Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Juice or Junk?

Letter from Dr. Chaney:

I found a couple of interesting articles on the acai berry and the mangosteen fruit in the October and December 2009 issues of Environmental Nutrition.

Environmental Nutrition is not a peer reviewed scientific journal, but they do a good job of researching peer reviewed scientific journals to find out whether there is any sound research behind many of the nutritional products that you find in the
marketplace.

I thought that you might be interested in what they found out about the scientific backing for all of those claims that you have been hearing about for acai berries and mangosteen fruit.

In both cases they found very little scientific backing for the claims made for those products.

In the case of the acai berry they found one clinical study that showed that when people consumed a single serving of acai juice or acai pulp the antioxidant
capacity in their blood was increased over the next 12 hours.

While that sounds impressive, you need to realize that the same is true when people consume a serving of blueberries, raspberries or blackberries.

They also found a study showing that acai extracts destroyed cancer cells in a tissue culture dish.

Again, that's not as impressive as it sounds because other fruits, such as grapes, mangos and guavas, have been shown to do the same thing in cell culture studies, and there is no evidence that any of those fruits have the same effect in the human body.

The science behind mangosteen is only slightly better.

Cell culture studies show that mangosteen extracts can stop certain bacteria from growing and can attenuate inflammation and insulin resistance in cultured human
fat cells.

Again, this is true of almost any food extract with high antioxidant potential, but that alone does not mean that it will have the same effect in the human body.

In animal studies mangosteen extracts suppressed tumor growth in mice and reduced oxidative damage in the brains of rats.

While animal studies are a bit more definitive than cell culture studies, we need to remember that rats and mice are not just little humans.

I have been actively engaged in cancer research - anticancer drug development specifically - for 37 years. Based on my years of experience I can tell you that only about 10% of the effects that we see in animals also show up in humans.

As with the acai berry, there appears to be only a single clinical study with mangosteen fruit. In that study a mangosteen supplement with vitamins and minerals enhanced immune responsiveness.

Again, that sounds impressive. But you need to know that numerous studies have shown that supplementation with vitamins and minerals alone increases immune responsiveness. There is no evidence that the mangosteen had anything to do with the results.

You might be asking "What about all of the fantastic testimonials that the proponents of these products offer?"

You should know that the placebo effect approaches 50% when it comes to things like pain relief, energy levels and feelings of well being. Unless there is strong
scientific evidence, I always discount testimonials.

Environmental Nutrition concluded that there was probably no risk of consuming moderate amounts of acai berry or mangosteen.

However, they cautioned that there was little or no evidence to support the many claims made for those products.

Finally, they stated that you can probably get exactly the same antioxidant and health benefits - at a fraction of the cost - by consuming many of the fruits
and vegetables that you can find at your local grocery store.

I concur!

To Your Health!

No comments:

Post a Comment