Monavie Review And Clinical Studies On Acai Berries

In Providing these sources of reviews I try to keep it balanced since I know there are always 2 sides or more to an argument. In my Monavie review I have included arguments for and against Monavie and its products as well as some information on Acai Berries. (Note) The company Monavie went bankrupt and only the product line "Monavie Active" is still around. Its has nothing to do with the effectiveness of Acai though. The previous company Monavie came under a lot of scrutiny legally around 2010 in regards to the effectiveness of Monavie products and they potential health benefits. In full disclosure I used to be a distributor for them between 2007-2009. I have not promoted their products since. This blog does have affiliate links but I am not outwardly promoting them.  

1. University of Florida researchers:
-said that "Berries triggered a self-destruct response in up to 86% of leukemia"

2.There are at last count as of (Sept 01 2023) 255 opinions at nutritional tree. The majority of the opinions I found here were positive and the really only negative ones related to price of the product. 

3. Monavie itself had a clinical study done by an independent research company. You can get it here at AIBMR if you are interested. They stated that Monavie acai powder has an ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) score higher than any other fruit or vegetable tested to date on a gram for gram basis. This was an older study released in 2010. You can learn more about ORAC scores here.

4.Here is a video with Dr. Ralph Carson speaking about some of the myths and outright lies some companies are claiming their products will do. In the first segment he starts speaking about Monavie and what he believes are the health benefits.  

5. There was a lawsuit filed against them alleging that their products contained higher than normal levels of lead and arsenic. You can see more here about it. It seems to be ongoing or I cannot find any more information about it. In this age of frivolous lawsuits its important to make sure that companies and individuals are innocent until proven guilty. But that being said I would stear clear of their products until the verdict is in. No sense in taking additional risk.

6. Their claims that the glucosamine hydrochloride additive is "formulated to enhance your body's joint health by increasing mobility and flexibility." Isn't really true. Its different than the alternative glucosamine sulfate.The Cochrane Review of 25 studies involving nearly 5,000 patients showed little difference in osteoarthritis-pain improvement between taking glucosamine and placebos. When older and lower-quality studies were considered, the scale tipped in favor of the real thing.

7. Another criticism is the ORAC value itself. There is actually more than 1 way to measure the antioxidant capacity. When you measure based on these 6 tests listed here its still ranked highly but didn't look like the king of the hill so much.

If you have any other resources you would like to share leave a comment below.

(Updated Sept 01 2023)