Goji Berry products are one of the most well known health supplements on the market, used to make a variety of products from actual Goji Berries to the seeds, as well as juice made from the berry. The Goji Berry has actually been around for quite some time, and has enjoyed a place in history as a healing substance for thousands of years. To explore the benefits of the Goji Berry, and the products made from it, we should first understand where the Goji comes from.
History of the Goji Berry
Goji Berries are also often called Wolf Berries, and have been used for several thousand years, particularly in Asian medicine. One of the first people to use the Goji was the native Himalayans who were able to easily harvest the berry from the valleys where it grew in that area. They began to share the properties of the Goji Berry with those from China and India and the word spread, particular in Asia, where it was used successfully by healers. Today, the Goji Berry is used in a variety of health foods in particular stores in the western world.
Make-Up of the Goji Berry
The Goji Berry is composed of four different phytonutrient compounds that carry instructions from one group of cells to another, allowing cells to communicate with each other. They are sometimes referred to as polysaccharides or Master Molecules, because they control many different functions of the body, and the immune system in particular. Different areas where the Goji Berry grows have slightly different compositions, or different nutrient densities.
Modern History of the Goji Berry
The Goji Berry has been present in the United States and other developed countries and there has been a huge demand for these berries and what they can do as an antioxidant and for other nutritional purposes. Today, there are a huge variety of Goji Berry products on the market, putting the wolfberry in the category of super fruit and the more that find out about the health benefits of the Goji the more popular it becomes, and is expected to soon be part of a multi-billion dollar industry.
Goji Berry Culinary Uses
Goji Berry also has use in the kitchen. In Asia, dried and cooked Goji berries are added to soups and jellys along with other herbs and foods like pork, chicken or wild yams. Also, Goji are used in herbal teas in China with jujubes and chrysanthemums, boiled or sold in prepackaged tea containers. In Asia, wines are often produced that contain Goji berries sometimes blending with grape wines. Also, there has been at least a couple of types of beer produced that contains Goji Berries, one a Chinese company and the other New Belgium Brewery.
Goji Berry Medicinal Use
Goji berries are also used in medicinal products, and in fact have had some legitimate clinical trials. Goji berries have extensive effects on the health of the person taking them, because of the polysaccharides and the way that they work in the body and affect the immune system. There may also be benefits from Lycium Barbarum, a type of Goji berry, because of the antioxidant properties including protection against cardiovascular diseases, vision related problems and age-related or inflammatory diseases.
Goji Berry Products Available
There are a huge variety of Goji berry products on the market, and not just those that you would expect. For instance, in the category of personal care products, there is Goji Berry Face Cream available from Home Health for around $10 as well as Eye Cream that contains Goji Berry from the same manufacturer at the same price and Goji Berry Hand Amp Body Lotion from Home Healthy as well.
The popularity of Goji berries extends to the edible aspect as well with health and nutrition companies creating ways to formulate and preserve Goji berry products in ways that consumers of today will use such as the aforementioned face and hand creams. Goji berries are placed into products getting the same sort of critical acclaim that ginseng, ginkgo, herbal tea and astragalus has claimed. Today, you can find Goji berries in just about every health food store and supplement shop that is in the US and around the world.
Making Goji berries part of your regular diet and making sure that you use them isn’t too difficult in today’s world, given the variety of products available, but many people advocate on side or another as to whether the dried of the liquid form of the Goji Berry is more effective. This is actually not a consideration as far as the health benefits that the product provides, of which you will get the full benefit whether you use the liquid or dried form, but is simply a matter or personal preference as well as which method is more convenient for you.
If you are particularly busy then you might want to use the dried form of the Goji berry, as it is convenient for travel or to put into luggage or other travel gear. A handful of Goji berries can be taken whether you are on the road or on an airplane and you can use them to mix with a homemade smoothie or put them in your cereal. Taking the dried form of the Goji will give you the same health benefits that taking other forms of the supplement will.
However, you may also want to incorporate the liquid form as much as possible, as it can be more refreshing and tasty than simply using the dried form. Juices that incorporate the Goji berry can quench your thirst and be tastier than the other type, and can be chilled in the refrigerator or taken along to the beach or to work, and you can also get foods like jellies, coffee or alcohol that incorporate the Goji berry.
However you decide to take the Goji berry, whether through food, or as juice or the dried fruit form, the important thing is that you incorporate it into your diet somehow and get the host of health benefits of the Goji in your life.