Goji Berries: Which Benefits Do They Really Have?

Today’s almonds have been activated by:

⏰ IN A RUSH?

Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• Goji berries are punchy little things with a lot of benefits. They’re packed full of phytochemicals including helpful polysaccharides, carotenoids, phenolic acids, and flavonoids.

  • Importantly, this means they’re good against oxidative stress (a major factor in cellular aging), against cancer (we discuss five kinds, but it probably goes for the rest), and are (probably; see main feature) also immunomodulatory (in a good way).

  • They also do help against age-related macular degeneration!

• Being unable to easily participate in spoken conversations is not just an inconvenience; it’s also a [causal, fixable] risk factor for age-related cognitive decline.

  • Today’s sponsor, Hear.com, are offering the most cutting-edge dual-processing technology in hearing aids that isolate and separate speech from background noise.

Read on to learn about these things and more…

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

My knee hurts here! 10 typical pain spots and what they mean (6:55)

Different knee pains mean different things, and knowing can make a difference:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

The ten spots:

• 0:40 | Patellofemoral pain syndrome

• 1:45 | Meniscus pain

• 2:19 | Patellar tendinitis

• 2:41 | Osgood-Schlatter

• 3:04 | ITB friction syndrome

• 3:25 | Quadriceps tendinitis

• 3:53 | Plica syndrome

• 4:23 | Pes anserinus tendinitis

• 4:57 | Hoffa syndrome

• 5:41 | Tibiofibular joint pain

Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later 🔖

💊 MAIN FEATURE

Are Goji Berries Really A Superfood?

Goji berries are popularly considered a superfood, and sold for everything from anti-aging effects, to exciting benefits* that would get this email directed to your spam folder if we described them.

*We searched so you don’t have to: there doesn’t seem to be much research to back [that claim that we can’t mention], but we did find one paper on its “invigorating” benefits for elderly male rats. We prefer to stick to human studies where we can!

So how does the science stack up for the more mainstream claims?

Antioxidant effects

First and most obvious for this fruit that’s full of helpful polysaccharides, carotenoids, phenolic acids, and flavonoids, yes, they really do have strong antioxidant properties:

Goji Berries as a Potential Natural Antioxidant Medicine: An Insight into Their Molecular Mechanisms of Action

Immune benefits

Things that are antioxidant are generally also anti-inflammatory, and often have knock-on benefits for the immune system. That appears to be the case here.

For example, in this small-but-statistically-significant study (n=60) in healthy adults (aged 55–72 years)

“GoChi” here is a brand name for goji berries, and it’s not clear from the abstract whether the company funded the study:

Source: Immunomodulatory effects of a standardized Lycium barbarum fruit juice in Chinese older healthy human subjects 

Here’s another study, this time n=150, and ages 65–70 years old. This time it’s with a different brand (“Lacto-Wolfberry”, a milk-with-goji supplement drink) and it’s also unclear whether the company funded the study. However, taking the data at face value:

In other words: it allowed those who took it to get measurably more benefit from the flu vaccinations that they received, without any ill effects.

Source: Immunomodulatory effects of dietary supplementation with a milk-based wolfberry formulation in healthy elderly: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Anticancer potential

This one’s less contentious (the immune benefits seemed very credible; we’d just like to see more transparent research to say for sure), so in the more clearly-evidenced case against cancer we’ll just drop a few quick studies, clipped for brevity:

• Goji berry (Lycium barbarum) inhibits the proliferation, adhesion, and migration of oral cancer cells

• A closer look at immunomodulatory properties of goji berries extract in human colon cancer cells

• Lycium barbarum polysaccharides induce apoptosis in human prostate cancer cells and inhibits prostate cancer growth

• Identification of goji berry cyclic peptides and anticervical carcinoma activity

• Antiproliferative effects of Lycium barbarum's (goji berry) fractions on breast cancer Cell Lines

You get the idea: it helps!

Bonus benefit for the eyes

Goji berries also help against age-related macular degeneration. The research for this is in large part secondary, i.e. goji berries contain things x, y, and z, and then separate studies say that those things help against age-related macular degeneration.

We did find some goji-specific studies though! One of them was for our old friends the “Lacto-Wolfberry” people and again, wasn’t very transparent, so we’ll not take up extra time/space with that one here.

Instead, here’s a much clearer, transparent, and well-referenced study with no conflicts of interest, that found:

• MPOD = Macular Pigment Optical Density, a standard diagnostic tool for age-related macular degeneration

• AMD = Age-related Macular Degeneration

Source: Macular pigment and serum zeaxanthin levels with Goji berry supplement in early age-related macular degeneration

(that whole paper is very compelling reading, if you have time)

If you want a quicker read, we offer:

How To Avoid Age-Related Macular Degeneration

and also…

Brain Food? The Eyes Have It!

Where to get goji berries?

You can probably find them at your local health food store, if not the supermarket. However, if you’d like to buy them online, here’s an example product on Amazon for your convenience 😎

Enjoy!

❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

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It’s called Horizon by hear.com. Bluetooth-enabled, audiologist-backed, and smaller than a coffee bean.

Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

🤫 A WORD TO THE WISE

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

On This Bright Day: A Year of Reflections for Lasting Food Freedom – by Dr. Susan Thompson

This book is principally aimed at those who have struggled with emotional/comfort eating, over-eating, and/or compulsive eating of some kind.

However, its advices go for the "little compulsions" too, the many small unhealthy choices that add up. Thus, this book has value for most if not all of us.

The format is: each day has a little quotation, followed by a short discussion of that, which is then underlined by an affirmation for the day.

The main thrust of the book is to promote mindful eating, and it does this well with daily reminders that are helpful without being preachy.

Bottom line: if you enjoy "daily reader" type books and would like a daily reminder to practice mindful eating, then this book is for you!

Click here to check out On This Bright Day, and enjoy your food mindfully, every day!

Wishing you the most well-informed start to the week,

The 10almonds Team