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Hi everyone,
CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, has recently aired a program on Goji juice, specifically targeting Freelife and their flagship product, known as Himalayan Goji Juice:
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2007/01/goji.html
The program asks some serious questions about the validity of and research behind many of the claims being made about the health benefits of this great tasting juice blend. While many may simply say that CBC has an axe to grind, or subscribe to the conspiracy theories that big drug companies are trying to suppress anything that might cut into their profits (note: CBC is taxpayer funded - they will survive if they get NO advertising dollars), a simple search online will show that there IS no real, unbiased research that specifically backs up the many claims being made.
(Have any of its distributors really done their due diligence?)
As a FreeLife member, I have received rather weak rebuttals via email. One of them points out that the lab results from the sample taken in by CBC does not recognize the "special" polysaccharides present in Goji juice. Instead, the results concentrate on standard nutrition tests, which deal mainly with vitamin and mineral content.
However, once again, the usefulness of the polysaccharides has not been proven at this time, so the claims being made about them are at the very least, legally false.
Furthermore, it was discovered that several of the things that most users and distributors believe to be present in high concentration in the juice are, in fact, not present in the juice at all, but only in the berries.
The fact is, I've done a lot of digging, have not found one unbiased study on ANY product that would make me run out and buy it, and have never actively marketed Goji, although I have used it and have seen it apparently do wonders for some people.
I have also used a noni product with what seemed to be great results for myself, but again, have not found enough good research to warrant actively marketing it.
The universal problem with all the nutritional products being marketed via MLM today is that none of them have had enough research done to back up the claims that are being made about them. Also, they are generally very expensive for being so unproven.
I cannot market nutritional products in good conscience at this time, as they are overhyped, expensive, and under researched. It's quite unfortunate that so many people are pinning both their financial and health hopes on what might just be very expensive juice.
I am hesitant to blow the whistle on any one product, because some people ARE getting well, they believe, by using these products, and while it could (and probably is, in most cases) a matter of the power of the mind, if it works for them for any reason, they should be allowed to continue to enjoy the benefits.
Furthermore, everyone is different, and some of these many products may, indeed, do something for certain people, possibly by supplying some user-specific nutrient that is missing from their diets. That does NOT mean we can make any claims for the masses based on the results of a few.
On a personal note, I will not make any claims about them until and unless they are proven to be true.
God bless,
Dave
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