Goji Berries Review

How Effective are Goji Berries for Weight Loss?

Goji berries have been given a lot of media attention lately due to their increasing popularity and rumoured health benefits. Celebrities including Madonna and Mischa Barton, are fans of the product and health conscious members of the public are following suit.

The Goji Berry, also known as wolfberries, hail from Tibet, China and Mongolia, where they have traditionally been used medicinally, drank in juice or tea form. In their natural form, the Goji berry is small and red like a cranberry but can be bought in bars, dried, in juices, as tea or even in capsules. Considered to be a ‘super-food’, fans claim the Goji berry has more vitamin C than oranges, more iron than steak and more beta-carotene than carrots.

Goji Berries are thought to help weight loss due to their ability to decrease cravings, regulate blood sugar levels with their fiber and chromium content, and maximise energy due to being rich in nutrients.Even though Goji berries are thought of as beneficial to health, consuming too many may result in unpleasant side effects such as nausea and dizziness. Taking excessive amounts is actually rather easy as users tend to increase their consumption to speed up the effects of Goji Berries.

More seriously, Goji berries may cause problems through interactions with other drugs. Medicines known to react badly to Goji berries include blood pressure and diabetes medicines. Symptoms will be produced such as a drop in blood pressure, dizziness and fainting. Most dangerous is the interaction with the drug Warfarin which thins the blood. Warfarin combined with Goji berries may increase the risk of serious bleeding.

So are Goji Berries really as good as their fans think? We don’t think so. For any ‘super food’ to present symptoms such as those of the Goji Berry, there needs to be some question of whether this food is suitable for a mass market, without any warning labels or cautions.Secondly, there’s the aspect of cost, with Goji Berries being ridiculously more expensive than other fruits or berries. Affordability could clearly be a problem.Finally there is the fact that this is not considered to be a weight loss product. It is a fruit which undoubtedly provides good nutrients to the user, but weight loss is only a small part of this product’s potential.

It is also misleading to believe that by eating Goji berries, you will effortlessly shed pounds.This is completely untrue. Goji berries will only compliment weight loss when eaten as part of a calorie controlled diet, with plenty of exercise. In summary it would seem that Goji Berries may be great as a regular part of your diet for nutritional purposes and to provide valuable antioxidants, but as a weight loss product, users may be disappointed.

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