Source : CBC Expose on Goji Juice and Freelife
“Thousands of Canadians are drinking a new product made from a ‘miraculous berry’, that suggests powerful benefits. Wendy Mesley reveals the real deal behind the new craze and travels to Hollywood to pose questions to the Canadian-born nutritional guru involved.”

CBC Canada has aired a hard hitting 26 minute expose on Goji Juice and Earl Mindell. Earl Mindell, as the (now former - ed) spokesperson for Freelife, a company selling Goji Juice, can be compared with Neil Solomon, a (former?) speaker and so-called expert on Tahitian Noni Juice. Earl is not a real doctor. Neil no longer can call himself one. Earl preaches Goji to make a buck. Neil preached Noni to make a buck. The only difference is that Neil Solomon admitted, in writing, that he sexually abused many of his patients when he was a doctor.

Update (January 2008): Earl Mindell is no longer affiliated with Freelife International.

In the interest of equal time and in fairness, Freelife has responded to the broadcast with a number of things that are worth mentioning. When Freelife learned that CBC was going to do a story on Goji Juice they offered, several times, in writing and by phone, that the CBC team would come over to visit the Freelife offices and interview the corporate team on camera so that CBC could get both sides of the story. According to Freelife, CBC flatly refused the repeated and open invitation and as such consider that CBC had no interest in hearing Freelife’s side as it would have decreased the sensationalism of CBC’s broadcast.

The CBC broadcast had two main components to it. First that exaggerated medical claims were being made by our distributors and Earl Mindell regarding the health benefits of Goji Juice. And secondly that there was no nutritional value in Himalayan Goji Juice.

Freelife’s Policies and Procedures strictly forbid exaggerated medical claims and while Freelife admits that “at times our Customers and even Earl Mindell did become overzealous with the results they received and saw in others and unwittingly made unauthorized medical claims”.

Even before the CBC show aired, Freelife had a compliance program in place but have since ramped up the compliance efforts to “reduce unauthorized medical claims as much as possible”. Freelife believes their compliance program is as good or better than any nutritional company in North America. FreeLife requires all distributors to agree in writing not to make inappropriate claims for the product. In particular, FreeLife’s Policies and Procedures provide that:

“No claims as to therapeutic or curative properties of any products offered by FreeLife may be made except those contained in official FreeLife literature. In particular, no Marketing Executive may make any claim that FreeLife products are useful in the cure, treatment, diagnosis, mitigation, or prevention of any diseases. This also includes personal testimonials attesting to the curative or disease treatment or prevention effects of FreeLife’s products. Such statements can be perceived as medical or drug claims. Not only do such claims violate FreeLife’s policies, but they also violate federal laws and regulations including those administered by the United States Food and Drug Administration and by Health Canada.”

You can find the complete Policies and Procedures here.

“The FreeLife Way,” which serves as a code of ethics for Marketing Executives is provided to every distributor in their initial business kit, is regularly reprinted in our monthly newsletter, “Living the FreeLife” and is available here. Amongst other items, The FreeLife Way provides that distributors agree as follows:

“I will not make any therapeutic or medical claims in connection with the marketing or sale of any FreeLife International product. Not only do such claims violate FreeLife’s polices, but they also violate federal laws and regulations, including those administered by the food and drug regulatory agencies in your country.”

FreeLife is very strict in its compliance procedures. It has a full time staff of five concentrating solely on compliance, including day-to-day involvement of its General Counsel. This involves reviewing all marketing materials, daily web sweeps to find online advertising violations, monitoring of meetings and conference calls, and disciplinary action where necessary. FreeLife’s Compliance department utilizes a set of Standard Operating Procedures to ensure consistency in its investigation and enforcement procedures.

Freelife has stated that they take their compliance obligations very seriously and have sent numerous letters to distributors who violate these policies, most of whom do it inadvertently. Freelife continues to follow up and enforce these policies with disciplinary actions that include termination if those who violate the polices refuse to stop the offending conduct. FreeLife’s commitment to ensuring that its distributors comply with the law and its policies is “not just lip service”.

Regarding the health benefits of Himalayan Goji Juice, and according to Freelife, the reporter “just got it plain wrong”. Prior to the program being aired, FreeLife informed the CBC that the primary source of the product’s health benefits are the LBPs (Lycium Barbarum Polysaccharides) and offered to assist them in testing for this active compound. They never responded to Freelife nor tested for the LBPs. Instead, Wendy Mesley tested the product for protein and three specific vitamins that Freelife state right on the product label are not included in the product. Further, none of the Freelife literature claims that their product contains these nutrients. Instead of testing for the active ingredient, the LBPs; she tested for several nutrients that Freelife disclose are not in their product. Based on her test results, she reported that Goji Juice has very little nutritional value. According to Freelife this is “misleading and ludicrous”. Needless to say, Freelife’s view of this broadcast is that Wendy did not do her homework nor take the opportunity to learn more when it was offered and as such that she has no interest in providing the truth to viewers, but simply wanted a sensational story for better ratings.

In addition to Freelife’s first published study they have completed two more human clinical studies that have been submitted to peer-reviewed scientific journals for publication. This link will take you to the science section on FreeLife’s website for abstracts of these two studies which indicate significant improvements in the immune system and the enhancement of the body’s own endogenous antioxidants.

There has also been a substantial increase in the number of published scientific studies of the key ingredient in Freelife’s Goji/GoChi Juice, Lycium Barbarum. These can be found on the National Institutes of Health website PubMed. The vast majority of these studies focus on the benefits derived from the Lycium Barbarum Polysaccharides (”LBP”).

FreeLife also has an independent Scientific Advisory Board, which includes professors from Cornell; Tufts, University of Chicago; University of California at Irvine; University of Queensland; and University of Sydney, as well as FreeLife’s Chief Scientific Officer, Haru Amagase.