I found cheap goji berries in a chinese medicine store in chinatown. Nearly one kilo for $21. I like the price, but am I getting what I pay for?

I don't know if this is a case of expensive overmarketing and overpricing of goji berries in health food stores, or if there is a big difference between the two.

There's a lot of money to be made in the health food industry and I don't know if the expensive goji berries are expensive because they're better or if they're more expensive because of marketing and they can get away with charging more.

Anyone know anything about this?

China is also a big user of DDT. Does this effect goji berries from there if there's no mention of organic?

I think they are all pretty much coming from the same places, more or less. Enormous ridiculous marketing mishmash and markup.

There's something to be said for eating locally! Whatever superfoods are in your area, eat them. In my case collards, citrus, that kind of thing.

I've heard that some China-town goji berries aren't 100% raw, and some have oil added. (like most dried cranberries.)
But that might have just been one product.

Chinatown~!

Once I went to the Chinese markets, I never did shopping at regular grocery stores again. I have found joys like 13 oranges/$2, 3 cartons of strawberries/$3. Certain things are caveat emptor--but if you end up throwing away one or two dollars worth of fruit because it was rotten, it's nothing like the giant bag of organic mangoes I bought from the conventional store for $2/mango and they ALL WERE ROTTEN.

My guess, then, is that the goji berries are probably the same deal everyone is overcharging for. They are becoming a heath fad. I bought a bag of mangosteens--like 8 or 10 mangosteens in one bag!!--for $3 at the market.

Whole Foods sells you ONE MANGOSTEEN for $3. The exact same mangosteen at an offensively ridonkulous price.

The Chinese markets I shop at also usually lists where all of the products come from. Most, interestingly enough, are not from China, but are still sold at these dirt-cheap prices. I am a bit wary of produce from China, but... sometimes you can never really know. I always check the PLU# to make sure things aren't GM.

aviva.ca ran a HUGE discounted special on goji berries, so I stocked up at the time, and these were at least affirmatively uncontaminated.

I can usually taste when dried fruit has something other than just dried fruit in it. I bought figs preserved with sulphur dioxide once, and they were disgusting. Raisins also have a specific taste to them if they're preserved with something, too. You can try the berries to see how they taste, soak them in distilled water if you like... Preserved fruit leaves a very odd taste in the soaking water.

it also affects your breathing

ummm... if u eat stuff that has preservatives like sulfur dioxide


it could cause shortness of breathe and whatnot

so that's also a good indicator

arugula had a good idea of eating locally

and probably in season

yumm yummm collard greenzzzz

this might be off topic

but when I was a child I got a raisin stuck in my nose

so if you have small children I would eat locally and tons and tons of collard greens and quinoia.

but for buying fresh fruits chinatown is a great place to go IMHO

Anaken,

I once got a giant rubber ball stuck in my mouth as a child. At least you were raw.

There is a market I go to that has "Ethnic" in the name... can't recall the full name now. But it looks, on the outside like a shabby supermarket. On the inside, it's kind of shabby too. But... the prices and selection are awesome!

I will not mention the name of a certain well known << ahem >> "natural" food store but will tell you that a friend of mine was a produce manager at one of their locations and she told me that she was instructed to mark up the price of almost rotten and significantly bruised or discolored conventional produce and label it as organic in order to increase profit margins.

I have seen produce in various locations of that store/chain that are not anything God or Nature or Mother Nature created. They were obvious chemically created mutants. But the yuppies were always there, loading up their carts with golf ball sized perfect strawberries labeled "organic" ... and bruised, sorry looking about to go rotten apricots...

Anyway, back to the ethnic market. Everything is waaaaay cheaper than so-called natural food store prices. They have durians but I'm afraid to try them, they have several types of coconuts, they have all the exotic fruits that mainstream natural food stores mark up like crazy.

I prefer farmers' markets. But in the dead of winter, this is the best we have.

That's HORRIFYING. O.O

Conventional is great, but the only thing worse than paying in blood for organic produce is paying in blood for rotten conventional labeled as organic.

The way you can protect yourself is to become familiar with what organic should look like. Generally, when you see a display of organic produce, it will not all look picture "perfect," and it will not all look exactly alike. If you are looking at a display that appears to be all absolutely "unblemished" and identical produce, be suspicious if it is labeled "organic."

I put the words "perfect" and "unblemished" in quotes because good organic produce doesn't look like a retouched photo. There are natural variations in coloring and size and shape that occur in organic produce.

Conventional produce is manufactured -- uh, grown -- to all look exactly alike and to all ripen at exactly the same rate (preferably by the gas on the truck).

Farmers' markets rock.

If you can't afford what you know to be organic, then find the least expensive conventional produce you can afford. I am not a big fan of the chain "natural" food store that has substituted attitude for integrity.

I'd rather go to Costco or an ethnic supermarket if a farmers' market is not available. If it is conventional, it's all the same. If it's labeled organic, just make sure you know what organic should look like, then buy it if you can afford it.

Sorry for the long posts. I just get going on this topic!

i say go for it. we have a market here in phoenix where i can buy guavas, the only place i can get them in all of arizona. i make smoothies with them. and you can get asian pears for cheap, too... yummmm!

China has horrible environmental regulations, so I'm generally very afraid of anything from there that isn't organic (more for earth reasons even more than my health)...but if you're buying conventional anyways from a place like Whole Foods, you may as well not get ripped off. I thought I heard gojis were okay, I wish someone had more info.