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No wonder the 84-year-old chairman of Viacom thinks he can live 50 years - and keep running the company. Sumner Redstone, by far LABO's favorite industry mogul (and we’re using “favorite” loosely here), is hooked on a superjuice called MonaVie. The antioxidant-rich stuff is dark-purple and laced with the Brazilian açai berry, which health nuts have been pushing for years. "It's a miracle drug," he told Fortune. "I feel great."
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.
In case you're wondering, MonaVie costs $40 a bottle and you can only get it through distributors who sell it out of their homes.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.