JuiceFestiv Review: A Better and Cheaper Alternative to Juice Plus?
In this review of JuiceFestiv fruit and veggie capsules, I’ll cover pros and cons, nutritional facts, side effects, how to take it, and where to get it.
Also ahead, a comparison with Juice Plus, including ingredients, potential benefits, cost per month and if JuiceFestiv really is a better and cheaper alternative.
Reading this JuiceFestiv comparison with Juice Plus could save you a lot each month. It also has how and when to take these inexpensive organic fruit and vegetable supplements for best results.
What is JuiceFestiv?
Made by California-based supplement giant Natrol, JuiceFestiv is a low-cost competitor to the popular Juice Plus and Texas Superfood fruit and vegetable capsules.
JuiceFestiv is sold as 2 bottles together — Daily Fruit and Daily Veggie — with 60 caps in each. Since you take 2 of both the Fruit and Veggie product each day, that makes for a 30 day supply.
It’s great value here on Amazon, especially compared to the very similar Juice Plus, which is significantly more expensive.
What’s in JuiceFestiv though and is it worth buying at all? Let’s have a look at the ingredients list and pros and cons to find out.
Daily Fruit Supplement Facts
Vitamins
Vitamin A (as beta-carotene) – 2500 IU, Vitamin C – 100 mg, Vitamin B6 – 5 mg, Folic acid – 120 mcg, Vitamin B12 100 mcg.
Organic Fruit Blend
Organic (Apple Banana, Acai, Orange Peel Powder, Noni, Lemon Peel, Concord Grape, Peach, Cranberry, Raspberry, Pomegranate, Pineapple, Cherry, Mango, Plum, Prune, Beet Juice, Strawberry, Elderberry, Black Currant, Blackberry, Blueberry, Goji, Papaya).
Probiotics
Lactobacillus Acidophilus 20 mg (200 million CFU at time of manufacture).
Fruit Enzyme Blend
Amylase, Pectinase, Hemicellulase, Cellulase, Lipase, Protease, Glucoamylase, Phytase, Invertase, Maltase.
Daily Veggie Supplement Facts
Vitamins and Minerals
Vitamin A (as beta-carotene) – 2500 IU, Vitamin E – 30 IU, Folic acid – 280 mcg, SelenoExcell Selenium (Yeast Bound Selenium) – 200 mcg.
Organic Vegetable Blend
Organic (Parsley, Beet, Onion, Carrot, Garlic, Tomato, Spinach, Bell Pepper, Red , Bell Pepper Green, Collard Green, Ginger Root, Wheat Grass, Barley Grass, Kale, Maitake Mushroom, Pumpkin Fruit, Spirulina, Oat Bran, Broccoli, Sweet Potato, Cabbage, Turmeric, Kelp).
Vegetable Enzyme Blend
Amylase, Hemicellulase, Cellulase, Lipase, Protease, Pectinase, Phytase, Invertase, Maltase, Glucoamylase.
Best Ingredients
Daily Veggie
Let’s start with the JuiceFestiv vegetable product first as this is the stronger formula.
Of the 750 mg per serve Organic Vegetable Blend, the first 6 ingredients are parsley, beetroot, carrot, garlic, onion and spinach powder. These are all high antioxidant vegetables with many benefits.
Following convention, the first ingredients in a proprietary formula have the highest volume so these are the ones worth looking at.
I wouldn’t expect there to be much broccoli, pumpkin or cabbage in these capsules as they are much further down on the ingredient label. Celery seed, spirulina and kelp are potent even at smaller doses though.
The 200 mcg of SelenoExcell selenium is a particularly good addition as many Americans are deficient in this vital mineral. There’s more on SelenoExcell selenium later in the pros and cons of JuiceFestiv.
The Vegetable Enzyme Blend is a small but potentially helpful digestion aid. There’s more of these same digestive enzymes in the JuiceFestiv fruit caps.
Freeze dried fruit and vegetable powders don’t take much to digest though, so these enzymes would be more useful if taken at the same time as real fruit and veggies.
Daily Fruit
Of the 750 mg per serve Organic Fruit Blend, the first 6 ingredients are apple, banana, acai, orange peel, noni and lemon peel.
These top ingredients are a bit of a mixed bag. Acai and noni are high antioxidant superfruits, while organic orange and lemon peel contain beneficial compounds.
Apple and banana powder I could personally do without though. These are commonly eaten fruits and they have nowhere near the nutritional value of black current seed, goji or papaya much lower down on the supplement facts.
Nutrient deficient people can benefit from the beta-carotene, vitamin C, B6 and folic acid in this formula. It also contains B12 which can often be lacking in vegan and vegetarian diets.
Alongside the digestive enzymes previously covered, there is also 200 million CFU of Lactobacillus acidophilus probiotic.
This isn’t that much though and room temperature fruit and vegetable capsules are not a good way to get probiotics into your diet. I’d recommend using these clinical strength ones I take daily instead.
This is a review of JuiceFestiv Daily Fruit and Veggie, but those probiotics are even more beneficial for overall wellness. Better still, take the two together for a synergistic effect.
JuiceFestiv Versus Juice Plus
Juice Plus is one of the biggest names in the fruit and vegetable supplement market. You can see their popular Orchard and Garden Blend products here on Amazon.
Like JuiceFestiv, Juice Plus capsules come in 2 bottles, one primarily fruits and one mainly vegetables. There is also a separately sold Vineyard Blend.
Also like JuiceFestiv, directions are to take 2 caps of both the Juice Plus Orchard Blend and Garden Blend with a glass of water.
In fact, looking at the similarity between product names and ingredient formulas, I wouldn’t be surprised if Natrol designed JuiceFestiv deliberately as a lower priced alternative to Juice Plus.
Cost Comparison
Taking the much cheaper 2 pack here of JuiceFestiv, versus the Juice Plus listing above, the latter is currently around 7 times more expensive for the same monthly supply.
Juice Plus must be a significantly better product the JuiceFestiv then, right? Actually no, not in my opinion, based on over 10 years of researching nutritional supplements.
The ingredients list of JuiceFestiv compares well to the much more expensive Juice Plus. It also has organic ingredients while Juice Plus does not.
From a wellness perspective, it’s far better to buy JuiceFestiv at the lower price and, with the money you save, also get these highly recommended probiotics and take the two together.
Most people should notice a much bigger difference from this combination than from taking just Juice Plus alone.
Juice Plus Ingredients Label
It was quite time consuming to find a proper ingredients label for Juice Plus nutritional products. The slick USA company website talks up the benefits of many fruits and vegetables, without telling customers how much of individual capsules contain.
With further research, I found an accurate ingredients list with specific amounts on the Juice Plus Australian website (perhaps local regulations require it).
Examining these labels, you can see that the Orchard Blend is primarily dried apple and orange juice pulp and powder, with later and significantly better additions of cranberry, acerola and beetroot. Other ingredient amounts are so low they are worth disregarding.
The Juice Plus Garden Blend is better, with primarily carrot and parsley juice and powder, followed by lemon peel, broccoli and spinach.
It’s worth mentioning for comparison though that JuiceFestiv states that their fruits and vegetables are predominantly organic, while Juice Plus does not.
It’s difficult to see how Juice Plus, at such a significantly higher price point, could be considered good value versus JuiceFestiv. I suspect their MLM business model, similar to It Works Greens Blend, contributes to this extra cost to the consumer.
To compare further, this Nature’s Way Garden Veggies review has a product not that different from Juice Plus for around 10 times lower cost. This really shows just how uncompetitive the retail pricing is here.
Is Juice Plus Better Than JuiceFestiv?
You could take 5 times as many JuiceFestiv capsules as Juice Plus each day and still have extra money saved. With a similar ingredients list, that’s says a lot about the later product’s pricing.
You would also avoid the auto shipping sign-up from the Juice Plus website. This issue seems to lead to many customer complaints, as well as negative reviews calling Juice Plus a scam or a hoax.
There’s more on these issues in the Juice Plus versus Texas Superfood review here (another superior offering). If you’re looking to save money though, JuiceFestiv is the cheaper Juice Plus alternative.
Pros and Cons
JuiceFestiv is a better and cheaper alternative to Juice Plus. What are some of its main benefits and potential negative points though?
Pros
- VeggieFestiv Blend ingredients are particularly good with parsley, garlic, beetroot, spirulina and maitake mushroom as standouts. FruitFestiv Blend has acai, noni, cranberry, lemon and orange peel high up.
- Natrol’s website states that JuiceFestiv “contains a total of 46 fruits, vegetables, grains and greens” and that it is “made with 100% organic fruits and vegetables, certified by Oregon Tilth”.
- SelenoExcell selenium is a highly bio-available source of a mineral that many people are deficient in. The same 200 mcg of SelenoExcell selenium retails alone for a similar price to 2 bottles of JuiceFestiv. Clearly this is a much better value way to get it.
- Digestive Enzyme Blend can improve digestion and it’s recommended to take JuiceFestiv vitamins with a whole food meal.
- Vitamin C, E, B6, B12, beta-carotene and folic acid can help prevent nutritional deficiencies for people with poor diets.
Cons
- Whilst great value, JuiceFestiv is no match for premium greens powders like Organifi Green Juice. There’s an extra discount in that article that makes the price difference a lot closer.
- Fruit Blend has apple and banana in higher volumes compared to better superfruits lower down the supplement label.
- Rice powder, magnesium stearate, dibasic calcium phosphate and maltodextrin fillers. Some are to be expected with capsule delivery but less would improve the formula.
- While beneficial to some, many people prefer to avoid synthetic vitamins, such as the cyanocobalamin (B12) and pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6), added to this formula. Superfoods are a much better natural source.
Side Effects
Looking through the ingredients list of JuiceFestiv, there is little here that should cause negative side effects for the vast majority of people. Just a couple of precautions for specific situations:
- Those who rarely eat vegetables and greens may have an initial bad reaction to a large dose of the JuiceFestiv vegetable caps due to the potent parsley in it. If this happens, skip a day and then start again at a lower dosage.
- Some customer reviews mention occasional garlic burps if you take it on an empty stomach. Nutritional products like this should always be taken with food anyway.
- People with a rare latex allergy should avoid this formula due to the small amounts of pineapple, mango and papaya.
- One possible precaution for people that already eat a lot of selenium-rich foods, like Brazil nuts or seafood. With JuiceFestiv providing well over the RDI, you wouldn’t want to be eating too many Brazil nuts, tuna or oysters at the same time or risk a selenium overdose.
Directions for Use and Potential Benefits
The simple directions for JuiceFestiv are to take 2 capsules of Daily Fruit and 2 of Daily Veggie with a meal once a day.
Though Natrol doesn’t mention this, much of the nutrition in JuiceFestiv is fat-soluble so it’s better to take it with a meal containing good fats. With breakfast is the ideal timing.
Best results come from regular use. It’s recommended to take JuiceFestiv daily for positive effects, such as more energy, improved mental focus, less digestive problems and better skin.
Nutritionally deficient people can have much quicker results, but generally improvements take several weeks before results become noticeable.
Where to Get It
JuiceFestiv is available here at this popular Amazon listing, with an average of 4.5 stars from over 4000 ratings.
Natrol’s fruit and veggie vitamins are sold at many retail stores like Costco, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS and Sam’s Club as well. These places usually have it at a much higher cost per pack than getting it online though.
JuiceFestiv as a Cheaper Substitute to Juice Plus
Compared to Juice Plus, JuiceFestiv is clearly the better value fruit and vegetable supplement in my opinion, based on my 10+ years researching nutritional products.
It has a good range of organic ingredients versus Juice Plus with non-organic ones, yet it’s around a seventh of the retail price.
Winning this comparison says more about Juice Plus than JuiceFestiv though. It seems obvious to me that the former is way overpriced and wins only in the marketing stakes, since it’s by far the more popular product.
Keep in mind that JuiceFestiv is still a budget fruit and veggie formula. I would not consider it a match for premium whole food competitors like Texas Superfood.
I hope this detailed Natrol JuiceFestiv comparison with Juice Plus has helped you decide on whether you’d like to try it or not.
If your diet isn’t the best, but you are looking to save money, then this is a good value organic option to get at a very affordable price. You can find it here with free US delivery.
Take it daily with breakfast for a month to see what beneficial effects you experience for yourself. Then decide if it’s worth the small ongoing monthly cost to keep taking it.
However, if you are already eating well and can afford a bit more, then I’d definitely go with Organifi Green Juice powder. The nutritional impact and benefits per dose are far greater and you can currently get it at a significant reduction here with this special link.