Reader Question on Joint Juice

We received the following question from a reader of this site: Have you ever used Joint Juice? I saw it on Television then researched it on the internet and it seems like it may be a good solution to my knee pain. It is a liquid and therefore better absorbed. Jeff, Tampa Bay , Florida . P.S. Joe Montana is endorsing Joint Juice so it must be good.

MyAchingKnees.com response to Joint Juice. While I like Joe Montana and use to watch him on NFL Sundays, I doubt very much Joe understands the difference between food grade products and high quality supplements.

Being a liquid has nothing to do with it's absorption rate, as the product consumed is broken down in the stomach and absorbed in the intestines.

Even if the purity, potency, absorption rate (dissolution) and efficacy between products were all the same, and they are NOT, as this is what separates pharmaceutical grade products from all others, the Joint Juice product provides 1,500 mg of Glucosamine and 60 mg of Vitamin C per daily dose compared to what I take which provides 2,000 mg of Glucosamine and 300 mg of Vitamin C not to mention 500 mg of Turmeric Extract which optimizes the Glucosamine.

And if you have been reading this site for awhile you will remember that Vitamin C is an important nutrient for the joints, especially for connective tissue. Good luck to you, but remember,...proof is in the pudding - let the buyer beware.


For Information on the Products I recommend, click here, to contact me.

FDA and Product Warnings

I am no fan of the FDA. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law by President Obama on January 4th, 2011. It seems pretty hypocritical to me to get more involved than ever before in the food industry, yet prescription drugs are marketed after minimal trial periods on a fast track plan. However, I really don’t have a dog in this fight (yet). I have been asked by groups to lend my support against the FSMA, particularly for nutritional supplement manufacturers, who fear further government regulation will drive their manufacturing and product prices up and their profits down. Probably true. But I have partnered with one of the few nutritional supplements manufacturers who use voluntary pharmaceutical grade Good Manufacturing Practices, ensuring that their products are pure, potent, have proper dissolution and are bio-available. So we are already under the highest standards.

Having said that, I think there is a place for the FDA and especially in the area of safety with product re-calls. The FDA has created a new page on their web site for the re-call and safety notifications of foods, drugs and supplements. This is not the re-classification page, but it does contains safety alerts and re-calls for foods, drugs and supplements issued within the last 60 days.

Go here.

One of the FDA Press Releases will look like this:

Recall -- Firm Press Release

FDA posts press releases and other notices of recalls and market withdrawals from the firms involved as a service to consumers, the media, and other interested parties. FDA does not endorse either the product or the company.

Shaping Beauty, Inc. Issues a Voluntary Nationwide Recall of Weight Loss Tea Found to Contain an Undeclared Drug Ingredient

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 15, 2011 - Southampton, PA, Shaping Beauty, Inc. has been informed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that a weight loss dietary supplement sold and marketed by the firm contain an undeclared drug ingredient. FDA lab analyses of dietary supplement tea distributed by the company were found to contain undeclared Sibutramine used as an appetite suppressant for weight loss. The FDA has not approved the following products as drugs; therefore the safety and effectiveness of this product is unknown. All lots of the following dietary supplement products are being recalled: CELERITETM SLIMMING TEA

The products listed above were sold and distributed nationwide via the internet at www.shapingbeauty.com1

FDA advises that these products pose a threat to consumers because Sibutramine is known to substantially increase blood pressure and/or pulse rate in some patients and may present a significant risk for patients with a history of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias or stroke.

I hope people will bookmark and use this site from time to time to check on safety notices from the diverse products being consumed that are not manufactured in a safe manner.


For Information on the Products I recommend, click here, to contact me.

The Truth About Vita-Water

Article that was on the news and can be found on the Huffington Post.

Now here's something you wouldn't expect. Coca-Cola is being sued by a non-profit public interest group, on the grounds that the company's vitaminwater products make unwarranted health claims. No surprise there. But how do you think the company is defending itself?

In a staggering feat of twisted logic, lawyers for Coca-Cola are defending the lawsuit by asserting that "no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage."

Does this mean that you'd have to be an unreasonable person to think that a product named "vitaminwater," a product that has been heavily and aggressively marketed as a healthy beverage, actually had health benefits?

Or does it mean that it's okay for a corporation to lie about its products, as long as they can then turn around and claim that no one actually believes their lies?

In fact, the product is basically sugar-water, to which about a penny's worth of synthetic vitamins have been added. And the amount of sugar is not trivial. A bottle of vitaminwater contains 33 grams of sugar, making it more akin to a soft drink than to a healthy beverage.

Is any harm being done by this marketing ploy? After all, some might say consumers are at least getting some vitamins, and there isn't as much sugar in vitaminwater as there is in regular Coke.

True. But about 35 percent of Americans are now considered medically obese. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight. Health experts tend to disagree about almost everything, but they all concur that added sugars play a key role in the obesity epidemic, a problem that now leads to more medical costs than smoking.

How many people with weight problems have consumed products like vitaminwater in the mistaken belief that the product was nutritionally positive and carried no caloric consequences? How many have thought that consuming vitaminwater was a smart choice from a weight-loss perspective? The very name "vitaminwater" suggests that the product is simply water with added nutrients, disguising the fact that it's actually full of added sugar.

The truth is that when it comes to weight loss, what you drink may be even more important than what you eat. Americans now get nearly 25 percent of their calories from liquids. In 2009, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published a report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, finding that the quickest and most reliable way to lose weight is to cut down on liquid calorie consumption. And the best way to do that is to reduce or eliminate beverages that contain added sugar.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola has invested billions of dollars in its vitaminwater line, paying basketball stars, including Kobe Bryant and Lebron James, to appear in ads that emphatically state that these products are a healthy way for consumers to hydrate. When Lebron James held his much ballyhooed TV special to announce his decision to join the Miami Heat, many corporations paid millions in an attempt to capitalize on the event. But it was vitaminwater that had the most prominent role throughout the show.

The lawsuit, brought by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, alleges that vitaminwater labels and advertising are filled with "deceptive and unsubstantiated claims." In his recent 55-page ruling, Federal Judge John Gleeson (U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York), wrote, "At oral arguments, defendants (Coca-Cola) suggested that no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitamin water was a healthy beverage." Noting that the soft drink giant wasn't claiming the lawsuit was wrong on factual grounds, the judge wrote that, "Accordingly, I must accept the factual allegations in the complaint as true."

I still can't get over the bizarre audacity of Coke's legal case. Forced to defend themselves in court, they are acknowledging that vitaminwater isn't a healthy product. But they are arguing that advertising it as such isn't false advertising, because no could possibly believe such a ridiculous claim.

I guess that's why they spend hundreds of millions of dollars advertising the product, saying it will keep you "healthy as a horse," and will bring about a "healthy state of physical and mental well-being."

Why do we allow companies like Coca-Cola to tell us that drinking a bottle of sugar water with a few added water-soluble vitamins is a legitimate way to meet our nutritional needs?

Here's what I suggest: If you're looking for a healthy and far less expensive way to hydrate, try drinking water. If you want to flavor the water you drink, try adding the juice of a lemon and a small amount of honey or maple syrup to a quart of water. Another alternative is to mix one part lemonade or fruit juice to three or four parts water. Or drink green tea, hot or chilled, adding lemon and a small amount of sweetener if you like. If you want to jazz it up, try one-half fruit juice, one-half carbonated water.

If your tap water tastes bad or you suspect it might contain lead or other contaminants, get a water filter that fits under the sink or attaches to the tap.

And it's probably not the best idea to rely on a soft drink company for your vitamins and other essential nutrients. A plant-strong diet with lots of vegetables and fruits will provide you with what you need far more reliably, far more consistently -- and far more honestly.

MyAchingKnees.com comment: What is lost in this is that there is a lack of standards in food grade products that extends to food grade, off the shelf nutritional supplements. I shudder to think of all the people buying off the shelf, food grade joint products for chronic knee pain and other joints not knowing that what they read on the label cannot be ascertained or proven. You can only be assured that what you are taking is correctly identified on the label is through pharmaceutical grade nutritionals. Then you can believe what you are taking is checked and tested for purity, potency, bio-availibility and dissolution.

Many Supplements Said to Contain Toxins and Make False Health Claims

From HealthDay, Wednesday 26, 2010

This article from HealthDay re-iterates what MyAchingKnees.com has been saying from Day One, that is there is a huge difference in the quality of food grade, off the shelf supplements and pharmaceutical grade supplements. Without the controlled manufacturing process where ingredients are quarantined and checked.....without the quality checks on the products as they are being manufactured,.....and, without a guarantee from the supplement manufacturer, the consumer just can’t be assured that they are taking products that not only make a difference in their health, but are free from potentially harmful toxins.

A Congressional investigation of dietary herbal supplements has found trace amounts of lead, mercury and other heavy metals in nearly all products tested, plus myriad illegal health claims made by supplement manufacturers, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The levels of heavy metal contaminants did not exceed established limits, but investigators also discovered troubling and possibly unacceptable levels of pesticide residue in 16 of 40 supplements, the newspaper said.

One Ginkgo Biloba product had labeling claiming it could treat Alzheimer's disease (no effective treatment yet exists), while a product containing ginseng asserted that it can prevent both diabetes and cancer, the report said.

Steve Mister, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade group that represents the dietary supplement industry, said it was not surprising that herbal supplements contained trace amounts of heavy metals, because they are routinely found in soil and plants. "I don’t think this should be of concern to consumers," he told the Times.

The report findings were to be presented to the Senate on Wednesday, two weeks before discussion begins on a major food safety bill that will likely place more controls on food manufacturers, the Times said. The newspaper said it was given the report in advance of the Senate hearing.

How tough the bill will be on supplement makers has been the subject of much lobbying, but the Times noted that some Congressional staff members doubt manufacturers will find it too burdensome.

At least nine misleading health claims were noted in the report, which was prepared by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). These claims included assurances that the products could cure diseases, such as diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and cancer, investigators said. In one instance, a salesperson claimed that a garlic supplement could replace blood pressure drugs, the Times reported.

Products that purport to treat or relieve disease must go through strict reviews because they are considered drugs by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The oversight of supplements has improved in recent years, said Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin), who will preside over Wednesday's hearing. However, the FDA needs the authority and tools to ensure that dietary supplements are as safe and effective as is widely perceived by the Americans who take them, he told the Times.

One witness scheduled to testify, Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com, said supplements with too little of the indicated ingredients and those contaminated with heavy metals are the major problems. In testing more than 2,000 dietary supplements from some 300 manufacturers, his lab has found that one in four has quality problems, the Times said.

According to the newspaper's account, the proposed food safety bill could require that supplement manufacturers register annually with the FDA and permit the agency to recall potentially dangerous supplements.

It's estimated that half of adult Americans take vitamin supplements regularly, and about a quarter take herbal supplements at least occasionally. Annual sales are about $25 billion a year, the Times said.