Dr. Mercola June 04 2007 77,799 views
That’s the million-dollar question being asked, and answered, in this video, which exposes the truth about the latest health craze sweeping across Canada and into the United States.
Goji juice is hyped as the cure-all remedy for 34 different ailments, including arthritis, diabetes and cancer. But the truth is both shocking and infuriating, as they uncover the lack of nutritional value of the goji juice in the lab.
Earl Mendel—the well-respected author of the Vitamin Bible—is the face of Himalayan Goji, and he’s making some pretty hefty claims about the berry. And that’s the problem. Upon probing, he admits he’s talking about the berry—not necessarily the juice!
Himalayan Goji juice is not sold in stores, but rather through a multi-level marketing plan. At about $50 per bottle, there’s lots of money being made, but there does not seem to be enough proof to back up the amazing health claims of the juice itself.
CBC News Marketplace January 24, 2007
Dr. Mercola's Comment:
Goji juice is hyped as the cure-all remedy for 34 different ailments, including arthritis, diabetes and cancer. But the truth is both shocking and infuriating. In the lab, goji juice proves to have little nutritional value.
Earl Mendel -- the author of the Vitamin Bible -- is the face of Himalayan Goji, and he's making some pretty hefty claims about the berry. And that's the problem. Upon probing, he admits he's talking about the berry -- not necessarily the juice!
Himalayan Goji juice is not sold in stores, but rather through a multi-level marketing plan. At about $50 per bottle, there's lots of money being made, but there does not seem to be enough proof to back up the amazing health claims of the juice itself.
Now, please understand that I have nothing against Goji berries. I fully believe that they are a powerhouse of nutrition and loaded with beneficial antioxidants and micronutrients. I even consume them myself.
However, this appears to be a classic example of sleazy nutritional marketing that exaggerates the benefits of a good food, adulterates it and then puts it in a multi-level marketing scam that fleeces good people of their hard-earned money with very little benefit.
In general, fruit juice is not the best way to consume a fruit. It is typically better to consume the whole fruit.
Most of traditional medicine fails to recognize that the sugars in fruit juice contribute to major distortions of insulin balance. I believe that fruit juice and pasteurized milk are two of the most misunderstood foods in our culture. Most people believe they are health foods, while the polar opposite is true. They tend to be pernicious fluids that worsen most people's health.
Juicing your vegetables at home, however, is a very different matter. Juiced vegetables do not have the absurdly high sugar content of fruit juice, and vegetable juicing can be a very healthy practice.
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The following video is a short presentation by Dr. Victor Marcial-Vega showing some interesting results of goji research.
In the video he shows actual blood samples from patients who are using goji juice.
These two herbs are used in chinese medicine for many reasons.
Ju Hua (Chrysanthemi Flos): A cool, sweet and bitter herb that is used to disperse an exterior wind heat invasion (headache, fever, aversion heat, red eyes, sore throat), clear liver heat (red/painful eyes, floaters) and calm the liver (dizziness, headaches, blurred vision) and is a popular tea in the summertime in China secondary to its cooling nature.
Gou Qi Zi (Goji Berries): A sweet and neutral herb that is used for nourishing and tonifying the kidney and liver (yin/blood deficiency), benefits essence to brighten the eyes, and enrichs yin to moisten the lungs to eliminate cough. These can be used in a tea or just eaten raw with nuts or in oatmeal. It is also a great herb for erectile dysfunction, to improve circulation and for certain eye disorders.
In Chinese Medicine, the spleen is like a big boiling pot that is essential in producing blood, fluids and essence from the food we eat, the fluids we drink and the air we breathe (they work together with the lungs and kidney to do this). So the spleen is essential in producing blood. On an emotional level, the spleen also houses the intellect of the soul and of the person. When you use your intellect, you use your blood. Unless you replenish it with red foods (meat, beets, goji berries, etc) or with chinese yin tonic herbs, you will start to become blood deficient.Chinese herb and Goji Berries have been used for thousands of years. It is us humans of today who like to beat things to death to make money. This just denatures them and along the way, preservatives are added. So in the end you end up with a juice drink containing more berries than you could possibly eat in one sitting. This leads to many issues, blood sugar handling issues being of the most important. So when we stop taking one small thing that is supposed to be good for us and stop beating it to death to make money, then the actually properties of the be