When Captain Kirk said "beam me up" I always pictured the body disintegrating into a million particles and then miraculously being reconstituted on board the starship enterprise. 

This is one feat that the scientists haven't been able to replicate… yet. Probably because the human body is such a complex organism and there's so much we don’t know about it. 

That hasn’t stopped a series of mad scientists on our TV screens trying to recreate the human form; 'Frankensteins' that didn’t quite work out. 

So what makes us think we understand the plant world any better?

Scientists deconstruct plants in the lab, extracting all the parts they think are worth keeping and separating them into piles of vitamins and minerals, ready to be reassembled as the latest remedy to help lose weight or to improve your skin. 

Wouldn't it be easier if the shots were in pill form? No mixing, no mess, easy to take with you on the road? We think not. 

It's likely that by separating extracts from plants in the lab, important components of the plant that help us digest the nutrients and get the benefit of them are left behind. Or worse still, that Frankenstein-like combinations are reassembled, with Frankenstein-like side effects. 

I don’t think we truly understand the role that every element of the plant plays. 

What I do know is that for many people taking Nutrient Rescue shots daily has changed their lives (for the better). 

I know what you're thinking - it's possibly just a placebo effect. It might be a fluke that I didn’t get a cold this year. It might be a coincidence that Jason's indicators all turned positive within three weeks of starting the shots (and he's enjoying having energy to play with his kids after work). 

I have no doubt that the mind is a powerful force. But that doesn’t explain why my nails and facial hair are growing at what seems like twice the rate they used to. It doesn’t explain why Brendan the builder has more energy in the afternoon. Or why Nicola's friend undertaking her fifth round of chemo feels like a new woman. 

Most of these people have tried multivitamins and supplements, but they have not had nearly the same results as with the shots.

So why is a wholefood powder, made with more than 80% organic ingredients, achieving such incredible results?

Let’s take a look at the typical multivitamin pill first:

How is it manufactured? Well, it starts with the extraction of the 'valuable' parts of the plant, the elements which can be listed on the back, that the marketer can make valid claims about. They leave out the elements which are deemed 'unimportant' so it can be reproduced into a pill or capsule form. The most 'valuable' components are then reassembled in the lab.

Add emulsifiers to stabilise the concoction, add colouring agents, add an agent to provide a protective layer, and maybe another agent to preserve the ingredients. 

Then they squeeze all these elements into a pill or capsule which can be distributed in a little plastic container and marketed as 'women's multi' or something similar. Very convenient, clean and easy to distribute.  And definitely no mess on the bench!  So what’s the catch? 

The problem is that the evidence is mounting that the western diet of convenience foods has actually given rise to the epidemic of chronic illness, allergies and intolerances, as well as the escalating number of people with mental health issues. 

Why are we surprised?  Because we have started eating food which has been artificially designed to give us taste sensations - to tempt us and trick our gut into thinking that it's good for us when it’s not. Convenience has got us in this mess and convenience is unlikely to be the way to get us out of it.

So why are wholefoods and wholefood powders different? 

When you go to the farmer's market you recognise a difference, right? You experience real food, grown organically, that tastes great even if it comes in imperfect shapes and sizes. And you pay a premium for the produce not to be fertilised and sprayed to the max, and to fairly compensate the grower for accepting a lower tonnage per hectare. 

A 2011 study comparing broccoli with a supplement that had extracted the most 'valuable' components of the sprouts concluded convincingly that the wholefood was superior. "Many of the health benefits associated with eating broccoli require consumption of the whole vegetables, because key phytonutrients are poorly absorbed and are of far less value if taken as a supplement". They found that without a key enzyme found in the wholefood the body absorbed less than 20% of the two key metabolites.  

Other studies have shown that extracting the juice from grapes resulted in up to 90% of the nutrients being lost and that the whole apple contains 5.5 times more antioxidants than the juice. 

Case rests, your honour. The wholefood is greater than the sum of the parts, and most definitely better than only some of the parts.

So why powder?

Plants are typically 80-90% water, so we've just extracted the water -that’s all! 

We've simply identified the most nutritious organically grown products.  We've dried, blended and then sealed them in an airtight package, preserving all the goodness until its delivered to you and you're ready to add back the water and knock them back as a shot. 

You could try and buy all the organic produce and attempt to replicate the benefits the shots offer, but even if you could, if you're anything like me I suspect you wouldn’t be able to maintain it, and I seriously doubt you would do all this for the $2 a day it costs for the Double Shot. 

That's why our ingredient list is simply good, honest fruit and vegetables and not a list of chemicals which make your head spin in pill form.