An article in the current issue of Nutrition Action Healthletter (Dawn subscribes) offers this advise:
Find an exotic fruit, preferably from an ancient culture. Already taken: açai (pronounces ah-SIGH-ee) from Central and South America, goji (GO-jee) berry from China, and pomegranate from the Middle East and South Asia.
Turn it into juice, either straight or mixed with other (i.e., cheaper) fruit juices.
Attribute extraordinary healing powers to your juice. Already taken: açai is the “fountain of youth,” goji berry is “the most potent anti-aging solution on earth,” and pomegranate lets you “cheat death.”
Get Whole Foods to carry it and charge what the market will bear. Don’t be shy. Start with four or five times what regular juices go for.
What will your customers get for their money? An assortment of antioxidants and phytochemicals, just like they’d get from any fruit juice. But whether that makes the juices healthier is unclear. At least that’s the case with two of our three examples:
Not a single published study has looked at whether people who drink it are any healthier than people who don’t.
Pomegranate juice. In a small, preliminary study, UCLA researchers found that rising PSA levels slowed substantially in 38 of 46 men with prostate cancer who drank 8 oz. of pomegranate juice every day for three years. … But there’s a catch: The study didn’t include a placebo group, so there’s no way to know if the pomegranate juice was what slowed the rise in PSA levels. …
Goji berry juice. Same as açai juice.
And what about blueberry juice, which is starting to show up on supermarket shelves? While blueberry extract seems to help rats find their way through mazes, it’s too early to say if blueberries—or their juice—can prevent memory loss in people.