeling better after drinking this crap for any length of time, it’s the placebo effect at best, or there are other more important factors that aren’t being disclosed, such as a positive alteration to one’s diet. Monavie itself isn’t doing anything on it’s own.
Fourth, Monavie doesn’t want its distributors sharing testimony, not because they have no way of proving if they’re 100 percent true (Which is actually true, but not in the way you’re implying…), but because the FDA prohibits companies from using testimony to sell their products. However, that hasn’t stopped Monavie itself from sharing testimonials, oddly enough.
Fifth, if the issue is that most folks don’t eat healthy enough, and that drinking Monaive is conducive to a healthier diet, then why not just improve your diet and cut Monavie out of the equation altogether? At best, Monavie would be a supplement to a healthy diet, though even then it’s not necessary. One could add a single apple per day to his diet and get more benefits from it that Monavie could ever offer.
Sixth, Wellmune is already patented by Biothera. Now Monavie may or may not be able to patent a drink that contains Wellmune as an ingredient, but that doesn’t mean it owns that component any more than PepsiCo owns caramel coloring for including it in Pepsi.
There’s more, but it’s all been thoroughly debunked many times over, something that you’d know if you had bothered to actually read this blog before posting. That’s just another of you Monavie shill’s amusing traits, by the way. You traipse in here under the guise of someone who has read all the posts and wants to educate us, but the chances that you read further back than this very page are about as good as me growing another penis. You’re not here to help anyone, this is just more of the usual self-serving tripe you folks appear all too eager to stink up the internet with.
Cole, Forgot to add: Viruses cannot be killed no matter what they are (Think hepititis c) now bacteria on the other hand is a different story (think penicillin). This product is not “live food” If you want a live drink, go grab yourself a great German Hefewiezen (Paulaner is a good choice) as the yeast in the bottom of the bottle is live yeast… Heck any beer that states it is “refermented” in the bottle (or a top fermented ale) will contain live yeast in it to continually mature the beer in the bottle.
Well said, Jeff. Seems to me as if Cole’s concern is that using too many pills makes them less effective over time, then the same could be said about Monavie, no?
The issue isn’t using drugs in and of itself, but rather, that overuse increases your tolerance to the drugs to the point that they eventually lose their effectiveness. Now if we buy that Monavie has similar properties to a drug, then drinking it a few times a day every day for the rest of your life would eventually render it useless as well, right?
So yeah, Cole’s logic falls apart at nearly every turn, which exposes that it’s all just made-up bullcrap. So why would we buy all this nonsense when none of these shills has ever posted anything that stands up to scrutiny? Why don’t they realize that they’re their own worst enemies and just shut the hell up already?
Wow, I was going to try to address Cole’s comment above, but Cyberxion does it quite well. The only think that I’d add is that the testimonial thing is more of an FTC thing according to MonaVie’s blog.
Cole, you should review the article at Dr. Paul Clayton responding to my post… I think you have by your other 40 patent comment. Dr. Paul Clayton responded and admitted that antibiotics are not useless now. I think he made the mistake of assuming that his audience was smart enough to realize he was exaggerating (as he readily admits).
The other statement of Cole’s that I’d like to address is “I can understand that for many of you it is hard to see how a food can really affect your diet.” I would expect that food affects your diet 100%… I think we can all agree on that statement.
No one here is arguing against healthy food, fruit, juice, or anything like that. We are looking for concrete evidence that an ounce of MonaVie is 20 times more healthy than ounce of another juice like V8 Fusion… since it sells for 1/20 of the price.
Cyberxion, He’s just a disciple following the prophet monavie and spewing it’s gospel. I came on to this blog about 2 months ago questioning this product and it didn’t take me long to realize that 2 + 2 doesn’t equal 6. The quantity of knowledge on this blog alone should be enough to prevent you from wasting your time or money on this stuff. But all you have to do is a good google search and you’ll find even more damning evidence. It really gets me how in the information superhighway age, people still don’t do research before spending $120 a month on a product that claims it can do just about anything (might even dance a slasa if you wanted it to).
Sorry Lazy, I got the FDA and the FTC mixed up when I wrote that, but I do know the difference between the two.
That is a silly error to make though, so thanks for clarifying it. I didn’t notice it, and I’d hate to see my point obscured because of a brain-fart that I didn’t catch. :)
No problem Cyberxion… as you say sometime people take a small error like this and blow it out of proportion even if the underlying point is right. I also liked the opportunity to link directly to MonaVie’s official blog to prove the point. It has a lot more weight when MonaVie itself says not to use testimonials.
I absolutely agree Jeff. Well said.
I do hope that Lazy continues to reach folks like he reached you. It’s a shame to see people being taken in by something that isn’t really worth it on either side of the coin, either as a distributor or buyer. Like you said, the information is out there, folks just need to start using it.
Cole,
I won’t go over what the other writers have already written, but I’d like to respond to this comment that you made:
” Another thing to be taken into consideration as soon as a fruit is picked it begins losing its nutritional content. Mona Vie uses a patented flash pasteurization process that it performs on site and only it has access to. This has been proven to retain 80-90% of the antioxidants.”
The flash pasteurization process is for the finished MonaVie product, not for the acai fruit. Obviously, you are aware that pasteurization is a common process in the food industry, and there is nothing special about the MonaVie process.
I believe that you are talking about the freeze drying process of the acai, which has a patent. Again, there is nothing earth shattering about this process, either. Freeze drying has been around for a very long time. This process just happens to be adapted for acai fruit.
It’s a moot point anyway, because if you compare the ORAC scores of the freeze-dried acai concentrate against the ORAC score of MonaVie, you’ll see that the amount of acai used is minimal.
ORAC of Freeze-dried acai: 1,027 umoles/gm.
ORAC of MonaVie: 22.81 umoles/ml.
A drop of 1,004.19 umoles
The above data is from Dr. Schauss.
To further back this up, in Dr. Schausses study of acai, he presented the predominant antioxidant as anthocyanins. His analysis listed the anthocyanin level of the freeze dried acai concentrate as 3.19 mg/gm.
Chromadex labs found an anthocyanin level in MonaVie of 0.095 mg/ml.
Using the ORAC and anthocyanin tests, we can confidently say that there is very little acai in this product.
No worries Lazy, and thanks for the link to Monavie’s blog.
I think it’s amusing that they warn folks away from making unsubstantiated, atypical claims, not necessarily because they’re afraid of the FTC in and of itself, but because they think that their competitors might turn them in for their own gain. I don’t think that they understand the scope of what they’d doing.
All I can say is that I have no stake in any juice whatsoever, besides having something of an affinity for V8, and yet I would like nothing more than to see Monavie taken down. If I knew how to go about doing it, I’d have long-since taken the claims posted here and elsewhere to the FTC for their perusal.
I think that’s the most frustrating thing for me. We’ve got enough fodder to really hit these folks where it hurts, but I don’t know how to go about doing that.
You’d think people would use google for the powerful search engine that it is… I actually have only drank a shot glass of this stuff. The bottle was given to me free and I really couldn’t drink more than that as something about the drink made me gag.
To Jeff and Lazy Man,
I misspoke about the Wellmune patent, what I meant was the combo of the Wellmune and the fruit of M(mun).
Cole, That’s cool. I just know that if you do enough research (and really it doesn’t take much), you’ll quickly see that this stuff is just snake oil. You’ve got a food specialist on this blog who’s done more than enough to debunk this stuff. When something really works, people do clinical studies. They put it through the courses. And even then, things can change. Look at the diet drug Fen Phen. It was the wonder diet drug until all the negative side effects started appearing. Monavie has more suspicious stuff about it than positive stuff.
To Cyberxion,
First off I would like to ask you to point out where I have labeled Mona Vie as a drug. I have tried very hard to inform you that I do not think this is so. i believe I classified this as a “live food” right?
Second in reference to my previous statement about the Homeopathic and Chiropractic doctors. They have both found out that about 1/3 of the bottle is acai. This is similarly concluded with a post from 2008 in which a member of the Product Support Team said that 25% of the bottle is acai. Again you can say this is biased and you probably will.
Thirdly, this idea of bodies reacting at different paces to a similar effector is proven daily. Take for example Quaker Oatmeal or Cheerio’s, they both have an FDA approval to say that they can lower your cholesterol level. Now do expect to get the same result by using the same product or expect immediate results? No, you might lower a bit one week and more next week or more the first week depending on the product. Mona Vie works the same way because it is a food. That is why you can not expect the so called instantaneous results that you might see with pharmaceuticals.
Fourthly, I did intend the testimony remark in the sense that you think I did not, I am well aware of that law. Can you please post a single product claim made by Mona Vie Corporate.
Fifth, do tell what you see as a healthy diet and then I will be happy to provide with more than sufficient evidence.
Finally, I am not here to promote Mona Vie, I make more than enough as it already is, I am merely trying to provide you with some answers and to ensure that there is still such a thing as a good debate. Furthermore, it appears that you will have to attempt to grow another penis as I have indeed read beyond this page.
To your health.
Jeff,
Thanks to my research this past summer I know that diet choice and food can kill viruses. I would be more than happy to provide you with sources. Also, when I say live food, it means that the berries are never the same, each batch is different which alters the exact nutritional package.
To your health.
Cyberxion,
the difference between how foods and drugs affect your body is quite drastic. You are right about how when you continually take pills you create a tolerance. When you take a drug there is a connection between the ligand(drug) and the receptor. It is very specific and certain ligands can only affect certain receptors. However the problem with ligands is when released they shut every receptor they can connect to down. This in turn cause the receptors to perform what is called receptor down-regulation and the receptor goes into the cytoplasm and the ligands no longer have any effect. This is different from food which is not looking to connect via a ligand. Example, can you tell me why orange juice continually makes you feel better when you are sick and does not lose its effect?
To your health.
By your definition of “live food” any fruit based beverage is live food. As for viruses, we all know, the flu vaccine is actually the flu (either killed in a lab or if using the spray form, a very weakened version). Once the vaccine is inside you, it stimulates your immune system into thinking it’s been infected by the flu recently. Therefore, your immune system produces antibodies against the virus. These antibodies bind to the virus and target it for destruction. Then, when you actually do come in contact with the real live virus, your body is armed and ready to fight off the illness before it even starts. This is the way you kill a virus. Monavie is not a virus and thus cannot kill a virus. The only thing that kills a virus in your body is your immune system. This is one of the reasons many people do not want to take the vaccine. There’s the possibility they may contract it when taking the vaccine. While monavie may have many nutritional benefits, the benefits versus the costs do not add up. I could easily get the same nutritional benefits by using other things that do not cost near as much.
Lazy Man,
In response to your statement about no of you arguing against healthy food and wondering why Mona Vie cost so much more. Having worked with a Homeopathic Doctor who studied and analyzed the effects of Mona Vie on humans I have been able to see the results where Mona Vie had an equal or greater effect on his patients than their previously required treatment. He worked mostly with cancer patients and his aim was to help them with food. His treatment required the purchase of a Vita-mix blender and three daily “smoothies” of organic fresh fruits. So I am wondering why you might consider a drink that had the same effect of blender concoction for less a detriment to your diet?
To your health.
Cole, given your recent work with this Homemopathic Doctor, when should we see MonaVie making those studies public so that the world can benefit from it???
CT said: “First off I would like to ask you to point out where I have labeled Mona Vie as a drug. I have tried very hard to inform you that I do not think this is so. i believe I classified this as a “live food” right?”
The term “live food” is meaningless in this context. There are fruit juice concentrates, dried juice powder, and preservatives in Monavie…it’s not more of a “live food” than any nutritionally superior and less expensive product, like 100% grape juice?
CT said: “Second in reference to my previous statement about the Homeopathic and Chiropractic doctors. They have both found out that about 1/3 of the bottle is acai.”
They who??? You prove nothing when you present claims like this from vapor. Name the sources and present the evidence, otherwise the claim is meaningless, and in all likelihood, misleading. And a chiropractor is not a definitive source when it comes to guess-timating the amount of an ingredient in a fruit juice blend. Sounds like a pretty silly claim to me.
CT said: “This is similarly concluded with a post from 2008 in which a member of the Product Support Team said that 25% of the bottle is acai.”
Au contrare. The company officially claims that the recipe is proprietary and that the amount/percentage of acai remains a guarded secret. All objective data (anthocyanin/ polyphenol content, dilution with many other fruit juice concentrates) suggests that the acai content is far lower than 25%. In either case, we whouldn’t have to guess. If it contained a significant amount of acai, the company should be boasting about it on the label.
CT said: “Thirdly, this idea of bodies reacting at different paces to a similar effector is proven daily. Take for example Quaker Oatmeal or Cheerio’s, they both have an FDA approval to say that they can lower your cholesterol level.”
Are you suggesting that Monavie can lower cholesterol? If not, what exactly are you claiming that it can do?
CT said: “Now do expect to get the same result by using the same product or expect immediate results? No, you might lower a bit one week and more next week or more the first week depending on the product. Mona Vie works the same way because it is a food. That is why you can not expect the so called instantaneous results that you might see with pharmaceuticals.”
Actually, Cheerios makes specific claims as to what to expect – “lowers cholesterol by 4% in 6 weeks”. No one at Monavie has the gumption to make any specific claims about expected benefits.
CT said: “Fourthly, I did intend the testimony remark in the sense that you think I did not, I am well aware of that law. Can you please post a single product claim made by Mona Vie Corporate.”
It matters little to consumers whether they are being lied to directly by Corporate or by the minions that were dispatched to spread lies on behalf of the company and its senior executive distributors. The point is that the lies ARE being told.
CT said: “Fifth, do tell what you see as a healthy diet and then I will be happy to provide with more than sufficient evidence.”
Let’s not please. Clearly off-topic.
CT said: “Finally, I am not here to promote Mona Vie, I make more than enough as it already is, I am merely trying to provide you with some answers and to ensure that there is still such a thing as a good debate.”
Sure seems as though you are trying to promote Monavie. However, you haven’t provided answers, just misinformation and redirection; essentially, the same old BS. Not a very well presented debate on your part, I’m sorry to say.
Jeff,
That is true, however food is another way to boost your immune system and safe guard it before hand. In fact depending on your diet it becomes virtually impossible for viruses and bacteria to penetrate your immune system. Mona Vie is a start for those who are not willing to commit to that. Please see my comment to Lazy Man. However, I would not constitute any juice as a live food, specifically those that come from concentrate. The reason I do put Mona Vie in this category is because of the puree.
To your health.
Unfortunate Spouse,
Mona Vie has made many clinical trials public unfortunately many of the readers of this blog do not want to accept them as legitimate because Mona Vie paid for their services. So I tend to find it highly unlikely that they will be released. I also would like to point out that most pharmaceutical companies fund their research too, so should we really trust them?
First Cole, do me a favor in the future and separate your posts into paragraphs. I ask this of you not to be a pedantic asshole, but because your points are harder to follow when you mash them all together into an unrelenting wall of text.
Cole, what you need to understand is that when you make any sort of claim about Monavie’s alleged pharmeceutical benefits, you’re referring to it as if it were a drug whether or not you intended to. This is something that the FDA has gotten on Monvaie’s ass about in the past. Nearly three years ago, actually. And yet Monavie has not sought FDA approval, and still continues to allow its distributors to make atypical claims about the product just the same.
Read the PDF located at the following link.
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/EnforcementActivitiesbyFDA/CyberLetters/ucm056937.pdf
Now that aside, I think Vogel addressed your points well enough. There’s no reason for me to reiterate what he’s already said. Just read that link, okay?
Oh wait a minute, hold on. I do have one more thing to address. You asked me to point you to claims made by Monavie Corporate. Well read the following link. And if you’re not aware of the significance of what you’re reading, then hit Google.
http://www.juicescam.com/monavies-dr-carson-on-cbs-radio/
Cole:
Have you recently looked at the label of any of the MonaVie blends??? I’m looking right now and the only ingredient that is “Puree” is the ACAI, the other 18 fruits are reconstituted or from concentrates depending on the blend!!! Given that we still have no proof of the actual content of the ACAI, not sure how you are justifying this?
Cole:
Sorry, but again you make a statement that is not supported. Food Tech has continously refered back to MonaVie’s own paid studies to make his point. Obvisouly you still have much reading to do if you think you understand where many of these individuals are coming from.
Unfortunate Spouse,
that is precisely why I only included acai. Due to the environment in which it grows it is subject to lots of oxidative stress. This is why there is such a high antioxidant amount. What this means is that the berry is able to adapt to whatever the current environment is. This being said, I previously stated Mona Vie uses berries that are harvested four different times throughout the year. This means that the nutritional make up will be different during flood season when the trees are under water as opposed to when they are above ground. Thus making the acai a live food.
To your health.
Found some interesting information on WebMD and RX List regarding beta-glucans (the ingredient in Wellmune WGP):
“The following doses have been studied in scientific research…7.5 grams twice daily beta glucans fiber from yeast added to juice…”
“Do not take more than 15 grams per day by mouth, and do not use it for longer than 8 weeks.”
“The potential side effects of beta glucans, when taken by mouth, are not known. When used by injection, beta glucans can cause chills, fever, pain at the injection site, headache, back and joint pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, high or low blood pressure, flushing, rashes, decreased number of white blood cells, and increased urine. People with AIDS who take beta glucans have developed thickening of the skin of the hands and feet.”
So here are a few relevant quetions:
1. Does the daily Monavie M-mun regimen provide 15 g of beta-glucan?
2. Will Monavie distributors be warning potential customers that the potential side effects of M-mun are unknown.
3. Will Monavie distributors be warning potential customers to not drink M-mun for longer than 8 weeks?
Cole, I’m not sure how you think the immune system works, but simply drinking Monavie and eating healthier will not turn you into a superhuman. There are myriad factors involved that determine your susceptibility to viruses and bacteria, many of them genetic. Now unless Monavie alters your DNA, there’s simply no way that drinking it will turn you into a superhuman.
You know, the more you post, the more I am led to question if you know what you’re talking about.
Cyberxion, given Cole’s last response, totally agree with you.
Cyberxion,
I know it is hard for you to believe that food is the best way to stay healthy, but I am prepared to try my best to educate you about it. I would list off numerous sources but the odds that you will actually take the time to go through them is highly unlikely.
Over this past summer I heavily researched how diet affects your body. A short summery includes that depending on which foods you do and do not consume you can essentially ensure that your body never experiences disease and even reverse what our society considers major killers. Ex, Heart disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases etc.
Now earlier it was claimed that the subject of food should be left out. This is precisely why Mona Vie gives people the testimonies that they claim. It is the first step towards a reversal of the poor diet choices of our nation. This is exactly why Mona Vie had at least an equal but usually a greater result than the blender drinks I mentioned earlier.
To your health.
Unfortunate spouse,
Please look up oxidative stress.
To your health.
Cole asked,
Is MonaVie really equivalent to a blender concoction? Do you add sodium benzoate to your blender? I wouldn’t typically because I have read in numerous places that when combined with vitamin C it can form a known carcinogen. There’s a good chance that I’m putting something with vitamin C in that blender. Yes MonaVie has both these ingredients.
I don’t think I made the argument that MonaVie is a detriment to one’s diet. I think I’ve said numerous times, that this blog, Lazy Man and MONEY, is about getting the most value for your money. My argument is that there’s currently no evidence that I’ve seen that shows that MonaVie is better than other cheaper juices. In fact there is significant evidence to the contrary. One might want to look at that article in detail as the analysis there carries the weight of a known Director of Clinical Nutrition, which to me outweighs an anonymous homeopathic doctor. Should we even include this doctor or this one both with nationwide audiences reaching millions?
Also, a lot of people are putting pills in a bad context. Let’s take a minute and realize that pills are just a form of transporting substance into the body. That substance could be vitamin C. I don’t think anyone here is saying that we grow immunity to vitamins, so let’s take a step back and consider that pills themselves are not bad. Such statement would be the same as saying that liquids (lumping MonaVie and Ny-Quil in the same category) are bad.
There’s so much more here, but I think quite a few people people (Vogel, Unfortunate Spouse, and Cyberxion) have covered the bulk of it.
Cole, you don’t know anything. That’s the point. You continually spout factual errors and nigh incomprehensible claptrap. You do have a considerable talent for BS, but that’s all any of it is.
Listen, if you were capable of properly comprehending the things that have been said to you, you’d note that my stance was that all the dietary benefits you attribute to Monavie could be had by simply adopting a healthier diet. In fact I could simply add an apple a day to my diet and be better off than I would drinking Monavie, and I wouldn’t have to spend an arm and a leg to do it. So my conclusion was that Monavie isn’t required at all for a healthy diet.
Dunno where you got the idea that I have a hard time accepting the importance of food in relation to health given that, though I’m willing to go out on a limb and guess that if you had even bothered to read what I said in the first place, then you must have a severe short-term memory-loss problem that you may want to have checked out sooner rather than later.
Cole, I could say that my tears cure cancer, and I could even produce people to corroborate that claim, but without any peer-reviewed studies to prove that my tears cure cancer, those claims would be worthless to everyone else. That’s the boat that you find yourself in right now. You regularly allude to being in possession of scientific studies that would put an end to our skepticism once and for all, but you refuse to provide any of it. Well either man up and provide it, or admit that you don’t have it. Quit playing games.
Geez Cole,
Everyone here has been very patient with you. Let’s cut to the numbers. I’ll let you do the research:
What is the ORAC value of 4 oz. of MonaVie?
How many mg. of polyphenols are in 4 oz. of MonaVie?
What is the ORAC value of ONE red delicious apple (150 gm. weight)?
How many polyphenols are in ONE red delicious apple (150 gm. weight)?
Now, these are basic questions. So, if you are such an authority on foods, please answer them.
If you can’t, then I suggest you do a little reading before posting here.
If I’m allowed to try to sum up the last 15-20 comments that started since Cole got here…
Why should we believe that one can’t possibly have a healthy diet without MonaVie? Is there something magical in MonaVie that isn’t in fruit? If the answer to that is yes, then please let us know what it is. If the answer to that is no, then can we all agree that fruit is the best, cheapest solution?
Food Tech showed it above in terms of polyphenols and ORAC, but let’s take another simple none technical term… fiber. A single apple seems to have 4 grams of fiber and 4 ounces of MonaVie has less than 4 (hard to say since the label just says less than 1 gram per ounce). Apple wins.
Cyberxion,
please go to the RAVE diet and lifestyle website at http://www.ravediet.com after you have read the book and watched the video I will then provide with more info on how diet can be used to render disease obsolete. I am currently trying to obtain the nine months of labs and analysis done by my Homeopathic Doctor friend.
I will also point out that although you claim my arguments are useless there are indeed points I have made that you fail to recognize.
Furthermore I assume you know that Mona Vie has FDA approval with Pulse to say that is has the amount of phytosterols required to lower cholesterol.
To your health.
Lazy Man,
Why do MonaVie products contain preservatives?
Preservatives help maintain a product’s freshness. Sodium benzoate, the sodium salt of benzoic acid, can prevent the growth of almost all microorganisms (e.g., yeast, bacteria, and fungi). Benzoic acid is found naturally in tea, anise, most berries, cultured dairy products and cheese, cherry bark, and cassia bark.
Potassium sorbate is a potassium salt version of sorbic acid, a polyunsaturated fat used to inhibit mold growth. Sorbic acid has been repeatedly tested for safety and efficacy, and today stands as one of the most thoroughly tested food additives in history.
MonaVie juices contain the preservative sodium benzoate and the antioxidant vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Is it true that sodium benzoate and vitamin C can react to form benzene?
In the presence of trace amounts of certain metals, which act as catalysts, vitamin C can produce free radicals that convert benzoate into benzene. The FDA and World Health Organization have set a standard for benzene levels in water and that level is 5 parts per billion. MonaVie tests its MonaVie juices for benzene regularly, and we are always well below the FDA’s and World Health Organization’s acceptable levels for benzene
Sodium benzoate naturally occurs in apples, cinnamon, ripe cloves, cranberries, greenage plumes, and prunes. Have you ever had an apple Lazy Man? Be careful because apples have vitamin C and they could mix and form into a carcinogen. Which is ironic because antioxidants suppress free radicals which are caused by carcinogens, so are we to believe apples hurt us?
Also,
this is the website for my Homeopathic Doctor contact.
http://www.center4naturalmedicine.com/
Finally, I do not think that vitamin is classified as a drug which is what I was referring to.
To your health.
Cole, I’m still waiting for you to provide the proof about Monavie that we’ve repeatedly requested, bro. You gonna get that for us, or are you going to continue to employ diversionary tactics to avoid having to admit that you don’t have anything to offer us?
As Lazy has repeatedly said, nobody is making the case that a good diet isn’t conducive to good health. Why do you keep belaboring that point? Just give us what we asked for awhile back or give it up already.
By the way, none of Monavie’s products have FDA approval. Just thought you should know that. Nope, not even Pure.
Listen Cole, I think we’ve already established that at best, you know how to regurgitate marketing babble. You’ve already talked yourself into a corner, so I think it’s time to chalk it up to a lost cause and take your business elsewhere. You’re only digging yourself that much deeper every time you post.
Cole, if you read the comments, you’d know that the sodium benzoate has been discussed at length including everything that you mentioned here. The point is that if you are blending your own juice you don’t need preservatives. I’m not saying that you should blend your own juices, but you made the comparison of the two being equal.
If you were referring to a drug, you should say so, and not mention pills. There’s a vast difference. However, while we are talking about drugs, let’s give them their due… without modern medicine and the drugs we have today we’d probably still have the life spans of the 1800s. In fact they might be worse because most everyone agrees today that our diets are worse with high fructose corn syrup and trans fats.
RaveDiet.com looks to be another of those fad diets. You are asking us to buy a fad diet book and read it.
We’ve also covered MonaVie Pulse and plant sterols (not phytosterols to the best of my knowledge).Plant sterols can also be purchased a lot cheaper than in MonaVie.
Cole, you have a few dozen posts here and we haven’t established how MonaVie is better than fruit. What’s the magical thing that I’m getting for paying a lot more money and importing acai from around the world (polluting it in the process).
Cole,
Here are the guidelines from the Black Diamond University website regarding MonaVie Pulse:
Important Guidelines
• MonaVie products (including Pulse) are not intended to replace or mimic the activity, effects, or benefits of drugs or medications. Do not substitute or replace your medication(s) with MonaVie Pulse.
• The plant sterol activity, effects, and benefits in MonaVie Pulse as it relates to heart health and cholesterol are significantly less than that found in drugs.
• If you have a concern of any kind related to MonaVie Pulse or its contraindications with medications, consult with your physician before consuming MonaVie Pulse.
• Do not use MonaVie Pulse as an alternative to physician consultation or advice.
• MonaVie Pulse does not cure heart disease.
• MonaVie Pulse does not cure, treat, mitigate, or prevent serious cholesterol problems.
• MonaVie Pulse is intended for healthy people, not for people with heart or cholesterol diseases.
You still haven’t answered my simple questions regarding MonaVie or an apple. Would you like me to direct you to the studies?
Food Tech, it’s funny that when you see the splash page for monavie pulse at http://www.monaviepulse.com/ it specifically says “Watching your cholesterol?” But yet “MonaVie Pulse is intended for healthy people, not for people with heart or cholesterol diseases.”
Lol this is so cute, first off if somebody does a home research product w/o actually testing the product *shrug* they can’t just say it’s a lie, (note I probably wont be coming back to this page so gl with any yelling) as well Mona Vie isn’t meant to be drank like a cup at a time, you take a few sips than that $40 one week bottle lasts nearly a month. Home research is crap, somebody who does a little research and presumes their right w/o actually talking to reps from that products business or even trying the product isn’t really trustworthy. Here’s a quote (actually quoted on criminal minds lol >.<) it's just a saying:
"For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible."
Frédérick Jézégou
sorry man go buy some or use some of your wife's if you don't think it's true but until
you've tested the product yourself and maybe talked to some of the reps for it don't go posting that it's a scam
P.S. this post is technically biased itself, every time you provide any information for how it MIGHT not be a scam you provide further extra info that isn't informations it's an opinion "The clinical research shows that it does indeed deliver more antioxidants than a placebo (update: in the comments it has come out that the researcher of the study was supplying MonaVie with it's acai – sounds very biased to me)." it's gonna automatically make anyone who doubts it continue to and anyone who doesn't go violent on you so. . . meh w/e I used Mona Vie for awhile and ya it helped, but after that I stopped. . . It's not a diet, it's a healthy drink that supports and stimulates your mind allowing you to focus, it is NOT a diet, it is a supplement, yes, a mental stimulant, yes, but NOT a diet. LOL and again I won't be paying any attention to these posts so neeeeeeeeh go ahead and rag me, bag me, overall curse me out, or just say thank you or just plain IGNORE IT and yes this was supposed to be in support of Mona Vie. Plus man anyone can look up the info he got, you gotta acutally make an effort. Mona Vie prides itself on the fact that it doesn't go around advertising like hell, yes it might advertise some, but how many times have you seen a Mona Vie ad compared to others, hmm? You wont find the information easily because half of the shit out there are sales reps being morons trying to get tons and tons of sales, so they sell lies. GL with your whole scam stereo, hope you all love assuming, ever heard the catch phrase, don't assume because when you do you make an ass out of u and me? bye T_T
Oh ya and Cole. . . please Shut up your not helping much especially when you misspell s**t like “Over this past summer I heavily researched how diet affects your body. A short summery” . . . SUMMERY? NUB IT’S AN A I’M A HIGH SCHOOLER AND I KNOW THAT OMG! plus your as bad as Lazy Man completely biased towards Mona Vie and claiming to have done real research when in all honesty you haven’t done S***!
lol. Gotta love the trolls (or should I say drones)… So I should just take the word of the reps and do no home research of my own? Wow, you must really get misinformed! You know this is how cults get started, don’t you? “what I say is true! The earth will perish on May 11th 2010!” lol…
For a “person who cares not” you are quite verbose.
Have you tested eating a pound of caviar a day for 7 years? What if I were to claim that it cures autism (note I’m NOT claiming that)? Would you agree that I have found the cure to autism or would you use all the logic of everything we know about caviar and autism and deduce that it can’t cure autism? The wise person would probably do the later. That’s what we are doing with MonaVie. MonaVie is fruit. People have eaten fruit for a long time. It’s good for you, but there’s not logic behind MonaVie’s blend of fruit being better than just eating fruit. In fact, with less fiber it’s probably worse. And with studies saying that it’s basically useless, well what more do you need.
If you make the “$40 one week bottle” last nearly a month are you getting any benefits? That’s less than an ounce of juice a day. It sounds about effective as eating one baby carrot a day and thinking that’s going to be a difference maker in your life.
I don’t know the context of that Frédérick Jézégou quote. It may be appropriate for theological discussions, for instance it applies to Flying Spaghetti Monster being the great ruler of everything.
However, the quote is not appropriate for scientific discussions such as the health benefits of juice. Juice is simply not matter of belief. When people believed the world was flat they “needed no proof” that there were monsters waiting to eat them at the end. However, they found “proof was possible” when it was scientifically shown to them the world was round.
I don’t think anyone argues the point of “The clinical research shows that it does indeed deliver more antioxidants than a placebo.” The argument is how to quantify the antioxidants. A drop of apple juice provides more antioxidants than a placebo. Does that make that drop worth $45? No it does not.”
The rest of your post script didn’t seem to be English grammar so I can’t address much of it. What I can address is why MonaVie doesn’t advertise. They don’t advertise, because they have the distributors doing it for them. Why pay for print, television, etc. when you can sell brochures to distributors at $3+ a pop under the illusion of “build your business.” Distributors are effectively paying MonaVie for the right to advertise their product.
The only assumptions that are made on this site are simply because those people who have the answers (MonaVie) refuse to give them. The rest are scientific facts (like the one link I mentioned above that showed the juice has little value)
It sounds like Person Who Cares Not may be drinking something a little stronger than MonaVie.
You know what’s really cute? Someone who drops into a blog with well over three-thousand posts and who proceeds to comment without having read any of those posts beforehand. Had you bothered to do so, you would have noted that there absolutely has been research done, and that said research has proven pretty conclusively that Monavie couldn’t possibly be any less the magical panacea that you folks seem to believe that it is with all of your cult-like fervor.
If you can’t be bothered to read through the posts one-by-one in order to find it, then open up the archive and hit Control-F on your keyboard. Type in “Food Tech” without the quotes, and read everything that he has posted. There’s your research. Hell, pay special attention to Vogel, Lazy, and Candace’s posts as well. It’s all really illuminating stuff.
As for why Monavie qualifies as a scam, consider that Monavie justifies its juice’s abnormally high asking-price by marketing it as a magical cure-all, when in reality the juice offers no unique health benefits to speak of, and in fact has been proven to be lower in nutritional value than some of the fruit juices that you can buy at a store for a small fraction of Monavie’s price. It might qualify as a dietary supplement at best, but even then it gives you no additional health benefits above simply adopting a healthier diet, and besides, that’s not what Monavie is marketing it as. The very definition of a scam is obtaining money from someone by dishonest means, so what does that make Monavie? If you answered scam, then give yourself a gold star! If you didn’t, then I don’t know how to make it any more clear to you.
By the way, Monavie doesn’t advertise because it has people like you doing it for them free of charge. Why pay for what you can get for free, and in Monavie’s case, can actually be paid to allow your distributors the privilege of doing for you? Oddly enough, the only time the company ever concerned itself with the content of those ads was for a short time after FTC cracked down on the use of atypical results in testimonials a couple of months back. And here we are two months after that decision was handed down, and Monavie doesn’t seem all that concerned with monitoring and putting a stop to the atypical claims that its distributors regularly make.
One could take Monavie’s excuse that it’s too hard to track its distributor’s comments at face value, but a simple Google search illuminates that it’s not too hard to find examples of these claims still being posted to message-boards and blogs still todayl, and that all it takes is a tiny bit of effort to find them. Effort that Monavie doesn’t seem to be all that interested in making. So what other reason would Monavie have to ignore its distributors claims if not because it considers them beneficial? One would think that if it really was all just bullcrap being spouted by overzealous salespeople, Monavie would want to distance itself from it and nip that in the bud before it does too much damage, and yet the very same people who posted atypical claims before the FTC decision was handed down are still doing so today. So it appears to me that those claims are just business as usual as far as Monavie is really concerned, and that it’s not the insane ramblings of overzealous salespeople after all. Hell, I’d be willing to say that quite to the contrary, it’s likely shit suggested to them by Monavie itself at its sales meetings.
As a follow up to an earlier posting about MonaVie sueing XOWii, here’s a link to a web-blog broadcast from a Network Marketing site, that invited Kevin Thompson, a lawyer respresenting the Network marketing business and who also had Orin as a client, to discuss the various lawsuit’s going on in the business, and with the monavie / XOWii lawsuit in particular. Actually, it was very refreshing to listen to, very reasonable discussion. Granted, its an hour long and discussion on MonaVie starts at around the the 12min. mark. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jimgillhouse/2010/01/08/kevin-thompson-this-week-on-aces-radio-live
Jeff and Cyberxion,
It is so nice to have you commenting here. Personally, I am very tired of repeating myself for trolls and brainwashed Mona-Bots who don’t have the common courtesy and intelligence to read the information already in place on this blog before they regurgitate their cult propaganda. My hat is off to all of the regulars here for their patience and tolerance.
Jeff, I am very happy to read that the much researched information shared here by many has been of help to you.
@Cole…you seem to have a bit of diarrhea of the fingers, and can’t keep from typing ridiculous comments here. Sadly, it is pretty typical of what we’ve seen from MonaVie distributors. Your comments are filled with factual errors and assumptions, there are too many to cover, and besides, Jeff, Cyberxion, LazyMan, Unfortunate Spouse, Food Tech, and Vogel have done a stellar job of refuting and debunking your garbled comments.
I do want to point out one slip you have made that no one else has either picked up on or has wanted to waste any more of their precious time on. In this comment: http://www.lazymanandmoney.com/monavie-scam-was-my-wife-recruited-sell-snake-oil/comment-page-38/#comment-166728
You stated:
So…what are you really saying here? That MonaVie LLC or your upline has given you testimonials and claims to make???? Have you in fact confirmed what we’ve been saying here for almost 2 years now, that the testimonial garbage is really the hidden culture of MonaVie, and not, in fact, discouraged by MonaVie?
Brilliant. Thank you.
@ Vogel,
Your comment here: http://www.lazymanandmoney.com/monavie-scam-was-my-wife-recruited-sell-snake-oil/comment-page-38/#comment-166725
Is wonderful. I had also found similar information. People would be wise to give heed to all of your comments, and this one in particular, if they are consuming or selling (M)Mun.
I am going to copy and paste your comment that I linked to here into the JuiceScam Wellmune page. I think it is relevant and should be visible on that particular post.
Thank you. :-)
I wrote two more articles examining MonaVie Pulse…
The first attempts to show that MonaVie Pulse is not very effective for lowering cholesterol as it has low amounts of plant sterols.
The second compares MonaVie Pulse and Benecol Smart Chews in lowering cholesterol. It turns out that Benecol delivers more plant stanols at 1/25th the price.
The Benecol Smart Chews were just the first thing that I saw with a quick Internet search. There may be better and/or cheaper options, but it suited my needs.
Feel free to leave thoughts here, or in those articles.
Silly me, I just found that CholestOff is much cheaper than Benecol or MonaVie Pulse. CholestOff was only 7 cents a pill for 900mg of plant sterols. This makes one bottle of MonaVie Pulse’s plant sterols (at $37) about 88 times more expensive than the simple pill version.
It seems like time and time again, MonaVie picks out some cheap product that typically comes in a pill (glucosomine, plant sterols, Wellmune) and adds it to their expensive juice so that distributers can go out and make claims conveniently leaving out the fact that they are grossly over charging people.
Agreed! The cheapest source of beta-glucan is brewer’s yeast, which is dirt cheap; and in fact, even Mr. Paul Clayton recommends it:
Clayton said: “Alternatively, people can take Brewers Yeast tablets or, capsules containing pure beta glucans 250-500mg daily.”
http://www.hazelcourteney.com/pages/pv.asp?p=hazel4
In regards to Well Immune it sells for about $19.99 for 30 capsules in Canada and it just came on the market………so it isn’t a cheap product but the research sounds good.
Lazy Man and Vogel,
Very impressive research on both your parts. I haven’t had much time to read up on Wellmune, but I believe you’ve covered everything, and more!
As I said before, what’s the point of using MonaVie as a base for these additives? If they won’t stand up on their own, dumping it in a batch of fruit punch sure isn’t going to make it work.
Nice research!
You may be able to buy it overseas and have it shipped to you. Also WGP 3-6 (generic Wellmune from everything that I can find) has been available for 20 years almost everywhere. You need to know not to focus on the Wellmune brand name.
However, even $20 for 30 capsules is much, much cheaper than MonaVie M(mun)… so even in Canada, there’s no logical reason to buy MonaVie M(mun).
Is this not one of the very reasons most of us here stick around and comment? MonaVie distributors, watch and learn…take heed…we have tried to warn you over and over, and now one of your own is beginning to see the light.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlWsInUAr_U
It would be great if this ex-MonaVie distributor, who was so very vocal in an often rude manner on another website in his pro-MonaVie days, would come forward and share his story and keep others from the same fate. There is nothing to fear, other than fear itself.
“Is this not one of the very reasons most of us here stick around and comment? MonaVie distributors, watch and learn…take heed…we have tried to warn you over and over, and now one of your own is beginning to see the light.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlWsInUAr_U
It would be great if this ex-MonaVie distributor, who was so very vocal in an often rude manner on another website in his pro-MonaVie days, would come forward and share his story and keep others from the same fate. There is nothing to fear, other than fear itself.”
Totally agree!
Bobby J Rothstein’s change of heart about Monavie is remarkable. He was one of the most vocal proponents of the juice on the Purple Horror website — and truth be told, he was probably also the most obnoxious participant. For well over a year, he rudely lambasted everyone who ever said anything negative about Monavie. Still, the candor he is now showing deserves a lot of credit. He’s no longer part of the problem and he has moved towards being part of the solution. I hope he becomes even more involved in sharing his cautionary tale about Monavie with other prospective customers and distributors, and I would now welcome his input here, as I’m sure we all would.
As a follow-up to Bobby’s story, you all should have a look at this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfB8e3qiqpk&NR=1&feature=fvwp
Inspect the frame showing the back of Bobby J’s truck at the 44 second mark and read what he had stenciled on it.
“Prevent disease and live longer – backed by science”
“Drinking 4 ounces daily has the antioxidant capacity up (sic) to 13 servings of fruit and vegetables”
Aside from the fact that these claims are wrong and illegal (and in one case, grammatically incorrect), notice how much bloody effort this guy went through to sell the juice! No one can argue that he didn’t try hard – he clearly made a Herculean effort, and still it was all for naught.
Yes, he did give a stellar effort to build his MonaVie business…not unlike many, many other distributors. I did see the truck and paused the video to read the wording.
But this is so typical in these types of schemes…sell the dream, sell the dream, sell the dream, then distributors buy into that, become emotionally hooked, and go to great lengths to make their dream come true because they’ve been told countless times that if they follow the system, it will happen for them.
Rarely do outsiders get to see the fallout and the impact it makes when a distributor comes to their senses and the blinders come off, and they realize how much they have invested, be it time, money, emotions, or damage to relationships.
It is commendable that Bobby J has made this video. I do wish he would engage in dialogue with us here, to the benefit of many others headed down the same path.
Unfortunate Spouse, thanks for sharing that link. I listened to the whole audio and it was great stuff. I have been in a loosing battle on a few blogs, debating a MLM company mentioned on that audio, called Fortune Hi tech markeing, as nothing more than a scheme like Monavie. If you have anything else like that please share :-) Thanks!
I was wanting to review the video I posted on Jan. 12, 2010 8:38am, which was a video of Dallin and black diamonds recorded on January 5, 2010 at the official launch of (M)Mun in Park City, Utah, in my comment located here:
http://www.lazymanandmoney.com/monavie-scam-was-my-wife-recruited-sell-snake-oil/comment-page-37/#comment-164456
However, when I clicked the link in my comment,( http://174.143.41.58/#/player ) a new video comes up that is 418:50 minutes long. Sheesh. It is the Anaheim Regional Meeting on 01/23/10 at the Anaheim Convention Center. I certainly haven’t watched the entire thing yet, but it has “Doctor” Clayton, and all kinds of other interesting things. Long “interview” with Brig and Lita Hart and their kids towards the last hour of the video.
Jeff Graham has specific hype about (M)Mun which begins at 19:40
Go figure, what are the odds the MonaVie who “brought to the world the amazing acai berry” would now “discover and bring to the world the amazing Mauqi berry, which is called the new acai berry”. At 23:00 he states “(M)Mun is a product that you have to take everyday”. “…consume (M)Mun to help the white blood cells perform better. To create a larger shield to fight off these foreign invaders.”
At 23:27, Wellmune is introduced. Food Tech and Vogel ought to have a field day dissecting this one. “12 patents, 7 issued, 5 pending”. And then there is a “MonaVie animation” showing how wellmune protects your immune system year round.
At 29:34 Jeff Graham gives a glowing introduction to Paul Clayton. Paul Clayton ends his speech at 59:42.
Then Dallin is introduced. He speaks for about an hour. I didn’t watch or listen to him.
At 114:00 Dallin begins bringing people on stage to tell their emotional “whys” of building a MonaVie business.
MORE project talk begins at 148:00, ends at 207:35.
Randy Larsen begins at 210:50
Wayne Moorehead, VP of Marketing begins at 220:52
Pin recognition begins at 237:00
Dallin returns at 252:30
Black diamonds make a stage entrance at 256:00, ends at 270:30
Dallin and his wife then begin a lengthy introduction of Steve Merritt who finally appears 9 minutes later at 279:20, ends at 317:28
At 318:25 Brig and Lita Hart appear with their children, introduced as new “Double Crown Diamonds”, to receive their check for a cool 2 million. There’s a lot of mindless chatter, and then…yes, the religion card is played.
…regardless of our personal beliefs, I think most of us can agree that talk of religion does not belong in “businesses” like this, as it is used to coerce or manipulate people…and I do not want this to become a religious discussion about whether the principle mentioned is what someone believes or not…but for pity’s sake…at 366:00 minutes Brig starts talking about tithing, and he specifically gives the MORE project and the Haiti rescue efforts by the MORE project as good places to tithe to. I will not state my personal opinion on this. You take from it what you will. Ends at 369:19
At 371:25, Dallin introduces his Niece, Charlie. She talks at great length and with much emotion about her personal experience with Cystic Fibrosis. It was heart wrenching, and I am not emotionally invested. Imagine the impact on sleep deprived distributors believing that MonaVie is their miracle. Charlie is amazing, she is inspirational and brave. I empathize with her family in their struggles and losses. But it has nothing to do with the business of MonaVie. It is an emotional message to reinforce the “don’t give up, don’t quit, keep the faith, keep going, keep trying, live your dream, if I can survive this, you can build your business”, etc. theme
She then states “believe in, expect, and create miracles in your own lives”.
Dallin says “Facts are the enemy of belief, the enemy of truth” (411:51)
Now then, after all of that, the correct link to the video clip from my comment mentioned at the beginning of this lengthy comment is here:
http://www.monavietv.com/monavietv-channels?mode=popular
And is titled “2010 MonaVie Vision Webcast”
All of that because I wanted to know who the Doctor was that spoke about Wellmune on the 2010 MonaVie Vision Webcast.
Introduced as Doctor Don Cox. (sp?)
Holy Faux Grape Juice, Bat-Man.