HealthSprout
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Rss
  • Home
  • Black Friday Deals!
  • Recommended Products
  • WIN MASSAGE WITH HEALTHSPROUT
  • Daily Sprout
  • Services
    • Be RICH 2014 – HealthSprout Style
    • Chiropractic
    • Decompression Therapy
    • Massage Club
    • TOXIC Bodyť Detoxification
  • About
    • Testimonials
      • Abigail Estevez
      • Aiden LaBrecque
      • Gerry Kehler
      • Heather Arnold
      • Joan Carlton
      • Laura Battista
      • Les White
      • Matt Godfrey
      • Michael Borgia
      • The Goodwin’s
  • Events
    • Body By God Challenge
    • Calendar
    • Max T3 Exercise Classes
    • Supercharge Your Health
    • Total Food Makeover
  • Contact & Hours
    • Hours
    • New Patient Information
  • Dr. Marks Blog – On the 60 Day Path
Home» Daily Sprout » Juice Plus – Folic Acid vs Folate

Juice Plus – Folic Acid vs Folate

Posted on March 23, 2016 by DrEric in Daily Sprout 4 Comments

Interesting story from today.  A distributor of mine (yes, I actually have a team of people out telling the world about Juice Plus, along with other things like the 60 Day Turnaround), sent me a text from someone complaining about juice plus because they saw it contained folic acid, not folate.  Which I found funny.

Funny, because they likely didn’t do any research, just read it somewhere, saw it, “who knows” it… and responded.  So I thought, “huh, I don’t recall juice plus adding anything other than to assist in preserving, or in sustaining the capsule, what is this about?”

So I did some digging, and before sharing what I found, I first want to express the difference between folic acid and folate.  Folic acid, to many of you, is something you want.  Especially pregnant women pre-conception and early development.  Folic acid however, is the synthetic version of folate.   Commonly referred to as Vitamin B9,   Folate/Folic acid is used to synthesize and repair DNA among other things.  Making it crucial in developmental stages.

Considering that, we can see the value is obvious to have it in your system.  Now here, before we go any further… WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?

From the NIH : Food
Folate is found naturally in a wide variety of foods, including vegetables (especially dark green leafy vegetables), fruits and fruit juices, nuts, beans, peas, dairy products, poultry and meat, eggs, seafood, and grains (Table 2) [3,7]. Spinach, liver, yeast, asparagus, and Brussels sprouts are among the foods with the highest levels of folate.

FOOD ITEM/McG per serving/% Daily Volume

Brussels sprouts, frozen, boiled, ˝ cup 78 20
Lettuce, romaine, shredded, 1 cup 64 16
Avocado, raw, sliced, ˝ cup 59 15
Spinach, raw, 1 cup 58 15
Broccoli, chopped, frozen, cooked, ˝ cup 52 13
Mustard greens, chopped, frozen, boiled, ˝ cup 52 13
Green peas, frozen, boiled, ˝ cup 47 12

This chart and the statements above, are reasons why the best source is to eat it, and to eat it naturally, or the next best thing is Juice Plus.  So why did they find folic acid in it?  Because folic acid is added in the form of the small amounts of grain added to the product, which is insignificant compared to the actual amount of folate present in the product.

So why does Juice Plus not state that they have folate in it?  Because the nature of the juice plus product is to state what food is in it.  They DO NOT separate vitamins and minerals, because they are all in there because they all occur naturally in the food.  As a culture we have grown so used to lists of stuff that we want to take, such as a supplement list.  That we have forgotten how to trust the best source, the food.

The volumes of research in the Juice Plus world, showing the value of supplementing this way, outshine all others.  Period.  This citation from the the Journal Nutrition had demonstrated an increase in blood folate as well as a reduction in homocysteine, a marker for heart disease.

This is important and significant information for all of you who have a heart disease concern and or risk.  Get yourself eating 13 servings a day of vegetables and fruit, and add Juice Plus at 1 capsule = one serving to make up the difference.  Questions?  Reach out to me, I can answer.

Be well and Be blessed! – Dr. E

J Nutr. 2003 Nov;133(11):3725; author reply 3726. A mixed fruit and vegetable concentrate increases plasma antioxidant vitamins and folate and lowers plasma homocysteine in men.Samman S, Sivarajah G, Man JC, Ahmad ZI, Petocz P, Caterson ID. Human Nutrition Unit, School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia. s.samman@mmb.usyd.edu.au Fruit and vegetable consumption is inversely associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of supplementation with dehydrated juice concentrates from mixed fruit and vegetables on selected plasma vitamins and antioxidant status. We assessed CHD risk by measuring the concentrations of homocysteine, lipids, lipoproteins, glucose and insulin. Men were recruited to participate in a randomized double-blind, crossover trial with 2 periods of 6 wk, separated by a 3-wk wash-out period. Supplementation with the encapsulated mixed extract (Juice Plus) was compared with physically similar placebo capsules. Thirty-two men (13 smokers, 19 nonsmokers) completed the study with a mean compliance of 88%. Compared with placebo, supplementation increased the concentrations of plasma beta-carotene (0.24 +/- 0.15 vs. 1.12 +/- 0.70 micro mol/L; mean +/- SD; and folic acid (24.5 +/- 10.0 vs. 44.9 +/- 16.9 nmol/L; P < 0.0001). Plasma homocysteine was reduced (8.2 +/- 1.5 vs. 7.6 +/- 1.1; P < 0.05) and inversely related (r = -0.40, P < 0.001) with serum folate concentrations.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)

Related

folate, folic acid, juice plus

4 comments on “Juice Plus – Folic Acid vs Folate”

  1. Theresa says:
    October 11, 2017 at 9:58 pm

    Thank-you for your prompt reply, I appreciate it! Forgive me; I need a little more clarification:
    1. So the folic acid in JP is not synthetic?
    2. Small amounts of grain is added – that’s where the folic acid in JP comes from?
    3. The JP website/facts link you shared stated that the folic acid is “obtained from bio-fermentation” – what does this mean? I couldn’t seem to find any info on the internet about this process. And they bioferment the grains to make folic acid? I thought there was only one type of folic acid – pteroylglutamic acid – which is synthetic.
    Feel free to answer after each question, if easier for you. Thx for your patience!

  2. DrEric says:
    October 11, 2017 at 2:55 am

    Hey theresa – JP adds folic acid (and there really is no chemical difference, this is one of the easier nutrients to actually truly replicate, between folate and folic acid)… but, back to what I was saying. JP adds it, in my best understanding, because it is heavily present in the leaves and does not easily juice from the plant. This is one of those nutrients that makes sense to eat it in the plant, so it is added to help assist those who are using JP without eating the plants. Of course, we know that our goal is to provide reasons and effort to get people to eat the food first, then take the JP.

    But you are correct, if it comes straight from the food, it is folate. However their site says that it is folic acid. https://www.juiceplus.com/gb/en/about-us/faq/juiceplus

  3. Theresa says:
    October 11, 2017 at 2:02 am

    Pls notify me of f/up comments by email, thx! Theresa

  4. Theresa says:
    October 11, 2017 at 2:00 am

    Dr. Eric,
    Thank-you for your article! I, too, am on the JP team and love sharing it w others. I am still confused about the folic acid in JP. My questions:
    1. Why do they add folic acid to JP in the first place?
    2. If folic acid is added in the form of grains added to the product, then isn’t that really folate and not folic acid? And the folic acid in JP is not synthetic?
    Thx for answering my questions.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

Recent Posts

  • Calorie Counting?
  • Steps to Well – 5 BIG ONES
  • All this 60 Day Turnaround Jazz!
  • Taming the BEAST
  • Good Friday

Archives

  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • December 2007

Keep Up With Office News

  • Calorie Counting? April 20, 2018
  • Steps to Well – 5 BIG ONES April 16, 2018
  • All this 60 Day Turnaround Jazz! April 13, 2018
  • Taming the BEAST April 9, 2018
  • Good Friday March 28, 2018

Order Today!

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

(c) 2013 HealthSprout