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Is Pomegranate Juice That Wonderful?

Food companies (such as POM Wonderful) invoke the First Amendment to defend false and unsubstantiated health claims.

December 1, 2011 |
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Supplementary Info

Is Pomegranate Juice That Wonderful?, 5.0 out of 5 based on 3 ratings

Sources Cited

U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Docket No. 9344. In the Matter of POM Wonderful LLC

Nestle M, Ludwig DS. Front-of-package food labels: public health or propaganda? JAMA. 2010 Feb 24;303(8):771-2.

Davidson MH, Maki KC, Dicklin MR, Feinstein SB, Witchger M, Bell M, McGuire DK, Provost JC, Liker H, Aviram M. Effects of consumption of pomegranate juice on carotid intima-media thickness in men and women at moderate risk for coronary heart disease. Am J Cardiol. 2009 Oct 1;104(7):936-42.

Acknowledgements

Transcript

Last year the Federal Trade Commission charged top corporate executives at pomegranate juice maker POM wonderful for making false and unsubstantiated health claims. For example, POM ads say that their juice can result in a significant reduction of IMT, intima media thickness—the thickness of arterial plaque.” They even cite research. Let's check it out: Effects of Consumption of Pomegranate Juice on Carotid Intima–Media Thickness in Men and Women at Moderate Risk for Coronary Heart Disease.
What did it find? “No significant difference in overall CIMT progression rate was observed between pomegranate juice and control treatments.” And not only that, it was their study; they funded it. If you’re going to pay for a study, at least have the decency to falsify the data instead of just lying about the results. POM responded to the complaint claiming the Federal Trade Commission lacks the authority to tell them what they can or cannot lie about under the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
When this defense was raised earlier this year in the journal Public Health Nutrition, Marian Nestle and a colleague responded “it seems obvious to us that this interpretation of the First Amendment neither follows its original intent, nor promotes the public interest. The founding fathers clearly intended the First Amendment to guarantee the right of individuals to speak freely about religious and political matters, not the right of food companies to market junk foods to children and adults.” I wouldn’t consider pomegranate juice junk, but I do consider lying about their own research junk science.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. Be sure to check out all the videos on juice (including Best fruit juice).

For some context, please check out my associated blog post: Alzheimer's Disease: Up to half of cases potentially preventable.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. Be sure to check out all the videos on juice (including Best fruit juice), and don’t miss Tuesday’s corresponding blog post Alzheimer’s Disease: Up to half of cases potentially preventable with lifestyle changes.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/paul3917/ paul3917

    There must be more to the story than that. In a previous pilot study, the one in ’04 that you have a partial screen shot of in this video at 17 seconds, pomegranate juice was found to reduce carotid artery media thickness in patients with severe stenosis by up to 30% in just one year. Blood pressure was also reduced. One difference seems to be that in the present study the patients had “moderate risk for heart disease.” See
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15158307
    http://www.pomwonderful.de/pdf/clinical_nutrition.pdf
    Even this study suggested that the patients may have slowed the progression of the disease. I wouldn’t write of pomegranate juice just yet.

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

      Pomegranate juice no doubt has health benefits, as pomegranates are high in antioxidants, but Dr. Greger is making the statement that they do not do what the company advertises it does. Eating pomegranate is going to be far more beneficial than juicing it though!
      http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/fruit-juice-fail/

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/beforewisdom/ beforewisdom

    I had a friend from Iran. He told me that pomegranates were like apples there. Nobody experiencing any magical health benefits there.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/beforewisdom/ beforewisdom

    Thanks Dr. Greger. Pomegranate juice is $4 a bottle in my area and the whole fruit is obscenely overpriced as well. It is to know there is no special reason to buy those things.

  • Michael Greger M.D.

    For some context, please check out my associated blog post Alzheimer’s Disease: Up to half of cases potentially preventable!

  • redzero

    So what was the final ruling/outcome?  Did they get away with lying?   What blows my mind is that the FTC is going after a juice company instead of the dairy/meat/refined-sugar industries… maybe they are… I hope so.  “Milk does a body good.” should be “Milk makes life short.”

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