Himalayan Goji Juice:
Goji Secrets They Don't Want Us to Tell You

Not-So-Secret Profits

Our issue with FreeLife is not that their juice is superheated and sterilized. Our issue is that distributors are saying otherwise.

We believe responsibility for misinformation lies with the upper management and not the distributors, many of whom faithfully carry out the training that has been instilled in them.

We chose Himalayan Goji Juice as our premiere cover story for another simple reason. We have friends and family who have become involved in this organization. We see people who have no money, and who must become distributors to support their own imposed need to "get juiced" (see CBC video).

If you're a consumer, you'll have to weigh the retail costs:

At 2 oz/day, a 32 oz bottle lasts 16 days = $3.12 US/day
At 4 oz/day, a 32 oz bottle lasts 8 days = $6.25/day

The monthly cost for a couple could be as high as $375. As one reader commented: "That's more than my monthly car payment!"

At $50 a bottle, "you can't drink too much." (below)


Source: FreeLife

And at $50 a bottle, "there are no known side effects other than smiling too much" (below).

Source: FreeLife

Quote to Ponder

Here's a thought:

"The concept of keeping the body healthy and disease-free sounds like good common sense, but it is in direct opposition to the big-money interests of our pharmaceutical-oriented Western system of medicine."

Dr. Earl Mindell, Goji: The Himalayan Health Secret, page 32.

We don't like the big-money interests of pharmaceutical companies either. Our work is to remind readers that "big-money interests" are plentiful in the holistic health arena as well.

So, is goji juice good for you?

Well, if you're lucky enough to have fresh goji juice squeezed from fresh goji berries, then we say say "go for it."

The next best thing, and it's a GREAT choice: we recommend organically grown whole goji berries (like raisins) that you might find at your whole foods store.

Rest assured that when berries are pureed, dried, shipped, reconstituted, preserved, flash sterilized and bottled, the final product is not the original berry.

FreeLife will assure you that laboratory tests prove that you get the same standardized polysaccharides in each bottle. (We'll believe that only when we've seen independent proof, because distributors have already told us that polysaccharides would be harmed by any heat.) In any event, the assumption seems to be that the health benefits from the sterilized juice are somehow comparable to the original berry.

We don't see it that way. Even if you've got polysaccharides in the final juice, that doesn't impress us. We do not believe that overall health benefits could ever be calculated in terms of polysaccharides content (or any other single elements for that matter).

FreeLife has made an entire business based on the idea that their polysaccharides are the health secret of the ages. Though FreeLife might be able to manipulate the juice in various ways to standardize it, we do not agree that these laboratory actions restore the benefits of fresh juice.

We believe there are healing energies in fresh foods that go far beyond current scientific knowledge. (See A Lesson from the Himalayas)

When most health-conscious people talk about healing properties in juice, they are not discussing polysaccharides. They are talking about hidden, subtle elements in fresh foods that science may never discover for hundreds of years. We believe the natural healing properties in fresh juice are seriously compromised by many factors, including any heat process.

As Claire Williamson of the British Nutrition Foundation says,

"Air miles and environmental damage is considerable when fruit travels so far. Why buy goji berries when there are perfectly good strawberries and blackberries available?" South China Morning Post

Instead of spending $50 for a bottle of goji juice, we'd rather see you spend $10 on some nice fresh organic fruit from your local market. Get a juicer and juice yourself some organic grapes. We believe your $10 will buy you more health benefits than a thousand dollars of any bottled juice. Fresh juice gives benefits that no bottled juice could ever hope for.

Many people seem sold on the idea that Himalayan Goji Juice is all they need to make them healthy. We believe that no product can give you the benefits of a whole, natural diet of fresh foods. There is simply no shortcut to good health and proper nutrition.

Don't worry about missing out on the "Four Master Molecules." This is all marketing designed to make the product seem extra special and justify the exorbitant price of berry juice.

We recommend you juice your own juice and eat fresh, whole, natural foods. Then you're getting vitamins, natural molecules, and healing properties that SCIENCE HAS NOT YET DISCOVERED, with a healing energy and freshness not available in any sterile container.

Just stick close to Nature, and we believe your happiness will be leaps ahead of those seeking health in a bottle.

Our Conclusion

Be alert for how FreeLife uses carefully crafted words to put a positive spin on their product to justify their highly inflated prices and health claims.

Maybe there's more money being generated than health.

Next: 

Readers Respond ...

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