If you’ve been downing copious amounts of POM Juice in hopes that it would prevent heart disease, prostate cancer and other illnesses, you may want to look towards something else — something that actually works.
On Monday, a federal judge upheld the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint that Pom Wonderful, whose flagship product is pomegranate juice packaged into a trademark “double-bulb” bottle, has used deceptive advertising when listing the juice’s supposed health benefits against serious diseases.
ABC News reports that Chief Administrative Law Judge Michael Chappell sided with federal regulators and ordered POM to halt all claims of health benefits and performance for its beverage saying that there was “inadequate” evidence to back up the company’s superfood claims.
The judge’s decision was made after expert witnesses testified in court that scientific evidence does not support claims made in company advertising, which appeared in national newspapers, magazines and online.
“I am pleased that Judge Chappell found that all respondents including Mr. and Mrs. Resnick violated the Federal Trade Commission Act by deceptively advertising that the POM products treat, prevent, or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction and has entered an order against them,” David C. Vladeck, director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.
The FTC originally filed a complaint against POM and its parent company, Los Angeles-based Roll International Corp., in September 2010.
The LA Times writes that Judge Chappell’s decision goes into effect in 30 days unless Pom formally challenges it — something the popular juice company has already said it plans on moving forward with.
“We do plan to appeal certain aspects of the ruling,” Pom spokesman Corey Martin said.
The appeal would be heard by the five-member FTC. If an appeal is not successful, Pom could take the matter to a federal appeals court.
Readers chime in: Does the news that POM juice may not “perform as advertised” come as any sort of shock to you? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
UCLA studies on pomegranate juice contradict the judge's decision. UCLA is know for meticulous methodology in these types of studies.
Typical of the FTC and FDA to come in and pronounce anything that is healthy cannot have claims of curing, treating, and or preventing disease. Just look at any vitamin and or herbal supplement labels.
The big drug companies do not want any thing sold that they cannot control. The FDA is in their back pockets. if the holistic methods didn't work, they would not be around any more. I was lucky enough to find a doctor who believed in holistic medicine. When I said no to chemotherapy, he recommended diet to help the other meds I took. After 9 months, the tumor , diagnosed as cancer, was gone. that was 11/2 years ago. I continue the diet today, and am still cancer free. BTW: chemotherapy kills as many patients as the cancer, and only is effective on 4 types of cancer – lung cancer not being one of them.
Mark, your case is definatly NOT commonplace. While chemo and radiation therapy are incredibly hard on the body, rarely do these therapies kill. Cancer patients should explore all avenues of treatment, not just holistic methods…your comment is incredibly irresponsible. BTW, not many people survive lung CA…Long as you don't smoke, you're way ahead of the game!
If anyone wants to know some facts, go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=pomegranate and read the actual summaries of research done on pomegranate. Not every single one is positive, but if you read these and take the time to translate the medical jargon you will see that POM's claims are in fact based on current scientific research available on the National Institutes of Health website…
vitamins require mineral co factors to work. they are useless without mineral co factors.
Please don't spread your bullshit misinformation around, Holistic medicine is a complete joke, and the reason its still around is easily fooled fools like yourself buy into it.
I don't understand how a person can say that article is not worth knowing. Our healthcare system is built on an empirical model – that best practice is founded on empirical research and systemic review. A reduced infection rate in a compromised population (renal patients) is a very interesting find.
But yes, I agree, there is no miracle cure. Some people have gotten lucky. Be smart, think critically, and do research yourself. Don't count on Dr. Oz or equivalent.