Balance of Nature Product Analysis
How many fresh servings of FRUITS AND VEGETABLES are in a serving of Balance of Nature supplements? A serving is 3 fruit caps and 3 veggie caps. ANSWER: About 1/4 of one serving for both. Why are some websites saying a serving of Balance of Nature is equal to 10 fresh fruit and vegetable servings???
By now, people have most likely seen a televised advertisement for Balance of Nature supplements. Ads hint that these supplements can replace servings of fruits and vegetables. Healthy looking active people are seen in ads mentioning how much their life improved while taking these supplements. What is the WHOLE story behind this product?
BACKGROUND
Fruits and Vegetables are beneficial in the diet. article How much are needed? These amounts are now specified as cups per day instead of weights, that is 2 cups of fruits would be 4 servings and 2 and a half cups of vegetables would be 5 servings. This must be quite difficult to achieve since only 1 in 10 consume these amounts. ref
Balance of Nature fruit and vegetable supplements sound like a simple way to increase servings without having to actually eat food. Obviously, fruits and vegetables contain many valuable nutrients. Here are amounts of fruits and vegetables equal to one serving. More data on servings here> serving sizes here <click on cup fruit table, or for a picture of serving sizes, and last, Harvard weighs in here There is some confusion as to what exactly is a serving size for fruits and vegetables. Australia simplifies and says a fruit serving is 150 grams (5 and 1/3 ounces) and a vegetable serving is 75 grams (two and 2/3 ounces).
QUESTION OF THE DAY
How many servings of fresh FRUITS AND VEGETABLES are in a serving of Balance of Nature supplements?
On average, total is just 1/4 of one serving.
Since a whole medium size apple is one serving, cut the apple in quarters (actually about half that) and eat one quarter and you will get a representative for the amount of fresh fruit nutrients in the entire 3 capsule fruit serving of Balance of Nature. But it is divided between 16 fruits in the product and not all as only apple.
The PROOF
Here is a very simple method to figure this out. The labels give the total weight of the servings (3 fruit caps equal 2,011 mg and 3 vegetable caps equal 2,010 mg.) Knowing that the processing method just extracts out the water weight from the fruits and vegetables without any further concentrations, it is easy to figure out how much fresh fruits and vegetables are in a Balance of Nature serving by simply adding back the 87% on average water weight.
Here is the math for those with a concern for numbers. 2011 mg. and 2010 mg. equal 4,021 mg. which is 4 grams rounded off. One fresh fruit or vegetable serving is typically between 4-6 ounces. One ounce is 28 grams. Thus one serving of fruit or Vegetable would be between 112 - 168 grams. But this is with 87% average water weight included. Taking out the water weight leaves 15-22 grams for one food serving. Daily recommendation is for 9 servings, 4 fruit and 5 vegetable. But new (questionable) research reveals that 5 total provides same benefit.
Since a serving of Balance of Nature provides 4 grams for both 3 fruit and 3 vegetable caps, this is equal to between 18-27% of one serving of fruit or vegetable, or combination of the two (15-22 grams).
THAT IS ABOUT 1 OUNCE (28 grams) OF FRESH PRODUCE, a very tiny amount.
See below for more detailed analysis.
There is a fruit cap, a veggie cap, and a spice and fiber cap. Let's look at the fruit cap first to get an idea of how many servings of fresh fruits can be put into 3 capsules.
USING APPLE EXAMPLE
The 3 fruit caps hold just over 2,000 milligrams, or 2 grams. A medium size apple weighs about 6 ounces, or 168 grams (28 grams to an ounce) and represents one serving of fruit. Taking out the 85% water weight, that leaves about 25 grams of dried apple solids containing the nutrients, including about 3% fiber. (list of water % for F & V) Since the company does not use concentrates, if this apple powder was used to fill all three capsules, 2 grams, that would equal just 8% of one serving of apple solids. What about the other 15 fruits listed on the label that also need some space?
Realistically, does this apple example sound like this product could deliver a full fruit serving substitute in the 3 capsules at total 2 grams (2,011 mg.)? Maybe a good start for some types of high water fruits.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE- Strawberries
One fresh strawberry, about 1 inch across, with water removed weighs about .56 of a gram. Since one fruit capsule on average holds .67 gram, or 670 milligrams, that means that just 1 and 1/5 dried strawberries would fill one capsule. One fruit serving size is considered 8 strawberries. The 3 capsules of only strawberries would yield just under a half fruit serving, that is 3 and 3/5 strawberries.
But these are for one fruit filling all 3 capsules. Now how much of each of the 16 fruits are in each product serving?
All three fruit capsules hold 2,011 mg. Looking at amount for all 16 fruits divided equally, the product label does not provide any individual item amounts but offers a hint, each fruit would have 126 milligrams. For strawberry, that would mean just over 1/5 of a strawberry would equal 126 mg. That is just under 3% of one strawberry serving. For Apple, that 126 mg. would mean just half of one percent for the dried apple solids of one seving. The other 14 fruits are somewhere between these two examples. Adding up the 16 fruits would probably only reach at best maybe 25% of a fruit serving, modified a little by the actual weight used of each fruit and water content percent.
If you can afford to pay about 300% over the real value for this type of product, by all means go ahead. At least it does not appear to have any negatives, unless one is allergic to an ingredient. Also note that the fruits are not organic so the fruit caps probably have some pesticides and/or heavy metals. But most likely these amounts will be below government accepted levels since the serving amount is so small.
FYI: if you are taking the spice and fiber caps, be sure to drink sufficient water. Fiber absorbs water and could back up the elimination system. At 8 grams of fibers, this product supplies about 29% of daily requirement, a good amount, but less than the fiber content in 2 medium apples at 8.8 grams and slightly more than one apple at 4.4 grams and one banana at 3.1 grams. The FIBER caps just might be the most valuable product of the three.
If one looks at the bottle labels, while they list the fruits, there is a glaring absence of any vitamin and mineral content amounts. This may be due to the fact that they are quite insignificantly small. One company did have a lab work up a vitamin analysis for Balance of Nature. article
"a laboratory test for vitamin C was conducted on a fresh batch of Balance of Nature Veggies and Fruits. A 3-capsule serving of Veggies (2 grams of powder) contains 0.097 mg of vitamin C, while a 3-capsule serving of Fruit contains 0.307 mg of vitamin C." (Daily RDI of 90 mg would need 9 fruit bottles)
While lab tests do occaisionally make mistakes in results, these look to be close to the right amounts considering the quanities of fresh food needed to fill the 3 serving capsules after fruits and vegetables are dried.
ANY REDEEMING FACTORS?
So, the real value of this product must be in the combination of a little of each of the 16 fruits and 15 vegetables. You still need to eat at least 4 and 3/4 (or more) fresh fruit and vegetable servings per day.
Updated information (January 2024)
Some other websites writing about Balance of Nature said the fruits and vegetables were all from organic sources. But the company website does not now mention organic. The part of a product label that is inside the square black line box is the only part that has very strict regulations. Current label boxes for the fruit product do not list organic anywhere. The source of fruits is not organic.
One Revealing Label Requirement
The FDA does have strict label requirements inside the label box lising ingredients. When ingredients are listed , they have to put the ingredient with the largest amount first and then work down to the last ingredient with the least weight. Since Balance of Nature Fruit and Vegetable labels break down the ingredients into three categories, each group would still have to list ingredients in order of amounts within each group. Notice that some groups list the same ingredient in all three groups or in two out of the three. This gives some details about where those ingredients could rank in total weight amounts compared to ingredients in only one group. Here looking at water percent and serving size for each food could add clarifying information to help determine exact equivalent for total serving amount.