Friday, September 5, 2008

Monavie and "wine bottle wannabees"

In my last blog from FAQ's, I spoke of taking a vitamin. Monavie users will proclaim great effects and improvements from the liquid. I always wondered how one drink could account for fixing diabetes, fatigue, joint pain, depression insomnia...... Sounds like snake oil and empty promises. I now understand how the supplements make claims. As noted, the average american diet stinks. The average american takes poor supplements. The average american does not exercise. At the least, if one cannot eat properly due to monetary constraints, at least substitute a diet product. Monavie and all the other "drinks in a wine bottle" essentially have plant bases nutrients that will bolster and average diet to provide building blocks for normal metabolism and cell function. If cells work more efficiently, body functions better. Thinking, reproduction, enzyme secreation, digestion, joint lubrication, muscle contraction.....

Here's an story I give to my young athletes to help with understanding. You can buy all the protein powder in the world to take in building muscle but if 3-4 meals a day are not met as a basic staple, the muscle will still be short changed and not grow no matter how much exercise is performed. In fact, it will only be a matter of time before muscle will not sustain the loads and breakdown (tear). Also known as "hitting the wall" or "bonking".

Bottom line is that if a proper diet is maintained, proper sleep is met, proper exercise is reached and stress is controlled or "neutralized", plant supplements may not be necessary. For those of us that don't meet the average daily requirements above, (which is a large portion of the US) there may be an appreciable difference in the way we feel during the day by taking the "garden in a wine bottle" product. Try one of the products for a month or two but keep everything in your life stable for the trial so all variables are controlled to truely state if the supplement has provided a change in the way you feel, the way you sleep or the dose of the prescription medicine you are on.

Regarding making a decision on which product to try, a scientific approach would be to see the ORAC value of each of the biggest companies. Brunswick lab has the patent on ORAC testing and they have performed a few head to head studies but you will have to search and pray they are the true results.

http://brunswicklabs.com/orac_definition.shtml

If a supplement like Thai go, Monavie, Noni, Xengo....is to help make the body's systems work better, it should have an ORAC test label with it. (This seems to be the only thing that can be tested and compared.) Most of the people who distribute for each of the companies will have a share in selling the product to you but they are truely good products that will probalby provide a good proportion of the daily requirements that are missed in an average diet. Just do you homework before trying and have an endpoint to decide if it is helpful or not.