Pomegranate Juice: An Untested Drug?

In an interesting, ironic twist, the FDA and FTC are now going after a company who claims pomegranates are…*insert trumpet fanfare here*…healthy for you! Pom Wonderful, a Los Angeles, California based pomegranate growing company, is being targeted for marketing their pomegranate juice as a healthy, disease preventing fruit juice.

Haven’t we always known that fruit is healthy for us? I’m pretty sure that it’s common knowledge (and has been for centuries) that fruit is a healthy part of our diet; in fact, our bodies need the vitamins in fruits.

The Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against Pom Wonderful, stating that their claims about the health benefits of pomegranates are “false and unsubstantiated”. The truth is, Pom Wonderful has spent somewhere in the region of $34 billion on research studies. They’ve done tests to determine the effects of pomegranates on muscle recovery, cardiovascular health, prostate cancer, Type II Diabetes and erectile function.

The results of their research are published on their website, along with other research that has been performed on pomegranates.

Yet, the FDA sent a letter at the beginning of the year advising Pom Wonderful that since they were marketing their juice as a treatment for a number of diseases, their juice should be considered a drug, and therefore be subject to clinical drug trials and safety tests.

How can the FDA be so concerned about a natural healthy food, when it approves dangerous food additives and genetically modified foods, without requiring any testing at all? Even the drugs they have approved have ended up with class action lawsuits within a few short years, due to all the major health problems they’ve caused!

IMHO, the fact that the FDA is attacking a company that is promoting fruit and fruit projects is so far out there…and so ridiculous…that I’m struck speechless. I don’t even know what to say. It kind of makes me wonder if the FDA is just mad because they didn’t receive their palm greasing…

OK, that last part was just my personal opinion based on everything else I’ve read about their policies…

I think the FDA needs to pay more attention to the genetically modified foods that are being brought before them for approval; as well as all the food additives that they aren’t requiring testing on. I can’t believe that they’re throwing a fit over fruit juice yet ignore all of the dangerous studies done on things like high fructose corn syrup and artificial growth hormones. Can you see why I’m thinking this is a money based numbers game?

Read more: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/27/business/la-fi-pom-ftc-20100927

3 Comments

  1. Gudrun on July 19, 2014 at 2:57 pm

    Thank you Jennifer Hill.



  2. Steve Preston on May 15, 2015 at 2:25 am

    What you have to realise is that the FDA forces companies to add dangerous substances to all our food, drink and drugs to give us cancer so we pay into the system but ensure we die before we can enjoy our retirement and collect what we are entitled to



  3. jordan on May 19, 2015 at 5:33 pm

    It’s always a numbers thing with the US government! If they can’t tax it or milk the consumer from some other angle they will wage war on it (ahem… Marijuana…) and make illegal or dream up some elaborate litigious effort to milk the company who is profiting from it.



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