A leading juice drinks brand has become the first to use a revolutionary blend that can counteract some of the negative impacts associated with sugars in fruit juice.
This comes at a time when juice and juice drinks are receiving heavy criticism for their high sugar content.
The Simply Great Drinks Company has converted its entire range to include a unique extract made up of apple, carob and grape containing a naturally occurring compound called Pinitol. This compound has the critical ability to mitigate some of the harmful effects associated with sugar.
The scientific basis for the blend was provided by a team of Oxford University educated bio-medical consultants led by Dr Sepe Sehati, who carried out a full clinical review into Pinitol.
Dr Sehati comments: “There are a number of modifiable risk factors involved in causing diabetes. A significant one being constant over-stimulation of the complicated mechanism that keeps our blood sugar at the optimum level. When over-stimulated by enormous surges of sugar from sweets and soft drinks the pancreas can gradually become exhausted and the production of insulin diminishes, resulting in diabetes.
“Pinitol has been shown to significantly lower the area under the plasma glucose response curve and in doing so it lowers the surges of sugar.”
“The review involved scrutinising a volume of research papers going back to 1987 when the first scientific report of hypo-glycaemic and anti-diabetic activity of Pinitol was first published. The science has provided compelling evidence that Pinitol can have benefits for treating hyperglycemia, insulin resistance state and the associated complications. Future research is warranted and underway to provide more definitive answers.
Dr Sehati continues: “Both the dosage and the length of treatment are critically important. On the basis of the available research and the data provided, a daily 125ml glass of the juice drinks over a period of 12 weeks will offer all the blood sugar lowering properties of Pinitol.
“The approach is a major breakthrough in tackling some of the harmful effects of sugar in juice and juice drinks.”
Adam Pritchard, founder of the Simply Great Drinks Company says, “Fruit juice and juice drinks have been labelled unhealthy. Natural or not, sugar is sugar so the challenge we had was simple; create great tasting drinks using super fruits without the negative impact of fruit sugars.
“We have been developing the products for more than a Year and to find a solution so ground breaking has been very exciting. We hope this will set the benchmark for the industry. We are still at an early stage with further clinical trials underway in Spain and in development in the UK to build on the initial findings.”
There is a significant increased cost versus sugar for the unique extract, but this will not be passed onto consumers.
Pinitol is registered as a prescription supplement for the prevention of lifestyle related diseases by the Food and Drug Administration. It has also recently been officially approved as an effective level 3 natural ingredient for diabetes by South Korea, and a number of countries could soon follow.
