Today we’re going to be chatting about popular supplements-such as Juice Plus, Arbonne and Forever Living-and whether they can help with conditions like Crohn’s Disease. If you have Crohn’s disease and gut issues and have been told Juice Plus can help crohn’s or aloe vera is ideal for IBS or IBD, let’s take a look to see if those claims are actually true.
Firstly, a heads up there is a video version of this blog which can be watched below…
Most of us, every day if you have a chronic illness, or are gluten and dairy-free, get messages from these companies that say they’re good for gut health. So, I just want to break down their ingredients, and consider whether they are worth buying and obviously you can then make that decision yourself.
This blog post is my honest thoughts. I have not linked to any products-either Juice Plus/Arbonne/Forever Living or products I personally take so I can’t be accused of trying to sell from this article.
Is Arbonne good for gut health issues such as IBS, coeliac disease or IBD?
So we’re going to start with Arbonne. Now, since I have been talking a lot more about gluten-free, I get messages most weeks from these sellers because their claim is that they’re gluten-free. It’s not an amazing claim because they’re protein powders and herbal teas, and I think the vast majority of those products can be found gluten-free pretty easily.
Arbonne sells a Feel Fit pea-based vegan protein powder for £65 pounds. I actually stopped to check that figure because I was like: ‘there’s no way it’s 65 pounds!” But it is. It’s 56% pea protein and various other ingredients but, in my opinion, there is nothing unique about that protein powder that can easily not be found for a quarter of the price elsewhere.
I regularly buy pea protein powders for under £20 and vitamins can obviously be found by a multivitamin. It’s not a dangerous product, but it’s very very very expensive and there is nothing unique about it that I don’t think.
Arbonne also does a Gut Health Digestion and Microbiome Support for £47 for a 30-day supply that has some good ingredients in it: it’s got a prebiotic, it’s got a probiotic strain, it’s got enzymes and ginger. So, a nice little mix of ingredients for digestion health, but just so overpriced.
I buy a similar product from Amazon that’s also got enzymes in, alongside ginger and a probiotic and that’s £20. This product might be useful but you just don’t need to spend 47 pounds in my opinion.
Other products that I found were herbal teas, and these were £19, which just blows my mind, as someone that buys herbal tea all the time! These ingredients are just everyday herbal teas in my experience: such as chamomile, rosemary, and thyme so I just don’t know how they can justify this price point.
Finally, Arbonne sell a body cleanse for £52 for 7 sachets. It claims this helps ‘cleanse the system’ but does not explain how it does this. It contains Magnesium, ginger, pea fibre and flaxseed which aren’t bad ingredients but have no cleansing properties and can be found cheaper elsewhere.
Is juice plus really the same as eating 30 fruit and vegetables? Could Juice Plus be suitable for IBD?
Juice Plus is the one that I feel the most passionate about because I have lots of juicing resources on my blog, and a lot of people think: “Oh, I just don’t want to faff around juicing; I’ll just buy these tablets instead.”
So Juice Plus is £41 a month to buy their fruit blend and their vegetable blend, and they say that it’s composed of 30 different fruit and vegetables.
They also do other things such as vegetable soup (£36) and shakes and things like that. Now, there are a few issues with these. First of all, they blend the pulp of fruit+veg and add vitamins to it (which is a little bit weird because you think if I was truly eating that many fruit and vegetables as they say, then I wouldn’t need to add vitamins to it).
The only claim that they can pop on the tablets is that they contains Vitamin C, Folic Acid, Vitamin E and Vitamin A; most likely from the added vitamins.
These percentages are no higher than a traditional multivitamin, so it’s been proven that it’s no more beneficial than a traditional multivitamin. One study found taking two capsules, is the same as having two to three bites of the fruit or vegetables-not 30 fruit and vegetables like you might think.
There’s just no studies that suggest that this is any more beneficial than taking a multivitamin, I understand that when you kind of sign up, you might kind of get more resources like recipes and things like that and that might be useful. There’s also something powerful about taking a multivitamin every day, but there’s just no evidence that suggests this is any better than a regular multivitamin. You can buy plenty of food-based multi-vitamins too at a much cheaper cost.
Is Forever living Aloe Vera helpful for those who have IBS and IBD?
There is a little bit of evidence that aloe vera could actually help gut health but the results are so mixed. There was quite a small study with Ulcerative Colitis and it seems to suggest aloe vera helped. Yet, others think aloe vera revs up the immune system a little bit, which isn’t ideal for people who have autoimmune diseases.
Different studies are available for IBS: one showed it had no effect on IBS, whilst another showed that it helps a bit with constipation.
There’s definitely lots of anecdotal evidence here: some people say it’s worked amazing, some people say it’s actually made them feel worse. It’s just a mixed bag!
The main issue with Forever Living’s expensive aloe vera is the product just isn’t as unique as they claim.Its £22.94 for a 1000ml and Forever Living claims this is because it’s 99.7% from the inner aloe leaf, and that’s what makes it amazing. However, Pukka actually sells a 99.8% inner leaf gel for just over £15.
As someone shared with me on Instagram, Forever Living use the claim their product can actually support villi health (villi line the small intestines which help absorption and these are blunted with coeliac disease). I can’t find any evidence for this or any ingredient that could help villi health. The most common reason for poor villi health is coeliac disease and the only resolution for this is to follow a strict gluten-free diet. I don’t know how they can make any claims on how the actions work on the villi or intestines without doing endoscopies of the people who try it!
The verdict: I personally wouldn’t recommend any of these products. If I was to try any, it might be Arbonne as I enjoy protein powders and herbal teas and, on the whole, the ingredients aren’t bad. They are, however, all incredibly overpriced in my opinion so it’s definitely a no from me!
It’s great to see a detailed breakdown of popular supplements like Juice Plus, Arbonne, and Forever Living in relation to gut health. It’s important to scrutinize the claims and compare them with actual evidence and alternatives. While some ingredients might be beneficial, many of these products seem overpriced and not necessarily more effective than cheaper, readily available options. It’s essential to do thorough research and consider cost-effective alternatives before investing in such supplements.