Today In Alternative Medicine

Well, I probably can’t help you with your annoying neighbor but if you really don’t like the idea of buying an expensive “miracle” food from people peddling it door-to-door in your neighborhood, perhaps I can help you feel a little less guilty about saying, “No.”

Vemma is little more than liquid minerals, green tea and mangosteen fruit juice. According to Vemma’s label, it supplies at least a full-day’s supply of vitmins A, C, D3, E and a full-day’s supply of several of the B vitamins. It also contains a number of minerals, including chemical elements you may not have heard of before, like europium. Vemma’s literature claims that the “liquid” minerals in Vemma are more bio-available than ordinay mineral supplements but they offer no scientific evidence to back up their claims.

Vemma is also rich in antioxidant vitamins and Vemma distributors suggest (again, with no proof) that antioxidants can help prevent everything from diabetes to cancer. While some of the ingredients in Vemma have been scientifically studied, the product itself hasn’t. (At least not that we could find.)

I have a couple of problems with Vemma. First, it’s expensive. At $60 a month, I simply don’t think it’s worth the price. A good multi-vitamin and a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables will provide everything Vemma (or any other fruit juice blend) does at a much lower cost.

My second problem with Vemma is how it’s marketed. Anyone familiar with my work knows that I’m not a fan of multi-level marketing companies and, at least for now, that’s the only way to find Vemma. Multi-level marketing schemes tend to be aggressively marketed by people billing themselves as “wellness consultants” or “nutritional consultants”. This sounds impressive but, in fact, their “education” is often nothing more than a phone call and a video presentation explaining how to sell a product.

Why is this a big deal? Well, take a look at this statement we found on vemma.com: “It’s now well-known that taking multivitamins with minerals on a daily basis is vital for long-term optimal health.” Statements like that are typical of multi-level-marketing programs but it’s not true. Study after study has shown that a balanced diet is a better way to achieve optimum nutrition than taking supplements. 

The bottom line is this: I see nothing really wrong with products like Vemma. I don’t really see any way that they can be harmful if used appropriately, but, as I stated before, there’s just nothing in Vemma that you can’t get from a healthy diet.