Just More Facts
Find this article at:
Sumner Redstone's anti-aging secret - Aug. 24, 2007
Sumner Redstone's anti-aging secret
There may be some debate about future control of Viacom and CBS, but the media mogul
doesn't plan to bequeath his empire anytime soon - thanks to a little purple elixir.
By Tim Arango, Fortune writer
August 24 2007: 8:58 AM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- As the years tick by, Sumner Redstone just gets more optimistic. Earlier this year
the 84-year-old said he planned to live another 50 years; two years ago he was predicting another 20.
His age has been in the spotlight lately because of the recent public spat with his daughter over his
succession plans, but the controller of Viacom (Charts) and CBS (Charts, Fortune 500) has lately been
getting a bit of help in the form of a little-known superjuice called MonaVie. "It's a miracle drug," he told
Fortune. "I feel great."
A dark-purple elixir with a cult-like following, MonaVie is an antioxidant-rich concoction whose main
ingredient is the Brazilian açai berry (pronounced ah-sigh-ee), long touted among health nuts for its
anti-aging ingredients.
Vitamin-water it's not: MonaVie costs $40 a bottle, and you can't get it in stores; it's marketed only
through the company's network of thousands of individuals who sell it out of their homes (think Avon or
Tupperware).
Redstone first heard of the juice from Viacom exec Bill Roedy on a trip to Germany in January. After
learning that his butler's sister-in-law was a devotee too, Redstone ordered some up and started
drinking four ounces a day. "Since I've been on MonaVie I haven't taken a sleeping pill," he says.
He even considered investing in Utah-based MonaVie after its CEO, Dallin Larsen, came to visit him at
his Beverly Hills mansion. Redstone decided against it - because it would present a conflict of interest
to recommend it to friends - but Larsen, a veteran nutritional-products salesman who founded the
company in 2005, has no better ambassador.
At a recent party, Redstone gave bottles to Bill Clinton and celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. "Just about
every friend I have is on it," Redstone says - a group he says includes Viacom and CBS board
members as well as cancer survivor and former junk-bond king Michael Milken. (It can also be found in
the clubhouse of the Boston Red Sox; pitcher Jonathan Papelbon is a fan.)
So is it a fad, or is there something to it? Nothing proves that MonaVie cures any ailment, but in one of
the first academic studies of açai's benefits, University of Florida researcher Stephen Talcott found that
the berry's antioxidants destroyed leukemia cells in a laboratory. But Talcott has since distanced
himself from MonaVie and its junkies.
Larsen is careful not to cross the line. "It's not a drug," he says. He touts the juice as a way to "increase
energy in a natural way" and to alleviate "the everyday aches and pains from inflammation."
Redstone says he's never felt better. "I know I look a lot younger than I am," he says. "I feel like I'm 40
years old."