 |
 |
This news release has been expired
|
“Juicy” Overblown Stories: Don’t Fall for the Hype Behind Exotic Fruit Drinks
San Francisco, CA
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 24, 2006
Global Health Media
By now, if you haven't been approached by Goji, Noni or Xango, you've been living under a rock. Marketers are in full force, spinning tales of "ancient healing" and "miracle cures" usually by far-away natives who depend on the incredible life-giving, youth-preserving properties of one exotic fruit.
Nonsense. Humanity was not meant to survive exclusively by one small berry from the Himalayas or one exotic, foul tasting fruit from the South Pacific. This is a hyped-up marketing pitch that's undergone a facelift: about two decades ago, we were all supposed to be eating pond scum algae from one lake near Klamath Falls, Oregon—no matter where you lived on the planet.
Obviously the earth's inhabitants didn't evolve by being dependent on one nutrient 10,000 miles away. Wide-scale nutritional research remains consistent: humans benefit most from a diet that reflects variety, balance and moderation among a wide selection of nutritious vegetables, grains, fruits and protein sources. Epidemiologic analysis has yet to find evidence for one particular nutrient that prevents premature aging, cures cancer, or any other chronic disease.
The nonsense directed to these "one-of-a-kind-miracle plants" is rampant on the web and in network marketing these days. Here are several problems with the lot:
Paltry amounts
Often there is not a sufficient amount of the fruit juice or extract contained in the pricey bottles to even amount to anything significant intake. A quesitonable fraction of the fruit in most drinks can sell from $38 to 50 dollars for one liter—about ten times the price of gasoline in most parts of the world. The bottles contain mostly water, with varying amounts of everything from apple and pear puree to the equivalent of Ocean Spray cranberry juice, along with preservatives,
Lack of science
Only a few among a dozen or so fruit drinks have one or two animal studies behind them, and those companies manage to extrapolate findings from rat, bats or bugs to human beings, which is bad enough, but they also make the mega-leap to concluding health and longevity benefits for humans, which is solid junk science.
False scales
Companies selling the "single fruit juice" story often post an ORAC value to their berries, supposedly indicating antioxidant amounts, but ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance capacity, the ability of substances to suppress oxygen free radicals in test tube findings. These charts are replete with fabricated data, comparing one fruit to another. You'll find misleading statements, scales with no references points, unnamed and unsubstantiated laboratories,
Is there anything good about the pricey fruit drinks?
It's not that these exotic fruits are unhealthy. On the contrary, some noted herbalists and food researchers, such as Earl Mindell and Chris Kilham, have looked at the historical usage of the goji berry in southern China and Tibet and acai fruit in the Amazon, and found local people placing a high value on the fruit. Further analysis shows a complement of antioxidants that nutritionists expect to find in most photosynthesizing compounds.
However, medical anthropologist have found that most native diets have one or two redeeming features, despite also having a few gaps as far as a complete nutritional profile is concerned. Just because a Tibetan village includes goji berries in the morning gruel doesn't mean the berries are the primary reason a few have reached their elder years with vigor. Scientists measure social connectedness, physical activity, genetic predisposition, hardiness, psychological resilience, along with diet when accounting for health outcomes.
A Game of Marketing Catch-Up
Limu Juice, another network marketing company, pushes a tale about the health benefits of the "Tongans" favorite fucoidan-rich plant, however, no credible science exists for the product's many touted claims. Just as they don't for Noni juice, its predecessor, the original exotic drink of the Pacific, supposedly adored by Tongas.
But the sad reality is that Tongans, like Samoans and many other Pacific Islander populations now are unfortunately being studied for their rising rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes, rather than as sterling role models of glowing health, due to the encroachment of poor Western-oriented diets.
Most companies are trying to catch up with the extraordinary profits behind Xango, "the queen of fruits," an unparalleled success story with tens of thousands independent distributors all pushing unfounded and outrageous health claims behind mangosteen, a small bitter black fruit from the South Pacific.
Reports of distributors hawking mangosteen juice on people with terminal cancer (if they succumbed, the story goes "he didn't drink enough…") abound in hospital corridors. XanGo's huge multi-billion dollar profits center on its signature $39.95 glass bottle—again, a drink comprised of common fruit juices or concentrates with an undeclared amount of mangosteen.
XanGo, like its copy-cat competitors, which have managed to build the notion of a single anti-inflammatory (xanthones) as pitched by corporate spokesman Dr. Templeton, who insists he does not benefit from direct sales of the company. Mayo Clinic has issued reports that the anti-inflammatory within mangosteen does not reduce arthritic symptoms or reduce any known risk for inflammatory ailments.
Lately Dr. Templeton concedes that his research has not been duplicated elsewhere, but distributors remain undeterred, and the anecdotal stories pour into hundreds of websites. I myself was duped by reading reports until I found that not a single experiment was duplicated by an outside laboratory—a fundamental principle for establishing credible science.
Just because the one-exclusive-fruit story is a faulty one doesn't mean you should avoid healthy fruit juices. Several reputable beverage companies have packaged a variety of fruits, sometimes vegetables in nutritious drinks, which provide a wide array of phytonutrients for overall health enhancement.
But the relentless hype behind one, exotic, miraculous, fountain-of-youth-fruit you-never-heard-of is snake-oil showmanship at its best (worst?) and nothing more. You're better off with a bowl of regionally grown, fresh, ripened fruits from your local farmer's market…all for a few bucks a bag.
# # #
Dr. Meg Jordan, PhD, RN, is a medical anthropologist known as the Global Medicine Hunter®. She is President of Global Medicine Enterprises, host of a nationally syndicated radio show, and editor and founder of American Fitness Magazine.
July 24, 2006
Global Health Media
By now, if you haven't been approached by Goji, Noni or Xango, you've been living under a rock. Marketers are in full force, spinning tales of "ancient healing" and "miracle cures" usually by far-away natives who depend on the incredible life-giving, youth-preserving properties of one exotic fruit.
Nonsense. Humanity was not meant to survive exclusively by one small berry from the Himalayas or one exotic, foul tasting fruit from the South Pacific. This is a hyped-up marketing pitch that's undergone a facelift: about two decades ago, we were all supposed to be eating pond scum algae from one lake near Klamath Falls, Oregon—no matter where you lived on the planet.
Obviously the earth's inhabitants didn't evolve by being dependent on one nutrient 10,000 miles away. Wide-scale nutritional research remains consistent: humans benefit most from a diet that reflects variety, balance and moderation among a wide selection of nutritious vegetables, grains, fruits and protein sources. Epidemiologic analysis has yet to find evidence for one particular nutrient that prevents premature aging, cures cancer, or any other chronic disease.
The nonsense directed to these "one-of-a-kind-miracle plants" is rampant on the web and in network marketing these days. Here are several problems with the lot:
Paltry amounts
Often there is not a sufficient amount of the fruit juice or extract contained in the pricey bottles to even amount to anything significant intake. A quesitonable fraction of the fruit in most drinks can sell from $38 to 50 dollars for one liter—about ten times the price of gasoline in most parts of the world. The bottles contain mostly water, with varying amounts of everything from apple and pear puree to the equivalent of Ocean Spray cranberry juice, along with preservatives,
Lack of science
Only a few among a dozen or so fruit drinks have one or two animal studies behind them, and those companies manage to extrapolate findings from rat, bats or bugs to human beings, which is bad enough, but they also make the mega-leap to concluding health and longevity benefits for humans, which is solid junk science.
False scales
Companies selling the "single fruit juice" story often post an ORAC value to their berries, supposedly indicating antioxidant amounts, but ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance capacity, the ability of substances to suppress oxygen free radicals in test tube findings. These charts are replete with fabricated data, comparing one fruit to another. You'll find misleading statements, scales with no references points, unnamed and unsubstantiated laboratories,
Is there anything good about the pricey fruit drinks?
It's not that these exotic fruits are unhealthy. On the contrary, some noted herbalists and food researchers, such as Earl Mindell and Chris Kilham, have looked at the historical usage of the goji berry in southern China and Tibet and acai fruit in the Amazon, and found local people placing a high value on the fruit. Further analysis shows a complement of antioxidants that nutritionists expect to find in most photosynthesizing compounds.
However, medical anthropologist have found that most native diets have one or two redeeming features, despite also having a few gaps as far as a complete nutritional profile is concerned. Just because a Tibetan village includes goji berries in the morning gruel doesn't mean the berries are the primary reason a few have reached their elder years with vigor. Scientists measure social connectedness, physical activity, genetic predisposition, hardiness, psychological resilience, along with diet when accounting for health outcomes.
A Game of Marketing Catch-Up
Limu Juice, another network marketing company, pushes a tale about the health benefits of the "Tongans" favorite fucoidan-rich plant, however, no credible science exists for the product's many touted claims. Just as they don't for Noni juice, its predecessor, the original exotic drink of the Pacific, supposedly adored by Tongas.
But the sad reality is that Tongans, like Samoans and many other Pacific Islander populations now are unfortunately being studied for their rising rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes, rather than as sterling role models of glowing health, due to the encroachment of poor Western-oriented diets.
Most companies are trying to catch up with the extraordinary profits behind Xango, "the queen of fruits," an unparalleled success story with tens of thousands independent distributors all pushing unfounded and outrageous health claims behind mangosteen, a small bitter black fruit from the South Pacific.
Reports of distributors hawking mangosteen juice on people with terminal cancer (if they succumbed, the story goes "he didn't drink enough…") abound in hospital corridors. XanGo's huge multi-billion dollar profits center on its signature $39.95 glass bottle—again, a drink comprised of common fruit juices or concentrates with an undeclared amount of mangosteen.
XanGo, like its copy-cat competitors, which have managed to build the notion of a single anti-inflammatory (xanthones) as pitched by corporate spokesman Dr. Templeton, who insists he does not benefit from direct sales of the company. Mayo Clinic has issued reports that the anti-inflammatory within mangosteen does not reduce arthritic symptoms or reduce any known risk for inflammatory ailments.
Lately Dr. Templeton concedes that his research has not been duplicated elsewhere, but distributors remain undeterred, and the anecdotal stories pour into hundreds of websites. I myself was duped by reading reports until I found that not a single experiment was duplicated by an outside laboratory—a fundamental principle for establishing credible science.
Just because the one-exclusive-fruit story is a faulty one doesn't mean you should avoid healthy fruit juices. Several reputable beverage companies have packaged a variety of fruits, sometimes vegetables in nutritious drinks, which provide a wide array of phytonutrients for overall health enhancement.
But the relentless hype behind one, exotic, miraculous, fountain-of-youth-fruit you-never-heard-of is snake-oil showmanship at its best (worst?) and nothing more. You're better off with a bowl of regionally grown, fresh, ripened fruits from your local farmer's market…all for a few bucks a bag.
# # #
Dr. Meg Jordan, PhD, RN, is a medical anthropologist known as the Global Medicine Hunter®. She is President of Global Medicine Enterprises, host of a nationally syndicated radio show, and editor and founder of American Fitness Magazine.
St. John Group
San Francisco, CA
415-454-2243
415-4593165
