Money Blue Book

Review of MonaVie and The Acai Berry Fruit Juice Company’s Health and Marketing Claims

MonaVie. Mona Vie. The word actually sounds like a spin off of some french phrase (mon ami), but when I hear the name, two things immediately come to mind – acai berry juice and multi level marketing pyramid scheme. The MLM business scheme or pyramid marketing concept usually elicits a series of red alert alarm bells in my brain’s BS scam detector, however, I’m willing to take a closer look at MonaVie before rendering my personal critique and verdict. After having tried out and actually tasted the MonaVie acai berry fruit drink, I have to admit, it’s a rather sweet and tasty beverage – sort of a crisp combination of grape juice, blue berries, black berries, and a hint of dark chocolate. There’s not much negative commentary I can sling at the MonaVie product in terms of taste alone, but the outrageously expensive price tag and the rather suspicious marketing approach of the company leave much to be desired.

As an ordinary American consumer and a casual observer, I’m not sure what to make of this whole MonaVie acai berry fruit juice craze that seems to be sweeping the health and fitness world. The product’s been featured on the Food Network and on daytime talk shows for women like the Rachel Ray show, and eagerly touted by popular television hosts like Oprah Winfrey as the ultimate nectar of the gods. At least several medical commentators have appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show recently to promote the acai berry as an invaluable source of super food nutrients and as a magical method to promote youth and bodily rejuvenation. While most of the on-air health commentators were on the Oprah show to promote their individual books, even Oprah herself seemed to jump on the acai berry bandwagon, endorsing the nutritional claims of the tiny purple berry in her own boisterous way.

And it’s not just celebrity women either (who in my sexist opinion tend to be very ultra health conscious). Even celebrity guys seem to be getting in on the acai super fruit craze as well. There are numerous photos floating around on the internet of well known celebrities (both male and female) photographed with  their MonaVie acai juice bottles. I’ve seen hip hop stars and motor sport athletes on MTV’s Cribs show opening up their refrigerator doors for the camera to proudly display their prized rows of ultra-expensive MonaVie branded acai juice bottles. To top it off, when the Boston Red Sox won the Major League Baseball World Series in 2007, you even had several pitchers and players publicly thanking the Mona Vie company and attributing their athletic success to the seemingly magical healing powers of the MonaVie acai berry drink. When professional athletes who have just won the most competitive pinnacle award of their profession celebrate their triumph by giving a ringing endorsement of a particular enhancement product, citing the competitive advantages it allegedly provided their bodies through the grueling eight month long baseball season, I definitely take notice. However at the same time, my curiosity is greatly tempered with a strong dose of skepticism and suspicion at the celebrity’s personal motivations for such a resounding product recommendation – and I find myself wondering if the celebrity was partly motivated by financial considerations.

Without a doubt, MonaVie is a popular and highly promoted superfruit juice product, frequently mentioned in popular entertainment and athletic circles among the rich and trendy. It also has a strong growing presence online and on TV, but then again, so do many of the numerous get rich quick schemes and snake oil scams out there, featuring all types of facial cleaning products and useless weight loss shakes and pills. All such popular products have their own legion of compensated celebrities ready to help make the sales pitch and enthusiastically promote the product to the audience. Just because a product is heavily marketed and seems popular does not make it legit. Thus I wanted to take a more objective look into the MonaVie product itself, its health claims, and its marketing approach to decipher for myself the legitimacy of the brand. My primary goal is to answer these series of questions – Is MonaVie a scam? Does MonaVie acai juice berry drinks actually provide the health benefits re-soundly touted by its army of rabid distributors? And finally, is MonaVie a product I would actually purchase and consume for myself as an average, everyday mildly health conscious consumer?

The MonaVie Acai Berry Juice Product

MonaVie is a fruit juice drink made up of a blend of 19 different fruits. In a nut shell, it’s like Odwalla or Naked branded smoothie drinks – except the drink is marketed as an acai berry product and it comes in a fancy looking wine bottle to give it allure. While the company refuses to disclose the actual numbers detailing individual juice makeup, it eagerly markets the fruit juice cocktail as some type of specially formulated super fruit juice, citing its composition of acai berries for its supposed magical ability to cure all sorts of physical and mental ailments. While the company does not expressly state that the MonaVie acai berry juice drink is capable of amazing healing properties, that is the marketing direction the company seems to strongly hint at. Obviously due to legality reasons, MonaVie can’t officially claim its juice drink to be a health elixir, but it sure seems like it unofficially wants to based on the promotional dance it’s constantly engaging in.

Inside of its fruit juice drinks, MonaVie lists as one of its primary ingredients – the acai berry (pronounced ah-sai-ee) – a small purple black fruit about an inch in size and produced from the acai palm tree in the Amazon of Brazil. Through its network of distributors, the MonaVie company promotes the message that its unique acai berry juice blend contains many of the antioxidant related health benefits associated with the acai berry and other special fruits. Supposedly, these super fruits are packed with powerful nutrients and antioxidant compounds that uniquely protect the body’s cells from damage and disease, boost the immune system, and slow down the otherwise inevitable process of aging. However, much of the alleged health benefits of MonaVie and the extent of the nutritional value of acai have been called into constant debate and frequently questioned by naysayers that cast suspicion at what exactly is contained in MonaVie and the extent of its alleged nutritional value if any. Certainly, the company’s reluctance to share detailed information about the specific acai berry concentration found in its bottles and its mysterious refusal to reveal detailed proportional make up of how the  fruit juices in the MonaVie blend are made up continue to fuel discussions abut the health claims made by the product’s distributors.

Monavie Acai Is Sold Exclusively Via A Questionable Multi Level Direct Sales Approach (AKA Pyramid Scheme)

Mona Vie acai juice drinks are not available in traditional supermarket chains or grocery stores like Safeway, Kroger, or Wegmans, and they’re not even available via specialty health minded retailers like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. You definitely won’t find the company’s products at discounters like Walmart or Costco – no, the MonaVie company shuns the traditional sales outlets in favor of a more personalized and almost cult like marketing approach.

MonaVie was launched in January 2005 by a long time direct sales marketing veteran and since then, the company has relied exclusively on a multi level marketing strategy to promote and sell its expensive juice drinks. For all intents and purposes, the company’s more of a powerful marketing machine than a health food provider. Certainly there may be substantially better fruit juice products out there at much cheaper prices, but frankly, and somewhat commendably, MonaVie does a pretty powerful job of hyping and cleverly convincing health fanatics that they absolutely must drink this product everyday to live their lives to the fullest.

By tapping into a sales stream that takes advantage of trusted personal relationships to generate sales, the company has become wildly successful – at least on the sales side. Those unfamiliar with multi level marketing (MLM) may be more familiar with its common nickname – the pyramid scheme. A MLM or pyramid scheme relies on a direct sales technique based on a relationship referral business model whereby trusted people are the engine components that drive the commission based sales. Whenever a sale is made, a lofty commission is paid out, not only to you (the person who made the sale), but also to the person who referred you into the marketing program as well as to the person who referred your direct referrer – hence the pyramid nature of the arrangement. Because these multi level marketing programs are so potentially lucrative for those at the top of the pyramid (the upline), the system strongly encourages and incentivizes participants to zealously promote the product and heavily recruit new entrants into the program (the downline) to further earn sales and commissions for those on the up line.

Now, the one thing that must be made clear is that not all multi level marketing programs or pyramid schemes are inherently evil or illegal. Not all pyramid schemes are blatant scams or disreputable shell games the same way that Ponzi Schemes are. In fact, there are many otherwise thinly legitimate multi level marketing programs out there such as Amway, Avon, Mary Kay, Herbalife, Tupperware, and all sorts of online affiliate programs. However, many of these MLM based companies suffer from the same stigma and questionable scrutiny that MonaVie faces as well. While not outright scams, the scammy questions arise because many of these MLM programs really only benefit those at the top of the marketing pyramid and often encourage overzealous sales techniques that frequently lead to almost predatory recruiting tactics and pitches. Oftentimes as well, many of these MLM programs demand contractually obligated sales quotas that members must satisfy every month or face having to purchase the products themselves to meet the sales quota requirement. In the case of MonaVie’s contractually obligated arrangement for wannabe new distributors into the program, new entrants are obligated to buy at least 4 bottles a month of the pricey acai berry juice. They don’t come cheap and failure to sell enough bottles every month will require that the distributor contractually purchase the required quota for personal use.

As noted by an investigative news article from Newsweek, according to income disclosures, most of the million strong sales team of MonaVie appear to be really just drinking the juice themselves rather than selling them as originally intended. More than 90% of supposed distributors of MonaVie are actually considered wholesale customers, whose earnings were mostly discounts on sales to themselves. Remarkably according to the article, fewer than 1% of the MonaVie marketing pyramid’s sales people qualified for commissions and of those, only 10% made more than $100 a week. The Newsweek article even goes on to state that according to a top MonaVie recruiter, while obviously not disclosed by the company, the MonaVie multi level marketing program’s drop out rate’s around 70%. It’s certainly a fascinating tidbit to keep in mind as you ponder the question of whether MonaVie’s a scam. While I personally don’t think MonaVie is a scam as they do offer an otherwise legitimate fruit juice product, the acai juice company sure has rather unsavory fringe elements to it.

In regards to the secret world of direct sales and pyramid marketing, I had my first negative exposure to MLM programs when I was recruited by a company called Vector Marketing to sell Cutco branded knives back when I was just an 18 year old high school student. For some odd reason, many fellow high school students such as myself were targeted with elaborate marketing sales pitches by Vector Marketing recruiters to become trained in the art of tapping personal relationships to sell ridiculously and insanely overpriced Cutco steak knives to our friends and family members. Obviously, our recruiters were eager to train us into becoming their commission earning downline so that they could profit from our sales as our upline referrals. While the Cutco knives we lugged around and sold were of obvious high quality, they were no where even close to being worth the exorbitant price demanded of each individual cutlery. Quality is one thing, but they were and to this very day, are still vastly overpriced. While I was able to tap into my personal relationships and beg a few neighbors to shell out hundreds of dollars for a few knives out of pity, I remember always feeling extremely scammy and sleazy during my rehearsed sales pitches to supposed loved ones. As a mere 18 year old at the time, I wasn’t too fond of  having to take advantage of my close relationships for financial gain. There was nothing illegal or deliberately evil about the whole sales system, but the whole multi level marketing approach simply felt shady and rather manipulative to me.

Mova Vie Is Extremely Expensive and Overpriced Despite Its Alleged Acai Berry Health Properties

The MonaVie acai berry juice product is not cheap. In fact it’s downright expensive – ridiculously overpriced at astronomically rip off levels if you ask me. A single MonaVie juice bottle will cost you $30-$40 per bottle, for a little more than 25 fluid ounces of the fruit berry mixture. According to the promotional material, to fully appreciate the nutritional benefits of acai berry juicing, you’re supposed to drink at least 2 fluid ounces of the purple stuff in the morning, and another 1 ounce at night. At the rate suggested by the MonaVie company, a single bottle will last you about a week. At $30-40 a bottle, that comes out to $120-$160 a month, and $1,440-$1,920 a year. Unless you are swimming in money and flush with dollars like the professional athletes or financially well off  like celebrities Oprah Winfrey or Rachel Ray, chances are, you’re going to find regular consumption of this product to be well beyond your financial means. The lucrative price of each expensive bottle of Mona Vie can probably be traced back to the high cost of commission maintenance that must be paid out to the entire pyramid marketing chain upon each sale.

Because of the multi level marketing nature and aggressive direct sales promotional tactics of MonaVie distributors, a wide array of ridiculous health and nutritional claims seem to have blanketed the internet. Sometimes it’s a little difficult figuring out which writer is trustworthy and which one is blatantly a sales guy. I have personal gut-feeling suspicions that sizable portions of these favorable web-based health comments and supposed online testimonials were made by MonaVie distributors and financially interested sales promoters trying to hype up the appeal of their pricey cash cow via fake product reviews. A quick browse of the internet quickly reveals all sorts of outlandish testimonies and anecdotal stories by random people – claims of how MonaVie acai juice drinking cured their heart disease, healed their arthritis, alleviated stress and depression, cured their acne, reversed their aging, repaired joint damage, got rid of joint and back pain, cured their cancer, treated their diabetes, made them more energetic, and even improved their sex life. The craziest claim I’ve seen was some gentlemen who claimed that his steady diet of Mona Vie acai berry juice made his special male anatomy organ larger and more virile. I’ve even read a few ridiculous claims by anonymous female commentators on various Mona Vie related blog posts touting how acai berry juicing grew their chests and helped make their breasts larger. The myriad of outlandish and totally unsubstantiated claims are quite abundantly available online – an unfortunate side effect that distorts the truth, whenever there is a lot of sales money to be had.

Now it’s one thing for a product to be expensive and it’s a whole different matter altogether if the product doesn’t actually do what it says it is supposed to do. The literature and research on the amazing health benefits of drinking MonaVie and the supposed God-like healing properties of acai berry juice are still not entirely definitive. While there is little doubt that berries and fruits such as acai, blue berries, blackberries, and pomegranates common loads of nutritional vitamins and powerful compounds such as cell repairing antioxidants, the research is not yet entirely supportive that these are indeed super fruits that can cure all and heal all. There is scientific evidence that the acai fruit and other dark berries are uniquely high in Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity (ORAC), a rating system that evaluates a food product’s ability to fight harmful free radicals in the body, but that doesn’t mean that a single fruit can potentially replace all other alternative sources of vital nutrients.

To be fair, the MonaVie company doesn’t actually go out of its way to blatantly promote the MonaVie product as a magical berry elixir anymore. MonaVie does not actually make the health and nutritional claims itself. Due to stricter federal scrutiny of Mona Vie’s official claims, the company has drastically cut back on its previous assertions of health benefits and healing properties. The company is now content with marketing the MonaVie drink as merely a high end fruit juice product, letting its legion of cult like Mona Vie acai berry drinkers and promoters hype the unbelievable health benefit innuendos on their own. After all, the motto of the MonaVie company is – “Drink It, Feel It, Share It” – which sounds more like a sales focused marketing directive of sorts to me.

Acai Berries Do Contain Lots Of Nutrients – They Just Don’t Have Super Healing Powers As Suggested By Some Independent MonaVie Distributors

As a mild defense for the key heralded component of MonaVie’s juice product – the acai berry does indeed contain abundant nutritional value. There is quite a bit of research touting the health benefits of acai berry as a good source of fiber, minerals, vitamins, polyphenols, and antioxidants for healthy bodily performance. The expensive acai fruit does indeed contain a wealth of nutritional benefits compressed into each little purple berry, but then again, much of the same health benefits can easily be found in large concentrations in other more common and cheaper fruits such as bananas, blue berries, and apples as well.

Despite my admitted fondness for the taste of acai, I’m extremely wary of buying into the whole MonaVie acai juice product because I simply do not know how much of acai can be found in each bottle. Because MonaVie refuses to disclose the actual composition of its juice drinks, we do not know for certain the exact breakdown of its juice cocktail and the exact amount of expensive acai berry concentrate in the blend. It’s very important to keep in mind that the MonaVie juice mixture doesn’t contain acai berries exclusively. It’s comprised of an admitted blend of 19 fruits – including many common and cheap fruits like bananas and apples, easily found in your neighborhood grocery store. If you really buy into the claimed health benefits of juicing and nutritional potency of acai berries, there are much easier and cheaper ways to get your purple berry fix. Most grocery stores sell acai berry juice variations and even certain online stores sell similar acai berry laden juice drinks, acai powders, and acai capsules for much, much less.

The fact of the matter is that people are always looking for the easy way out and frequently are all too eager for a magic potion that will make take away the need to put in effort. There is plenty of research touting the overwhelming health benefits of a low fat, low sugar diet comprised of lots of fish and whole grain foods. There is also overwhelming evidence that smoking and excessive alcohol drinking wrecks havoc on physical and mental health, and that daily consistent exercise is absolutely essential to healthy living. Yet, we as humans seem to ignore those simple practices and remain perpetually enamored with the possibility that there are super fruits out there that can serve as magic silver bullets to our health problems and ailments. The reality is that there is no such thing as a one size fits all super fruit. Proper health and nutrition requires a good moderated balance of fruits, vegetables, and proper exercise – not the services of a single food product – especially not one that is so expensively priced.

How To Buy MonaVie Online And Test Out Acai Berry Juices For Yourself (Remember, It’s Not Cheap and Its Health Claims Are Not Fully Substantiated Yet)

Recently, I purchased a few bottles of MonaVie online simply to test out and review the juice product for myself since I didn’t know how else to try it out for free. While I have no intention of actually signing up as a distributor or getting myself locked into some multi level marketing contract, I think it’s perfectly understandable if there are people out there who remain curious about the fruit juice blend. It’s admittedly rather tasty, albeit extremely expensive and somewhat overrated. Personally, I don’t buy the magical juice berry claims of the MonaVie supporters and chose to consume the drink on a one time limited basis as I would any new drink. If you really want to start juicing, buy a fruit juicer for yourself or buy pre-made fruit smoothies from the grocery store. Many of these pre-made blends contain acai berry and they’re a much cheaper way to get exposed to the nutritional value of acai should you so choose to partake. If you really insist on joining the MonaVie acai berry craze, there are plenty of equally good generic acai berry brands out there as well – in various just-add-water powder products and pills.

In the event you are determined to test out MonaVie acai berry drinks or similar acai berry products based on curiosity, here are a few ways to buy them online. Remember, it’s not an endorsement, and I’m just pointing the way for you if you insist:

1. MonaVie Active Health Juice With Acai (Amazon) – 1 Bottle of the dark purple stuff.
2. MonaVie Active Juice Bottles With Acai (Amazon) – 4 bottles – A way to buy MonaVie online without having to agree to some recurring sales contract.
3. MonaVie Juice Bottles With Acai (eBay) – Cheapest method to buy MonaVie online without commiting to a distributorship agreement, but requires eBay auction bidding.
4. Natrol – Acai Berries 1000mg Per Serving 60 Capsules (Amazon) – 60 capsules
   
5. Organic Acai Fruit Capsules with Camu Camu (Amazon) – 60 capsules – The Brazilian acai berry in pill form.
6. 100% Pure Acai Fruit Powder with Camu Camu (Amazon) – 90 grams – Just add water to make an acai powder juice drink.

There seems to be a trend among online finance and frugality commentators to share their personal frugal meal solutions. Some have gone so far as to post step by step instructional guides on how to put together simple peanut butter sandwiches, or compiled detailed cost analyses of the ham and cheese brown bag lunch making process. I think these simple and frugal lunch plans are excellent how-to’s for people like myself who are clumsy clowns in the kitchen. Single guys such as I are notoriously bad cooks. I think my lack of any real cooking ability simply is a byproduct of my single man laziness prowess, lack of hand skills when it comes to culinary creations, and overall personal opinion that cooking for one is too inefficient to even bother with. Thus far I’ve tried supermarket salad bars, Chinese carry out, Thai food take out, prepackaged frozen meals, microwave TV dinners, and the occasional home made steak, but my options always seem to boil down to eating ready made food or dining out (a particularly expensive habit). While I do try to find ways to save money by utilizing restaurant credit cards to earn cash back and rebate discount rewards when I dine out, the reality is that eating out is almost always more expensive and usually less healthy than preparing your own food at home.

Cooking and Preparing a Meal At Home Isn’t Easy For Busy Single Guys (Or Gals) On The Go Who Lack Speedy Cooking Skills

While I’m sure most amateur Iron Chefs out there may simply suggest that I take the effort to go buy groceries regularly and learn to cook home meals for myself, I’m also fairly sure most of the individuals that would suggest that are either married, or have jobs that allow them to spend time grocery shopping and cooking actual complete meals. Much of my life is on the go and oftentimes I simply don’t have the time to buy the ingredients needed to cook proper meals on a regular basis. If I had a family, a wife, and kids, I might be more motivated to do so, but when it’s just one person, it just doesn’t seem as cost or time efficient to do so. I did try cooking for a while, but each meal took too much time and oftentimes the vegetables that I purchased for use later expired by the time I got around to using them all. I have been told by friends and family that I’m very much the stereotypical single bachelor in his late 20’s – adequately knowledgeable about financial and technological matters, but absolute butterfingers in the kitchen. While my long term food strategy is to marry a girl who knows how to cook like a pro and keep me well fed with hot meals, my short term meal solution is to continue to find shortcut ways to assemble a reasonable balance between speed, taste, and nutrition.

I’ve tried the sandwich route, eating cheap ramen, frozen pizza, Chinese dumplings, and even cooking steak in the oven, but the truth of the matter is that none of these meal choices are remotely healthy. All they do is increase my sodium and saturated fat intake, thereby increasing my blood pressure count and making me feel sluggish, as well as causing me to grow a very slight belly pooch. Most instant food products contain high fat, high sodium, lots of calories, and offer little nutritional value in return. Even the common lunch meats that many commentators seem to speak so glowingly about are actually very unhealthy as they are quite high in sodium, fat content, and artificial preservatives.

Eating Vegetarian Meatless Burgers and Food Products Is My New Quick and Healthy Food Solution

However, recently I discovered a culinary lifesaver for single guys like myself – Boca burgers, from Kraft Foods! Actually, the terminology should probably be – vegetarian prepackaged frozen foods. As a little side clarification, I’m no anti-meat PETA fanatic. I’m a hearty beef, pork, and fish eater, who enjoys a nice juicy medium well done steak or hamburger patty off the barbecue grill as much as the next guy. While I do love the taste of genuine meat, I can still appreciate the overall health benefits of vegetarian food products that are often vegetable, grain, and soy protein based. While I’m not a health nut, I do try my best to focus on healthier foods when I can by increasing protein and fiber intake while limiting saturated fat, processed sugar, and sodium consumption.

One particular ingredient that is frequently found in vegetarian imitation meat products like the Boca food line is soy protein. Soy is a very healthy ingredient most commonly found in tofu, and is usually more nutritious and high in fiber than most meat products. While I love burgers, cutting down on red meat has been said to have appreciable health benefits, as over-consumptions has been tentatively linked to higher risk levels of colon cancer. Since I’m a pretty thin guy with a high metabolism, I don’t usually pay attention to caloric nutritional content, but I do pay extra notice to sodium, fat, and nutritional fiber percentages. The last time I had my physical exam and complete blood work done, my doctor advised me to consume more fiber. While I was otherwise very healthy, she suggested that I could benefit from an increased consumption of certain grains and vegetables high in dietary fiber. My purpose of eating vegetarian inspired burgers and sandwich products is to cut down on saturated fat and unhealthy ingredients of most other forms of prepackaged food, but do so in a way that is speedy and efficient. Even so-called healthier meat products like extra lean ground beef can only cut down the saturated fat content by so much. Veggie patties tend to contain less fat and much fewer calories – perfect for those who are weight and health conscious.

Boca and Other Vegetarian Food Products Require A Taste Compromise, But I think It’s Worth The Nutritional Benefits

While I’ll probably never quite give up the decadence of meat, I’ve grown to enjoy the taste of most vegetarian dishes. I’ve dined and eaten at very good vegetarian restaurants and cafes before. Many of the best vegetarian places are uniquely skilled at creating dishes that closely mimic the distinctive flavor of meat products but with all the nutritional benefits of soy and veggie ingredients. In downtown Washington D.C. near the Farragut North metro station where I work, there is a Korean, Asian fusion vegetarian cafe called Java Green that I often frequent. They serve the best vegetarian sandwiches and even die hard meat lovers enjoy them.

However, you don’t have to dine out to get vegetarian food. Easily found in your common supermarket are extensive lines of Boca and vegetarian food products in the frozen foods section near the ice cream, tater tots and frozen pizzas. The great thing about these meatless Boca products is that they come in a wide selection of concoctions, from organic meatless burger patties, to meatless sausages, meatless lasagnas, to even meatless tacos. The company really tries to disguise the vegetarian nature by creating imitation flavor. While the meatless products will never truly fool meat connoisseurs into believing they are really biting into a hunk of meat, for some of the burger products, they actually do a pretty good job of substitution.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell you’re really eating a vegetarian burger patty. When you stick the Boca veggie pattie between two slices of whole wheat burger buns, insert a layer of iceberg lettuce, add an extra tomato slice, slab on some wasabi horseradish, and squirt on a dab of low sodium ketchup, if you’re not paying attention, you could easily get fooled – not quite, but almost. The burgers even come in a variety of purportedly different flavors – including flame grilled, and roasted onion (although they all tasted the same to me). For those who like hot dogs, Boca even offers a nice line of meatless sausages and hot dog products.

While Boca from Kraft is probably the most well known vegetarian frozen food brand, there are also several competitors as well, such as Dr. Praeger, Morning Star Farms, and Gardenburger. However, I personally like Boca brands the best since I think they do the best job of re-creating the meaty flavor of real meat in their vegetarian products. The others, particularly Gardenburger seem to be geared towards the hardcore vegetarians as they are much more “vegetably flavored”. Gardenburger products contain more grains and vegetables – hence the more veggie, and less meaty taste. Gardenburger is not the best when it comes to recreating imitation meat flavor. Their vegetarian buffalo wings are terrible – I’m convinced they simply slapped some tofu soy concentrate together and compressed it together to give it the denser consistency of buffalo chicken meat (tastes nothing like real chicken however). I’m only a soft core, part time vegetarian so I’m not as into the pure vegetarian burger experience – I prefer vegetarian products that do a better job of imitating meat dishes, like Boca. Brands like Dr. Praeger, Morning Star Farms, and Gardenburger would probably be better suited for real vegetarians or vegans who want the true vegetarian experience without the imitation meat flavoring.

Nutrition Comparison Between Boca Vegetarian Meatless Burger and The Common Meat Patty

Below I’ve provided the Nutrition Facts for both your standard Boca burger patty (on the left) and your standard McDonald’s Big Mac Burger (on the right). Keep in mind that the Big Mac is not even the fast food chain’s least healthy meal option. Compare the caloric count, total fat content, as well as the sodium and sugar numbers. Scary isn’t it?

Boca Burger (Roasted Onion)	McDonald’s Big Mac Burger

Comparing the nutritional facts of Boca vegetarian burgers to that of your ordinary McDonald burger, the healthier choice is pretty clear. While Boca’ll never be perfect substitutes for meat products, once you get accustomed to the taste, they can serve as quick and easy healthy food choices. It’s just a matter of heating them up in the microwave at home and pairing up with some bread.

I just made the most wonderful discovery a few days ago. Well it was wonderful in my eyes at least. I sleep pretty late these days so I decided to take a stroll downstairs to the condominium lobby. I currently rent a unit in a medium size condo complex. We have a small cozy lobby area with a front management room that doubles as a sales office. However, now that most of the condo units have already been sold, the small lobby is now more of a reception room for guests. Since I almost always enter the building from a side gated entrance, I rarely pass through the main lobby. But on this particular day I decided to visit the lobby for no particular reason other than to have some place to walk to. When I got there I saw something that I hadn’t noticed before. Our building apparently stocks a free complimentary automatic Flavia coffee and tea maker for guests and residents to use! I’m sure some readers are rolling their eyes going “oh brother” at my almost whimsical fascination with my “treasure find”, but it’s a big deal for me. While Flavia coffee machines don’t exactly produce gourmet, five-star cups of coffee or tea, they do a decent job of churning out fairly acceptable drinks. They are also extremely convenient. Like most of the dispenser pod-based machines out there, Flavia coffee and tea makers utilize pre-made coffee and tea packets to brew the drink. You simply select select the drink you want by picking out the packet of your choice from among a set selection. Then you pop the packet into the machine and the maker instantly brews your drink in a few seconds. Piece of cake!

Free Complimentary Coffee and Tea Machine Stations Offer Not Only Convenience, But Also Help Me Save Lots Of Money

But it’s not just the convenience of having such a handy free machine at my disposal. Most importantly it’s the potential cost savings from here on out from not having to buy my own coffee and tea products anymore. I regard coffee and tea as the type of recurring expenses that play a slow but debilitating role at chipping away one’s paycheck savings. I lump them into the same common daily expenses that should be done away with to promote better money saving habits – other similar types of useless expenses include cigarettes for some, and lottery tickets for others. Sure they help sooth the senses and serve as mental relaxers and momentary fun for some people, but they really hurt your pocketbook and wallet in the long run. These small but cumulative expenses really add up over time – into the thousands of dollars per year even. If you were to drink just one paid coffee per day at $3 a day, that’s already $1,095 a year – and in fact, many people consume more than just one cup daily.

That’s why my discovery of a free complimentary coffee and tea machine in the convenience of my own apartment complex is so wonderful. Some might point out that the machine is being paid for by the condo fees exacted from condo owners, and that the rent I currently shell out to my unit owner is indirectly subsidizing the cost of the machine and the replacement coffee and tea packets, but I still consider it a great bonus. Now that I’m aware of its existence, I plan to maximize this benefit to its full potential. So long as the service is available to me, I plan to transfer the expense of my occasional coffee and green tea drinking habits to this free machine. Instead of continuing to buy the occasional Starbucks or Caribou coffee, or continuing to purchase my own green tea bags from the local Asian grocery store, I plan to save money by consuming drinks made by this complimentary machine exclusively. In some strange way it reminds me of that old TV show, “Married With Children” and how Al Bundy and his wacky family would completely raid the free cheese sample trays whenever they visited the local supermarket. But hey, if it’s free and it’s available to residents and guests alike, why not fully take advantage of it? I saw plenty of empty cups in the trash can so people are obviously using the machine so it might as well be me as well.

Drinking Green Tea Is A Healthy Habit – Drinking Free Green Tea Is Even Better

Besides, this will help promote more green tea drinking, similar to the bottled water drinking habit I’ve picked up for health purposes. From what I’ve read and heard, green tea is a very healthy product to consume on a regular basis. It’s uniquely rich in powerful antioxidants that not only inhibit the development of cancer cells, but are also effective in lowering bad cholesterol levels and help inhibit the development of abnormal blot clots that lead to heart attacks. Since my Flavia machine discovery, I now visit the 24 hour unmanned lobby to grab a cup of free green tea after every home meal. I feel great health-wise, and so does my wallet! If you’re not convinced, maybe this will.

On a side note, this isn’t my first encounter with free Flavia coffee and tea machines. In my line of contract legal work I frequently move around and work at different office locations. Many of these law offices offer a variety of complimentary coffee and tea machine services. Sometimes the machine is Flavia and sometimes it’s a Keurig machine. They pretty much all operate the same way – requiring the deposit of a little coffee or tea pod to create your drink. They all taste about average compared to barista brewed drinks at Starbucks, but the free price tag usually makes up for any loss of taste (I guess I’m not a very picky coffee or tea drinker). Some of the bigger law firms and business offices even stock large automated Starbucks coffee machines that actually grind real coffee beans. They really make a nice consistent cup of vacuum perfected ground coffee. You can bet your money that I fully took advantage of those easy-to-use coffee machines when I was working at locations that offered those services for free. I was drinking to my health and my pocketbook.

This post is for people like me who used to live life without even the most basic of health insurance coverage. Did you know one of the major and perhaps number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States is unanticipated medical bills caused by inadequate or even complete lack of health insurance coverage? Currently, unpaid medical bills due to unforeseen and catastrophic medical related ailments compete with debt mismanagement and credit card bills as the number one contributor to personal bankruptcy.

We all make many important financial investments in our lives, but believe it or not, health insurance might be one of the most important. It’s a silent safety net that will catch you in the event the worst happens and will prevent you from completely falling into the financial abyss. Without at least basic coverage, having to fully pay all of the medical costs out of pocket can be very expensive and difficult. Just a single night’s stay at a hospital for emergency care can cost upwards of thousands of dollars. Without at least basic coverage, you are one appendix or broken leg away from a pile of insurmountable medical bills.

While today’s basic entry level premiums do not offer full financial protection from serious illnesses, having basic coverage will at least cushion the burden to a more manageable degree. It’s important to maintain a healthy lifestyle by eating your fruits and vegetables and exercising regularly, but sickness and physical accidents are inevitable in life. You might get lucky for a long time but eventually the odds will turn against you when you least expect it.

Apply For Health Insurance Coverage That Fits Your Age, Health Condition, and Family Size

The amount of health insurance coverage needed depends on many factors including the age of the person, overall health status, as well as the number of family members and other dependents relying on the person for financial support. While many people have health insurance coverage through their employers, not all of us are that fortunate, myself included. I performed contract work in the past so during those periods of time I didn’t always have employer coverage. However, I always made sure I purchased my own basic plan.

Perhaps you are self employed, a college student, a recent graduate, or maybe you are working for a company that doesn’t offer a discounted group policy. Whatever the reason, it’s imperative that everyone at least go out and obtain a basic level of coverage. Medical disasters can strike when you least expect it and financially wipe out your existing savings. Don’t gamble with your family’s health and financial livelihood. Basic coverage is easily available, particularly if you are willing to settle for a higher out-of-pocket deductible plan. We all have enough on our minds everyday to worry about – don’t let your lack of basic health insurance coverage be an issue.

Buying Basic Health Insurance Coverage On Your Own

When I did contract work (essentially temping), I was not insured by my employer, so I went out and purchased health coverage on my own. Fortunately, coverage for a healthy person in his late 20’s was reasonable, so long as I was willing to take on a high deductible plan with a higher out-of-pocket requirement. The insurance plan I purchased was through Care First Blue Cross Blue Shield with a deductible of $5,000, total out of pocket expense requirement of $6,000, co-insurance of 20%, with a monthly premium of $49.00 a month. Yes my deductible was high, but for a healthy, relatively young person like myself, it was more than adequate to protect myself from possible financial catastrophe and even bankruptcy risk.

There are many ways to buy health insurance, but the easiest way is to do it online through an insurance broker such as eHealthInsurance or InsureMe. I requested quotes from many sources, but ultimately chose to obtain my health insurance package through eHealthInsurance. Their prices were affordable and adequate to suit my basic coverage needs.

Open A Health Savings Account To Cover Unreimbursed Expenses Of Your Basic Health Insurance Policy

For those with high deductibles, I also suggest opening a tax advantaged Health Savings Account (HSA) to compliment your insurance plan. Your tax free contributions towards your HSA are either pre-tax or you can make deductions when you file your taxes. The amount you contribute can be accumulated and rolled over from year to year and be used to pay for qualified medical expenses as well as unreimbursed medical costs like deductibles, co-payments, and other services not covered by insurance.