Why The Whole Fruit Is The Only Way

Mike Pugh
Sr. Manager of R&D 

I have been asked many times why we use whole fruit and not extracts and concentrates. This question has been asked repeatedly during my 16 years in the industry. I have heard arguments from how the whole plant has the essence of Mother Nature to how we do peer reviewed double blind studies on multiple active compounds. As I have listened to these arguments, I have come to some conclusions. I would like to share a few of them with you.

At the beginning, I also thought that all plants had a few active ingredients and that standardizing and concentrating those ingredients made them better and easier to study. It was just too difficult to study a plant that had hundreds or thousands of chemicals and thus be able to control all of the variables. That is true. Today’s method of testing and validating physiological activity is done with isolating active components from a medicinal plant that contains numerous active compounds. This method has saved millions of lives and has improved the quality of life for many. As we see with present drug treatments, though, we find that we have a lot more side effects when we concentrate and isolate. What we miss today is the possibility of synergetic and antagonist activity that comes from whole foods. We miss the fact that a little of a lot of things over a long period of time is better than having to treat with one chemical in large doses over a short period of time.

I was reading a paper by Kevin Spelman where he nailed what I have been thinking for a long time. He presented at a conference in Montreal, talking about how we influence the environment but also how the environment influences us. As we influence the environment or plants they, in turn, change. We then consume those plants and our bodies change to survive. I really enjoyed how he interwove everything together and made everything interdependent on each other. This communication between organism and environment is called chemistry. In our early diets, humans consumed between 80-220 plants and thus were exposed to a very high number of phytochemicals in the range of 8,000-22,000 (and quite likely higher). In our modern diet, we consume about 10,000 compounds including pesticides but, compared to the hunter/gather nature of our ancestors, we have seen a reduction in our consumption of phytochemicals.

Why is this important? Our bodies are designed to consume thousands of chemicals in low dosages. In our present diets, we consume lesser amounts of phytochemicals in higher concentrations. We have developed a detoxification route in our bodies called P450 enzymes. These enzymes are able to detoxify our bodies from harmful substances and they are also able to change inert substances into helpful chemicals in our body. P450 enzymes have the ability to evolve rapidly. Genes allow animals to generate a metabolic resistance to plant compounds that are designed to dissuade grazers and also allow plants to generate new compounds to deter herbivory. Plants and animals have inherit processes that allow them to adapt to their environment and use what makes them stronger and inhibit what makes them weaker. P450 in plants and animals have been engaged in the cyclical process of dissuading each other and helping each other when it fit. Over time, this relationship has developed into a real partnership. We have all seen now how plants and humans coexist. Take soybeans, for example. They have much to offer humankind and are cultivated and used as food around the world. Where they are consumed in moderate amounts, they seem to show lower levels of estrogenic disease. Also flavonoids are huge in the plant kingdom. We have seen in the world where daily consumption of green tea can lead to lower levels of disease, like heart disease and cancer. In Asia, large fields are dedicated to the growing of soybeans and green tea. Green tea and soy beans are much more abundant with the human partnership than if they had grown in the wild—humans are much healthier with these plants at their disposal than if the had to wild craft them. Is there a relationship? I think so.

As we have broken down the mangosteen fruit and looked at its individual chemical components, we have seen hundreds if not thousands of phytochemicals in specific quantities. In fact, some of the chemicals have not yet been identified nor do we know what synergistic or antagonistic effects they have. We have also noticed physiological changes in some of the actives when they are separated and then added back to the whole fruit. Are we ready to say that xanthones are the only active? Are we ready to say that xanthones separated from the whole fruit are better? Do we understand the plant so well; we can pick and choose which phytochemicals to keep and which ones we don’t need? I would say no.

We are now seeing drug research start to target multiple substances on multiple sites. We have also seen research where they combine multiple drug and nutritional items at lower dosages and have better outcomes with fewer side effects. For example, Wald and Law combine six drugs all below their standard dose. Those drugs are baby aspirin, three blood pressure drugs, a statin and folic acid. It extended life by 11 years with little or no side effects. What scientists are finding is that there is a matrix of pathways that different chemicals use. They work well together when delivered as nature intended. Whole plants seem to have more activity and fewer side effects when they are left in their own state. Kevin Spelman quotes saying, “Nature’s mixtures seem to function with broad specificity and low affinity. This phytochemical economy, an efficient and broad spectrum ensembles of constituents, would not likely act on just one target, but on multiple targets, functionally converging on biochemical pathways. Thus, phytochemical matrices, with their ensemble properties tripping multiple targets, may provide an enhanced pharmacological efficiency as compared to isolated compounds. Moreover, the use of phytomedicines, as compared to isolated chemicals, may offer a safer clinical strategy in the treatment of many diseases.” I could not say it better.

To end this blog, I want to quote one more paper from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which states: “We believe that the evidence suggests that antioxidants are best acquired through whole-food consumption, not as a pill or an extract.” Why do we use the whole fruit and not extracts and concentrates? I think the facts stand for themselves.