Why are we talking about them?

• Goji berries (pronounced go-gee) have long been championed by the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna.

• They entered the realm of South African gastro-politics when Shabir Shaik recently told City Press that “I’m on Tibetan goji berries now. Someone told me that with them I’ll make a miraculous recovery. I’m f***ing gorging goji berries till I’m sh**ing the things out hoping my eyesight will improve.”

• You can just imagine how proud his mother must have been at the vulgarity of the afore mentioned statement.

So Shabir is hoping for a miracle. Is he going to get one? Do they work?

• Call me a softy but it worried me that a person so sick and vulnerable that the then correctional services minister Ngconde Balfour described him in March as being “in the final phase of his terminal condition” should be pining his hopes on medical advice as vague as “someone told me.”

• And they aren’t cheep - even if Mr Shaik has money to burn on berries, other less fortunate terminally ill types may well have taken the story to heart. At an average price of R80 for 250g of dried berries goji gorging is a gastronomic activity reserved for the rich.

They are full of vitamins and minerals

• They are undoubtedly high in minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, and protein.
• For their weight goji berries have more vitamin C than oranges, more beta carotene than carrots and more iron than steak.


But Shabir Shaik hasn’t got a cold – he has uncontrolled blood pressure and failing eyesight. Will the berries help?

• In Asia, where the berries have been used medicinally since at least the 7th century, they are believed to help with failing eyesight and to improve circulation.

• Folk wisdom is all very well but what do the scientific studies say? I tried googling gojis and found that most studies involving goji berries originate in China and very few of the published papers have more than an abstract available in English. But from the abstract based analysis I found a modicum of hope for Mr Shaik and his uncontrolled blood pressure.

• The Department of Pathophysiology at Beijing Medical University found that an increase of blood pressure in hypertensive rats could be prevented with a diet of goji berries.

• There was more good news for Shaik from the Antioxidant Research Group, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon who found in a human supplementation trial that eating goji berries significantly raised levels of zeaxanthin which is known to help prevent age-related macular degeneration (the most common cause of vision loss in the US in those over 50).

The problem is with their marketing not the actual berries

• The problem with goji berries is not so much the berries themselves but rather with the companies who market them. The United States Food and Drug administration (FDA) placed two goji berry juice distributors on written notice for “claims relating to the establishment of the product as a drug intended for use in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease.”

• A class action lawsuit has recently been filed against FreeLife International, Inc, in Arizona USA over its unsubstantiated praise of its Himalayan Goji Juice products.

But cut to the chase what how do you eat them and what do they taste like?

Even if they don’t bring about miracle cures the good news is that goji berries taste quite nice.

In China they tend to be added fresh to soups and teas whereas Western goji gurus seem to serve them dried by the fistful.

In the dried form they have the texture of a raisin and the taste of a very sour cranberry. Fresh they are like small tart cherries without the irritation of a pip.

See recipe suggestion from the goji sellers in Chinatown.

Where can I get some

• La Marina 011 9970500 Long Meadow Business Estate sell them in 250g and 500g bags of dried berries.
• Oakdene Fruitery have 250g packets of dried berries too
• Both shops sell them at R80 per 250g.
• You can occasionally find fresh berries in Chinatown.

Conclusion – please God let them be helping his vision

Super fruit or super swizz the jury is still out but seeing as how Shabir Shaik seems to spend rather a lot of time out and about driving his BMW X6 it is safe to assume that all of us hope that the goji berries are having a positive effect on his vision.

Goji Berry and Sea Bass Soup:

I took a turn past Johannesburg’s Cyrildene Chinatown and asked the dried goji sellers what they would do with the berries. This recipe is what they suggested. At least I think it is – it was the result of much pointing and miming

1 sea bass
1/2 cup of goji berries
1/2 cup mushrooms
1 spring onion finely chopped
5 slices of fresh ginger
5 cups of chicken stock
5 Tablespoons rice wine
1 teaspoon hoisin sauce.