Science and Sustainability Behind Monavie

Most of us should improve our diets to promote wellness and happiness.  From my 30 years of research on food and consumer behavior, it is clear that we all long for a “magic potion” that will make up for our lousy eating habits.  The answer is always the same – Eat More Fresh Fruits and Vegetables!!  I have been drinking the most amazing juice for about two months.  Have felt better (younger) in many ways.  The juice is called “MonaVie” and I am an independent distributor.  Here are the facts about the science and social responsibility associated with this wonderful company.  If you want to join the best Mona-Vie team or simply want to learn more send me a note.

Short Story: Acai is the Brazilian berry that is being hailed as “nature’s perfect food” by experts around the world. It contains all that good stuff we don’t get enough of in our diets. The juice Monavie combined acai with 18 other fruits, ranging from the wolfberry (or goji) fruit to the banana.  MonaVie, or Tree of Life as it is called in the Amazon, is the name of this nutritional beverage blend. Vogue magazine even declared it as the “next big workout cocktail.”  It has grown rapidly in health food and other markets.

MonaVie contains the following ingredients listed from the most to least common: blend of açaí (freeze-dried powder and puree); 100% fruit juice, not from concentrate (white grape, nashi pear, acerola, purple grape, cranberry, passion fruit, apricot, prune, kiwifruit, blueberry, wolfberry, pomegranate, lychee, camu camu); fruit puree (pear, banana, bilberry)and preservatives. MonaVie Active adds d-glucosamine hydrochloride and esterified fatty acids to all of the previous ingredients.

SCIENCE, FRUITS AND TODAY’S DIET

According to the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, the four most consumed plant foods (fruits or vegetables) in America are:  French fries, ketchup, pizza sauce and iceberg lettuce!  Is it any wonder that obesity has become an epidemic and that even children are now afflicted with many of the “lifestyle” diseases once reserved for older people?  Yes, we all know we should eat more fruits and vegetables. But lives are busy. Quick meals are often a necessity.

Fresh produce is expensive in many locales. We tend to get bored with apples, bananas and oranges. Parents don’t have time to enforce healthy eating habits upon their children.  Because of the powerful phytonutrients from the broad color spectrum of body-beneficial fruits in MonaVie, here at last is a product that can contribute to a healthy diet. The fact that it tastes delicious is purely a bonus!  Set aside the slices of pepperoni for a moment, and look at a “Slice of Life” as it relates to the American diet. Unfortunately, there are parallels in other nations as well.

Most experts now recommend that we each consume 9-11 servings of fruits and vegetables.  This is even higher than the “Five-A-Day” that the government food pyramid recommends.  Food consumption estimates for Americans paint a grim portrait of future health prospects:

• Only 10% eat even 5 daily servings of fruits and vegetables.
• Average fruit consumption is only 1.4 servings daily.
• Only 17% eat 2-4 fruits daily.
• Only 12% have what could be called a “good” diet.

THE PHYTONUTRIENT REVOLUTION

Phytonutrients have catapulted to the top of nutritional science research. “Phytonutrients Take Center Stage” was published in the December 1999 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.  Phytonutrients are a class of health-promoting, bio-active compounds with many sub-categories. By some counts, more than 100,000 phytonutrient compounds have already been identified and catalogued. Around the world, new discoveries are being continually made by health scientists. Some of the more common class names are Carotenoids and Flavonoids (Polyphenols).

Fruits are an abundant source of many thousands of phytonutrients as well as at least 8 vitamins and minerals–including vitamin C which is known to be a powerful antioxidant.  Many of the 19 fruits selected for the MonaVie formula, starting with the legendary acai berry from the Amazon Rainforest, have centuries-old traditions of being used to support a healthy diet and help promote health. More recent years of scientific research have validated the phytonutrient content and health benefits of these fruits.

Most known phytonutrients are strongly linked to pigment, Mother Nature’s way of protecting botanicals from intense sunlight and other harsh conditions. Health experts today agree it is best to consume a color spectrum VARIETY of fruits to gain greatest advantage from their respective phytonutrients.  The fruits of MonaVie give us this spectrum: acai berry, pomegranate, white grape, apple, acerola, pear, aronia, purple grape, cranberry, passionfruit, banana, apricot, prune, kiwi, blueberry, bilberry, camu camu, wolfberry and lychee.

Unlike many products that are rushed to market because someone spots a trend and tries to quickly cash in on it, MonaVie’s entry into the Wellness arena came slowly and meticulously. Its creators spent many long months formulating MonaVie and making it palatable — knowing that only if it tasted good would people be likely to try it and thus discover its profound benefits.  MonaVie’s efforts were based upon and supported by more than two decades of nutritional science evolution related to the role of antioxidants and more recent years of discoveries about phytonutrients and the crucial roles they play in health.

THE ACAI BERRY – A TRUE SUPER FOOD

The Acai fruit has been featured on Oprah, The Today Show, The CBS Early Show, in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Amazingly, the little Acai berry – about the size of a blueberry – is being called by many the miracle berry.  Acai (pronounced ( ah-sigh-EE ) is a fruit that grows on the Acai Palm Trees in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil. The Acai berry is small in size (smaller than a grape) and is dark purple in color. Acai is mostly seed, covered in a small amount of pulp. In fact, about 90% of the Acai berry is seed – it is important to note that no one eats the Acai berry seed.  While Acai may be small in size, it packs a nutritional punch unlike any other food in the world.

• Dr. Perricone, in his bestseller – “The Perricone Promise” picks Acai fruit as the #1 Super Food in the world.
• In 2005, Oprah name Acai the #1 Super Food, saying “This little berry is one of the most nutritious and powerful foods in the world.”.
• “Rich in antioxidants and amino acids, açaí is thought to be one of the most nutritional fruits of the Amazon basin.” New York Times, 8/4/2004
• Acai has 10 Times the antioxidant power of red grapes and twice that of blueberries

Found deep within the Amazon atop towering palm trees, acai berries are gathered by native harvesting teams in partnership with MonaVie. These skilled harvesters climb 25–30 meter high acai palms with vines secured tightly around their ankles for safety to pick the nutritious and powerful berries. Once retrieved, MonaVie’s premier acai berries are placed in a canoe and transported down the Amazon River to be processed.

This ecologically friendly harvesting provides long-term economic benefits to local communities while preserving the lives of trees. In the past, acai palm trees have been illegally chopped down just to harvest a 12-inch section know as the palmito (heart of the palm). This odorless. tasteless, and nutritionally void portion of the tree was sold mostly as a salad garnish. Sadly, palmito harvesting not only destroys the rainforest, but only provides a one-time monetary benefit to locals. By supporting sustained harvesting and the selling of acai, MonaVie is able to bring the most nutrient-rich, wild-grown acai to the market while also enhancing the lives of the people and vital land of Brazil.

The following is a collection of recent news articles about the Acai Berry and Monavie.  Note that I start with research from one of the world’s best universities – Go Gators!!

Brazilian berry destroys cancer cells in lab, UF study shows – January 12, 2006.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A Brazilian berry popular in health food contains antioxidants that destroyed cultured human cancer cells in a recent University of Florida study, one of the first to investigate the fruit’s purported benefits.

Published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, the study showed extracts from acai (ah-SAH’-ee) berries triggered a self-destruct response in up to 86 percent of leukemia cells tested, said Stephen Talcott, an assistant professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

“Acai berries are already considered one of the richest fruit sources of antioxidants,” Talcott said. “This study was an important step toward learning what people may gain from using beverages, dietary supplements or other products made with the berries.” ….

“One reason so little is known about acai berries is that they’re perishable and are traditionally used immediately after picking,” he said. “Products made with processed acai berries have only been available for about five years, so researchers in many parts of the world have had little or no opportunity to study them.” ….

Historically, Brazilians have used acai berries to treat digestive disorders and skin conditions, he said. Current marketing efforts by retail merchants and Internet businesses suggest acai products can help consumers lose weight, lower cholesterol and gain energy.

Food For Your Heart – Feb. 15 2008 (CBS)

We all know that exercise and diet are important for good health.  But do you know which foods, in particular, help keep your heart in good shape?  Registered dietician Keri Glassman discussed them Friday as part of The Early Show’s weeklong series, “Early Keeps the Beat.” …     It can be confusing to sort through all the information, especially because it’s often conflicting. A healthy diet and exercise are the keys to a healthy heart. But which specific foods can we incorporate into our diet to give us the most protection?  Here are some guidelines to help you sort through the confusion and give you some “insider” tips on how to keep your heart functioning well! ….   Go Exotic!    Acai is a rich source of anthocyanins and other phenolics and phyto-nutrients.  Acai berries are among the most nutritious foods of the Amazon, rich in B vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein and omega-3 fatty acids. Acai berries also contain oleic acid (omega-9), a beneficial fatty acid (often mistakenly referred to as essential).

Learn more about five good-for-you foods that you may have never heard of! (MSNBC)

Studies show that the acai berry is one of the most nutritious foods in the world. The high-energy berry of as Amazonian palm tree, acai is harvested in the rainforests of Brazil and tastes like a vibrant blend of berries and chocolate. Hidden within its royal purple pigment is the magic that makes it nature’s perfect energy fruit. Acai is packed with antioxidants, amino acids and essential fatty acids.  ….  Acai pulp contains 10 times more antioxidants than red grapes and 10 to 30 times the anthocyanins of red wine; a synergy of monounsaturated (healthy) fats, dietary fiber and phytosterols to help promote cardiovascular and digestive health; and an almost perfect essential amino acid complex in conjunction with valuable trace minerals, vital to proper muscle contraction and regeneration.

Superfoods for the New Year – January 07, 2007 (ABC)

Let’s move from the beautiful rolling hills of Tuscany to the vast, dark regions of the Brazilian rain forest where we discover the new superstar of super foods, acai (ah-sigh-ee). You’ll be hearing a lot more about this rain forest fruit going forward. Acai is the off the chart for almost everything that kale is, in addition to naturally occurring Omega-3, 6 and 9 oils. It is wild-harvested and grows on branches atop 60-foot palm trees. If you wonder how they harvest this fruit, here’s a machete and there is the tree, simply shimmy up and cut off a branch. This unique, highly perishable fruit is the size of a blueberry (blueberries are also extremely high in antioxidants but acai has twice the antioxidant content of blueberries), is hard, contains a seed and usually comes in the form of juices, smoothies or sorbets. They peel the outer hull and make it into a pulp.

Amazing Benefits of Acai

Rio de Janeiro is the city that worships health and beauty and where the healthy and the beautiful drink acai. Pronounced ah-sah-yee, acai is more of a lifestyle option than a foodstuff; a magic fruit potion that fuels the hedonistic energy of Brazilian beach life. Shortly after I moved to Rio, I was told about the acais berry’s amazing nutritional properties: Brazilians believe it gives you strength, energy and is great for sex. A friend told me that when he was having difficulty in fathering a child, the first thing his doctor recommended was ‘drink lots of acai’. And it worked!’ ….

Açaí is indigenous to the flood plains of the Amazon estuary. The acai palm regenerates with ease and in areas where human development has destroyed natural vegetation the first tree that grows in its place is acai. (Açaí palms cover an area equivalent to half the size of Switzerland.) In this region, its abundance and role as primary nutritional resource cannot be over-estimated: it is literally the fruit that has saved many poor families from starvation.  ‘Açaí is the main food staple of river communities in the Amazon estuary,’ says the agronomist Oscar Nogueira. It is drunk for every meal – in much the same way as bread or rice is eaten in other cultures. …

Açaí is highly perishable and the only way it gets to Rio is in frozen packages. In Belém, the fruit is always consumed fresh. Since it goes off within 24 hours, in order to service the population with fresh acai on a daily basis an enormous infrastructure has grown in Belém that employs an estimated 30,000 people.  The cycle starts in the rainforest. The acai palm has a long thin trunk up to 25m high and a clutch of branches at the top from which hang ribbon-like leaves. Hundreds of acai fruits dangle from branches in clusters that look like nests of bluebottles.  The fruit picking is done by hand. In the afternoons, river-dwellers scramble up the trees, cut off the branches and climb back down again exactly as they have done for hundreds of years. In the evening, boats containing baskets of acai leave the rainforest heading for Belém’s market, where they arrive in the middle of the night.  …

The boom in acai over the last decade has had more effects than changing the eating habits of Rio’s body-obsessed men (and women). Scientists have discovered that acai is rich in anthocyanins, the group of chemicals in red wine that are believed to lower the risk of heart disease. Swig per swig, acai contains over 10 times more of them than red wine. It is also rich in essential fatty acids, calcium and vitamins. Açaí’s recent success is also changing the nature of agriculture in the Amazon estuary. Agronomists have been successful in developing ways of cultivating acai sustainably with high yield. In the last five years acai production has tripled and brought work to poor rural areas. Belém, now has more than 60 factories that export. ‘Açaí is the most promising product we have here for development,’ says de Jesus.

Açaí was an Amazonian secret that conquered Brazil. Whenever friends visit Rio they fall in love with the taste. I have lost count of the number of excited conversations about how we could export it around the world. I discovered recently that I’ve been beaten to it. A company in California now imports it to the US and next month Selfridges will introduce it to British palates. It may not be the same as sipping it fresh in Rio, but make no mistake, one day acai will conquer the globe.

Industry with Heart: MonaVie by Sarah Paulk

The MORE Project seeks to change lives and restore families in the country of Brazil. MORE adheres to a philosophy of love and compassion in an effort to support those that society has left behind. We focus on providing impoverished children, adults and families with the skills and resources to sustain change and to pull themselves out of poverty.  The M.O.R.E. Project, affliated with MonaVie, Inc., seeks to provide impoverished people, especially children, with the tools necessary to pull themselves out of poverty. The M.O.R.E. Project is a non-denominational organization that adheres to a philosophy of love and compassion in an effort to empower those that society has left behind.

Before the company’s launch in 2005, MonaVie’s leaders made a decision that would improve lives across the globe. Realizing that the company’s products rely heavily on the açai berry, a fruit found only in the Brazilian rain forest, they decided to take action to return the favor to the country that had benefited them so greatly. “We felt an inherent obligation to give something back, since Brazil was not only an important contributor to our company, but also to our potential success,” says MonaVie Founder and President Dallin Larsen. “We decided to organize a charity, the MORE Project, not only to provide a frame of reference for our distributors to have contact with Brazil, but also to create a company culture.”

The MORE Project, an acronym representing “MonaVie’s Operation Rescue,” focuses on three primary initiatives: providing a safe home for homeless Brazilian children, teaching young men social and ethical values and educating young single mothers and their children.  To address the needs of homeless children in Rio’s slums, the MORE Project is refurbishing a series of homes, 10 in all, transforming them into safe havens for Brazil’s youngest impoverished residents. Volunteer foster parents help provide for their psychological needs, as many have been victims of mental, physical, sexual and drug abuse. …

MonaVie has given the MORE Project a gift that many charities never receive. “Every dollar raised goes directly to the MORE Project,” Larsen says. “Most charities give 50 cents of every dollar, but we want to be different. We are committing ourselves to run this charity in the most honorable and pristine way possible. We’ve agreed to have the charity audited every year, because we are trying to be as transparent as possible.” …

Larsen says. “We realized that by growing our company and commercializing the açai berry, we would actually improve the sustainability of the rain forest by teaching farmers the value of cultivating rather than cutting. By providing economic incentive to native Brazilians, MonaVie is helping preserve the rain forest, while the MORE Project focuses on improving the quality of life for Brazilians. Brazil has given so much to us through the açai berry and other fruits that we are striving to demonstrate our gratitude to Brazilians by helping the poorest of the poor.”