Part one is devoted to Advocare...Sit back and enjoy the ride!
Advocare is a MLM (multilevel marketing) company that has thrust itself into many CrossFit boxes, families and a host of other people from just about every angle. Interestingly they also offer a program called debtbuster that claims to target creditors and lower debt. Better health, more money and debt free...sounds like a win win to me!
Let us start by taking a product and analyzing its ingredients to see what it has to offer:
The Meal Replacement Shake:
Claims are:
-Delicious(flavors are vanilla, chocolate and berry)
-Provides an alternative to high calories, high fat and empty calorie foods
-Provides Calcium and Fiber
-Price 39.95 for a box with 14 pouches
While we think that this product is very delicious and MCTs are a nice addition the other claims can be quite misleading.
First off we are not fans of liquid nutrition, because of it's insulin spiking effects, while we understand time constraints. Meal replacement shakes should never be a regular part of your diet. The biggest concern is whether you will be able to maintain any weight loss after you stop taking the shake or will you be a slave to the shake for the rest of your life?
With the low fat and high carb content of this shake it seems you will jump on the insulin spiking roller coaster thus sending you into a hunger frenzy after a few hours. Fats make you feel fuller longer and thus make it very difficult to overeat.
Here is a study detailing the fact that replacing fats with carbohydrates causes issues relating to CVD.
Fructose is an ingredient in this product and we don't like that one bit. Fructose is only metabolized in the liver and thus is directly channeled from there to the small intestine, causing the metabolic load to be placed on the liver. The response by the liver is to convert the Fructose to fats for storage and thus raising triglycerides.
Fructose seems to cause the muscles to become more insulin resistant by blocking the metabolism of glucose in the liver and the synthesis of glucose into glycogen.
Fructose also leads to the formation of AGEs (Advanced glycation end products)
Next we really don't like the folic Acid that this product contains. To understand this it is essential to know the difference between folic Acid and folate. Folic acid is a synthetic form of folate found in supplements such as this one, while folate is the natural form and is vitamin B9 and Folic acid is the oxidized synthetic form.
An interesting study points out some very pertinent points: A higher proportion of Folic acid undergoes initial reduction and methylation in the liver. Some tissues including the liver have a limited ability to reduce folic acid, because of a low activity of dihydrofolate reductase. The significance here seems to be an increased amount of unmetabolized folic acid in the circulation when high doses of folic acid are taken.
What does all this mean? High levels of unmetabolized folic acid could possibly increase the rate of progression of pre-cancerous lesions to invasive cancer and in the older population it can be difficult to detect vitamin B12 deficiency and a degradation of the nervous system. All the while dietary folate (not folic acid) may protect against some forms of cancer.
Finally on the bottom of the nutrition label is the warning that this product contains Soy (which is linked to low sperm count in men) and wheat containing ingredients. Check out our post on wheat products to read about our thoughts on those nasty little buggers!
My final point about these guys is that the prices are completlely outrageous. For example the 24 day challenge is priced at $183.25 for 24 days. This is insane and Whole 9 did a very good writeup about it here. We agree that a lot of the claims made are way off target and in the realm of magic land, not science.
We are interested in providing information for allow people to make good decisions about their health from an unbiased source. If we recommended Advocare it would be a sad sad day, because we would have sold out in order to make a quick buck and our intention is to inform the public, not take advantage of them with clever marketing and big words.
Our final say is to run, don't walk away if an Advocare rep approaches you or if your gym is selling shiny new expensive products made by this company. We think they have no place in the realm of REAL health and longevity. If you would like information on the supplements we recommend and the companies we trust, check out our supplement post here.
Sources:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1343280
http://www.advocare.com/
http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/11/2584.abstract
6 comments:
Blogs give you the chance to express yourself in an open forum to persuade or inform others of your views.
I had posted some other thoughts (opinions). It's sad when you are not willing to let a pure form of expression like a blog stand up to other thoughts. Deleting my comments just doesnt seem very honorable. I never even said you were wrong. I simply shared another way of looking at things. Good luck in your endeavors, and I hope you will learn to accept that others have opinions too. If you will leave latitude for people to leave comments, you should allow some of those comments to be left posted if they are not rude or condescending. I disagree with 70% of what you shared about some direct sales companies, but I never conveyed it in a malicious or attacking manner on your site.
Advocare is of course not 100% paleo, but how many of us live 100% paleo lifestyles if we are completely honest? Its the 80/20 rule. Advocare fills in some of the gaps that we can tend to be lazy or cheat on. Its not THE WAY, its an alternative. And that model where everyone is out to get you to make a buck? Its helping alot of people too, and that has seemed to slip your comments. Again, this will probably just be deleted again, but I felt compelled to share. I do wish you luck because I do believe you mean well and want to make a positive difference in peoples lives. I do as well. And yes, I do take advocare products and they do work very well for me. But I also try to eat a more healthy paleo lifestyle with my family. Good luck as you impact people. Try not to stereotype perhaps. Not all direct sales companies are out to screw people and take their money.
I think you need to do more research on AdvoCare. and I agree with Eric. leave comments up so all can see. we took the time to read what you had to say.
In regards to Whole 9's write up - Advocare DOES reveal it's ingredients on the site. You have to hit "print" and see the full ingredients (and it doesn't really "print" unless you take a few more steps). A few key ingredients are listed on the site, and it takes another link to get the full list. I'm not a distributor, but am always exploring what's out there. Advocare has some good products, and some are probably not what you're looking for. As for making a buck--isn't that what most of the companies are doing, too?? There are some lousy Advocare reps out there, and some not so lousy ones, too.
These comments remind me of Scientologists' response to anyone who disagrees with them.
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