GoChi & Himalayan Goji Juice: Our Report Continues
GoChi Goji Juice:
We Research Their "Research"
  "Holy scientific method,
Batman!"
That's right, Robin.
FreeLife actually used its own employees as test subjects for its new, highly touted GoChi "research study."
And that's not all, Robin.
For their GoChi placebo control participants, they used a "professionally flavored" solution that "tasted, smelled, and looked like GoChi, but did not contain any goji juice." (Source: gojiexpress.com)
Now we ask: How, pray tell, does a FreeLife lab come up with a "professionally flavored" solution that tastes, smells and looks exactly like goji juice?
And ... where is the consumer research that proves that this fake goji solution tastes identical to real goji juice?
Does anyone actually believe that a FreeLife lab can concoct a fake orange juice, cherry juice, or goji juice that consumers would be fooled into thinking is real? The very idea floods us with visions of astronauts in space, drinking professionally-flavored Tang.
Nevertheless, FreeLife Chief Product Officer Rick Handel assures us that "Neither test group knew whether they were drinking the real GoChi or the fake juice."
Well Rick, do your own co-workers know what real goji juice tastes like? To back up your claim, we'd like to see an independent study that proves that non-FreeLife-employees can taste no difference between real goji juice and your fake goji solution.
This whole issue of "professionally flavored" solutions leaves a bad taste in our mouths.
A double blind study?
FreeLife claims that their GoChi study is "double blind."
Our question is: If FreeLife employees already know the taste of real goji juice, how can FreeLife claim that these subjects are "blind"?
We'd like to know: Why didn't FreeLife go into the general public and simply choose people who have no experience with goji juice at all?
Of course, this would have required FreeLife to spend some research dollars. So did they feel they needed to cut costs?
Oh well, since their GoChi study lasted only 14 days (we're not kidding), we suppose they ended up cutting research costs pretty much to the bare bone, anyway.
A peer reviewed study in a prestigious journal?
FreeLife brags that its GoChi research study will be peer reviewed and published in a "prestigious journal" - the July/August 2008 issue of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.
Now, we at breathe are health conscious consumers, not scientists. So we wanted to find out what real doctors and food scientists have to say about this "prestigious journal."
Here's what we can tell you so far:
The experts we have consulted with have never heard of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. After they looked it up on the internet, no expert we've talked with considers that this so-called "prestigious journal" carries weight in the scientific community comparable to the likes of The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and other similarly accepted peer review journals.
Instead, they have told us that peer reviewed journals come in many grades, ranging from stringent, highly recognized, highly credible, and universally accepted journals, all the way down to easy-to-showcase-your-product journals.
So how can you tell how credible a journal is? This leads us to:
The Impact Factor
We're told that journals have varying degrees of "impact" in the scientific community.
A journal's impact factor includes various factors, like how selective a journal is in accepting manuscripts, how rigorous is their peer review process, how much the journal is respected in the general scientific community, how often the articles are cited, etc.
We are currently researching the impact factor of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine and will let you know when we get more information.
Also, our doctors and scientists are standing by to review FreeLife's self-promoting GoChi research when it is published in July.
There are many things our experts would like to say about FreeLife's GoChi research, but they'd rather wait until after the study is officially published. At that time, we will invite our experts to make comments, which we will post here at breathe.org.
So stay tuned. There's more to come.
 To be continued later...
Same breathe page!
Same breathe web site!
Proof Positive:
Note: Since posting this page, a reader has asked us to show proof that FreeLife used its own employees for its GoChi research. We agree it's hard to find this info.
When you view FreeLife's GoChi video, you'll find this statement at the very end:
The 14-day study included 35 test subjects, divided into two groups. Neither FreeLife's scientists who conducted the study, nor its employees, who served as the study participants, knew if they were drinking the real GoChi or the placebo, which looked and tasted like GoChi.
It's easy to miss this statement, and many people simply don't bother to read the fine print when watching this video.
Rick Handel Talks Science
Rick Handel talks big about the scientific value of FreeLife's GoChi research (in above mentioned video), yet he holds a high school diploma with no college degree, university degree, or science degree. Rick is part of FreeLife's two-person "science team."
breathe.org
Our advice to health-conscious consumers:
1. Be wary about any "in house research" that a company offers you in one hand - while trying to sell you its product in the other hand. (This goes for all health product companies!)
2. If the research is claimed to be "peer reviewed," check out who are the "peers" who reviewed it!
3. Remember: A company wants its own research to sparkle in order to sell you, sell you, and sell you again! So their use of any in-house data just might be a little biased (do ya think?).
Next:
GoChi or No-Chi?
April 14, 2008 - New pages now posted:
NEWLY UPDATED MAY 22, 2008: FreeLife Fails to Show Proof of Polysaccharides
Fake Spectral Signature
GoChi: We Research Their "Research"
GoChi or No-Chi?
FreeLife used their own employees as test subjects for their new GoChi research (we're not kidding). View all new pages
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©2008 breathe.org, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. We serve the public interest to promote natural, holistic, and health-conscious education for the welfare of all people.
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