Originally published September 30 2010
POM Wonderful under attack by FTC over truthful health claims
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) The FTC has never met a natural product it didn't want to destroy, it seems. They've gone after all sorts of natural foods like cherries, threatening to put companies out of business if they told the truth about the nutritional benefits of their products. They've even tried to criminalize a ministry that seeks to help its followers heal through the natural power of medicine herbs (http://www.naturalnews.com/026970_health_the...).
The FTC also went after Dr. Weil, threatening his company for telling the truth about his immune-boosting supplements (http://www.naturalnews.com/027303_natural_th...). Dr. Weil's company, by the way, quickly "complied" and removed the truthful nutritional knowledge from its website to avoid being prosecuted.
Earlier this year, the FTC was defeated in court over its attempt to censor truthful health claims about selenium (http://www.naturalnews.com/028929_FDA_health...), but that was a rare victory against FTC tyranny. Usually the agency gets away with outrageous oppression and censorship, frightening companies into silence by threatening their founders with the threat of prison time and huge fines if they don't comply.
Now the FTC is going after the POM Wonderful company, claiming that the company's descriptions of the health benefits of pomegranate juice are false.
It is the FTC, however, that's actually engaged in making false and misleading statements.
Why pomegranate juice is so good for you
Pomegranate juice is medicinal. Just here on NaturalNews.com, we've reported on how pomegranates can help with:
• Digestion (http://www.naturalnews.com/029635_digestive_...)
• Breast cancer (http://www.naturalnews.com/028830_brst_cance...)
• Prostate health (http://www.naturalnews.com/027435_cancer_Pro...)
• Inflammation (http://www.naturalnews.com/027411_pomegranat...)
• Sperm quality and motility (http://www.naturalnews.com/025359_sperm_pome...)
• Antioxidants (http://www.naturalnews.com/024623_antioxidan...)
• Appetite suppressant (http://www.naturalnews.com/021716_pomegranat...)
• Heart disease (http://www.naturalnews.com/020810_pomegranat...)
• Diabetes (http://www.naturalnews.com/020754_pomegranat...)
• Alzheimer's disease (http://www.naturalnews.com/020631_pomegranat...)
... and that's only what we've covered! The scientific literally is chock full of thousands of reference to the health benefits of pomegranates.
The FTC, though, doesn't read the scientific literature (or doesn't care what's in it). To the FTC, it doesn't matter if what you say is true. All that matters is whether you're making health claims at all. And if you are making health claims -- even if they're 100% scientifically true and verifiable -- you might be targeted for termination by either the FTC or the FDA.
FTC brands POM Wonderful owners criminals
The FTC now says the founders of POM Wonderful are "criminals" and accuses them of "false and unsubstantiated claims" in the marketing of their pomegranate juice.
What claims, exactly, did POM Wonderful make? That pomegranate juice may help with heart disease, prostate cancer and other health problems -- statements that are scientifically true and valid. But the truth has no place at the FTC, where politics determines their choice of the next victim in the nutritional products industry.
Why doesn't the FTC go after makers of infant formula who make their products with over 50 percent sugar? (http://www.naturalnews.com/029863_Similac_in...) Why doesn't the FTC go after makers of "Slim-Fast" who position their sugared-up product as a weight loss food and market it to gullible consumers?
Or how about Coca-Cola's deceptive marketing of Vitaminwater? (http://www.naturalnews.com/029425_vitaminwat...) or all the other deceptively marketed chemical products, including pharmaceuticals and toxic personal care products?
No, the FTC seems to reserve its wrath for natural products. Anything natural gets targeted while anything made with synthetic chemicals that make evil corporations rich gets utterly ignored, it seems. The FTC has made a habit of criminalizing the very people who are trying to improve the nutritional quality of our food supply while letting the real food criminals run rampant.
In America, you can buy toxic infant food made with artificial food coloring chemicals, partially-hydrogenated oils and refined sugars. That's completely okay with the FTC (and the FDA). But if you try to offer green tea, walnuts, cherries, pomegranates or any other natural food by informing consumers of the nutritional science behind your products, you are immediately branded a criminal and threatened with prison times, fines and the confiscation of all your products.
The FTC / FDA extortion racket
This is all part of a criminal extortion racket being operated by the FTC and FDA, where companies are targeted and then threatening with jail time if they don't pay big bucks to "government inspectors" who bill them for thousands of dollars while showing up at their warehouses for "surprise inspections."
Read more about how this criminal extortion racket really works in my NaturalNews expose of all this:
http://www.naturalnews.com/024567_the_FDA_pr...
Note that once companies are threatened by either the FTC or FDA, they are forced into signing a "consent decree," which is a document that requires people to admit to committing crimes they never committed! If people refuse to sign it, they are hauled into a secret FTC court system that offers no trial by jury, no Constitutional protections and no due process whatsoever (http://www.naturalnews.com/025303_the_FTC_he...).
That this is happening right now in America is a travesty of justice. This is the kind of thing you might expect with secret police in the old Soviet Union, perhaps, but not in America which is supposed to be "the land of the free."
It's way past time we reeled in the tyrants at the FTC and FDA who are determined to destroy the natural products industry. Perhaps the POM Wonderful company will recognize the extreme threat these rogue agencies pose to its freedom of speech and initiate some industry-wide action to fight back.
How you can help
There are legislative efforts by some courageous lawmakers to legalize free speech in the supplements industry. I've reported on this here: http://www.naturalnews.com/029840_free_speec...
You can help defend your access to healthy, natural products by supporting these legislative efforts. Read the article above and click on the links to take action!
The Life Extension Foundation is also working hard on this issue (www.LEF.org) as well as the Alliance for Natural Health (http://www.anh-usa.org), the Natural Solutions Foundation (www.HealthFreedomUSA.org), Citizens for Health (www.Citizens.org) and attorneys like Jonathan Emord (http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=44797A9DC1...) and James Turner (http://www.naturalnews.com/025303_the_FTC_he...).
Inform and educate yourself about what's really happening, because most Americans have no idea about this war against knowledge that's taking place behind the scenes. This is literally a war to destroy knowledge and keep the People as nutritionally ignorant as possible. That's why they specifically target any company that starts to educate people. Once you start linking to scientific studies that might teach people something, you get targeted for termination.
It's blatant, and it's a campaign to destroy nutritional literacy in America. It's a war being waged against our minds (and bodies) with our own tax dollars!
It's time to fight back against this campaign of knowledge destruction and insist that consumers should have the right to know how foods, beverages and supplements can help support their good health. Pomegranates, after all, are medicine from nature.
By the way, if the POM Wonderful company wants to tell its side of the story without being censored, they're welcome to contact us here at NaturalNews.com where we're friends with the natural products industry (and dedicated supporters of health freedom).
Sources for this story include:
http://www.naturalnews.com/pomegranate.html
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