If you watch TV at all, you’ve probably seen the Balance of Nature ads as they have been relentlessly advertising recently.
These dietary supplements are intended to provide you with fruits, veggies, fiber and spices. But are they worth it?
What’s in them?
According to their website, here are the ingredients.
Fruit supplement: Aloe Vera, Apple, Banana, Blueberry, Cherry, Cranberry, Grape, Grapefruit, Lemon, Mango, Orange, Papaya, Pineapple, Raspberry, Strawberry, and Tomato. Cellulose in the capsule coat.
Vegetable supplement: Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrot, Cauliflower, Cayenne Pepper, Celery Stalk, Garlic, Kale, Onion, Shiitake Mushroom, Soybean, Spinach, Sweet Potato, Wheatgrass, and Zucchini. Cellulose in the capsule coat.
Fiber and spice: Psyllium husk, flax seeds, apples, monkfruit, allspice, Cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, ginger, mustard seed, nutmeg and turmeric. Cellulose in the capsule coat.
Sounds good!
Well, not so fast. There are no amounts or proportions on the label, and no listing of vitamin/mineral amounts so you have no idea how much of each of these ingredients you are getting.
The idea is that they freeze dry each ingredient, pulverize them into a powder and then put it into a capsule. You are supposed to take three capsules a day. Hold three pills in your hand and ask yourself, exactly how many servings of fruits or vegetables is that? Since they don’t list amounts on the label, it’s impossible to know for sure but I seriously doubt you can get a significant amount of fruit/vegetable servings into a portion that small.
In fact, the FDA warned them in 2019 about their inadequate labeling, but Evig, LLC (the makers of Balance of Nature) failed to comply. That, along with some other issues, led to Evig, LLC being served a federal decree in November of 2023 to stop producing and selling their products until they are in compliance. More about that later.
But…. getting more fruits and veggies, even if it’s just a little, can’t be bad, right?
Nope, I don’t think there is anything wrong with the ingredients themselves and certainly we can all stand to get more fruits and veggies into our diet. But are you willing to pay big bucks for the tiny amount of produce in this product?
Ah, yes: The price. One bottle of a tiny amount of Fruits and Vegetables (a one month supply) costs $90 and the Fiber & Spice bottls costs $70. That is, unless you join their monthly auto-ship subscription! Then you get a tiny amount of produce for only $70 and some psyllium husk for $50. (For contrast, a one month supply of Publix brand psyllium husk runs at $13.59).
And don’t you just love auto-shipping subscriptions?? Not the people on the Better Business Bureau website which gives Balance of Nature an F rating. Many of the complaints claim that customers were enrolled in the auto-ship feature without their consent or found it impossible to cancel it once they were enrolled. In fact, a lawsuit was filed in California for deceptive marketing practices and signing customers up for the auto-shipping without their knowledge. The lawsuit was settled in July 2023 for 1.1 million dollars.
Back to that cease and desist…..
Evig, LLC has had a few run-ins with the FDA.
In the 2019 FDA letter, the following problems were discussed:
Evig, LLC was selling “unapproved or misbranded drugs”. When the FDA reviewed content in flyers, commercials, the Balance of Nature websites and YouTube channels, they found many instances where the company claimed the pills could treat or cure diseases (cure a sore throat, improve insulin sensitivity, overcome multiple sclerosis, prevent skin cancer, and cure asthma). It is illegal to claim that a pill treats or cures diseases unless it has been FDA approved to do so. Dietary supplements are not FDA approved, so they cannot make these claims.
Evig, LLC was selling “adulterated dietary supplements”. After an inspection by the FDA, it was found that the pills were not being made according to Current Good Manufacturing Process for dietary supplements. Specifically, they had no quality control procedures. Evig, LLC contracts out the manufacturing of many ingredients to other companies but never verifies that the ingredients are what they are supposed to be upon receiving them. One employee noted to the FDA that they identify the powdered ingredients by “smell”.
Evig, LLC was selling “misbranded dietary supplements”. The labels did not include exact amounts of each ingredient, the label claims the pills have “more antioxidant power than any other brand” but they have no evidence to support that claim, and a bunch of other little tidbits that are less important (font size, placement, etc)
Evig, LLC apparantly did not address these issues and Michael Rodgers, the acting associate commissioner for regulatary affairs at the FDA stated “they have demonstrated repeated violations of manufacturing requirements, and the public cannot have confidence that their products are what they purport to be.”
This led to a lawsuit being filed in November of 2023 against Evig, LLC in the state of Utah (the company’s home base). A federal court issued a consent decree that Evig, LLC stop producing and selling Balance of Nature until they were in compliance. They will also need to hire an outside expert to audit the company.
Ah, the supplement industry.
If you’ve been reading my content for any length of time, you know I have a serious bone to pick with the supplement industry.
Since vitamins and supplements are not FDA approved, there is no guarantee that the pills contain what they claim to contain. A 2015 study in New York of four major retailers of supplements found only 21% of bottles contained what they claimed. Worse, 35% of bottles contained ingredients not identified on the label, a real issue for those with allergies. Many pills contained cheap fillers like rice and even houseplant material.
Even if the pills are of high quality and correctly labeled, you have no idea how long they have been sitting on the store shelf, how they were shipped, if they experienced exposure to sunlight or large temperature variations… all things that diminish the quality of pills.
Lastly, most vitamins and minerals are best absorbed by our intestine when they come in the context of real food. Often absorption is increased by other elements, or the fiber, found in the food.
It’s always better to get your food in FOOD FORM. However, if you have a deficiency, cannot tolerate the taste of certain foods, can’t eat certain things, or don’t have access to those foods, then a supplement can be beneficial.
Stay happy, healthy and informed,
Jessica at TCA
Balance of Nature product price list.
Balance of Nature nutritional content
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Evig LLC dba Balance of Nature