Balance of Nature

For the past several years, I've been bombarded with TV ads by a company called Balance of Nature. They sell capsules that contain dehydrated fruits and vegetables. In the ads, it appears to me that the CEO of the company suggests that if you take three vegetable capsules and three fruit capsules every day, you will get a significant portion of your recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables. The ads also feature testimonials by people who claim to be customers, and who have more energy and feel healthier after taking the six daily capsules. Well, the concept certainly made sense to me, and I will have to admit that I don't eat as much fruits and vegetables as I should, so I thought I'd do a little thinking to justify whether I should spend the $89.95 or so per month to buy the Balance of Nature product. The Balance of Nature website describes the process as, "Every edible part of the fruit and/or vegetable is used, and the water is removed. In this step, every effort is made to avoid heat, air, and light, elements that can oxidize produce. Flash drying removes the water in more than 90 percent of the produce found in Balance of Nature. In this procedure, extreme cold facilitates the removal of the water, while a vacuum process simultaneously removes the water and air within a dark chamber. I looked on the Internet and found that fruits and vegetables contain 80 to 90 percent water." That told me that Balance of Nature product is basically what was left of the fruits and vegetables when the water was removed. So, I did the math. I looked at the label on the Balance of Nature bottle that stated three fruit or vegetable pills weighed 2.4 grams. Their recommended daily dosage is 6 pills, a total of 4.8 grams. If fruits and vegetables are 80 or 90 percent water, that means that they would have to dehydrate 24 to 48 grams of fresh fruit or vegetables to make the 4.8 grams of dehydrated product contained in the six capsules. But then I realized that a medium size apple weighs about six ounces (which is about 70 grams). Does this mean that Balance of Nature uses about a half of an apple's weight of fresh fruit and vegetables to make those six pills? Is my math wrong? I don't think I'll buy their product. User's recommendation: Suggest you do the math before spending you hard-earned cash