A Zrii Controversy???

This post was taken from another excellent Zrii blog that can be found at
http://z.puhala.com/

It is a well written and much needed response to an article found in naturalnews.com

A Zrii Controversy?

May 1, 2008

Rather than sweep it under the rug and ignore it, this post is directly responding to Mike Adams article at naturalnews.com (”Review: Zrii Juice and the Chopra Center - Does it Stand Up to the Hype?“). Because naturalnews.com receives a fair amount of web traffic, you are most likely to bump into this article if you are using search engines to find Zrii related articles.

At best, Mike Adams article about Zrii is sloppy journalism. However, from my perspective it’s much worse than that — it’s entirely misleading and filled with inaccurate information.

In his first paragraph, Mr. Adams writes:
So to learn more about Zrii, I went to the website (www.Zrii.com) to find the nutrition facts on Zrii. That’s where this review ran into a significant stumbling block: Zrii doesn’t list its “nutrition facts” label on the website! (At least not that I could find as of this writing.)

I want to point out two things here. The extent of Mr. Adams research seems to be based entirely on the Zrii website. Secondly, why do you suppose he puts the phrase “nutrition facts” in quotes? Is this because of the way that he defines nutrition facts?

If you do your own research on the Zrii website, you will find a lot of information about all of the ingredients in Zrii, including the additional fruit juices.

Mr. Adams also writes:
I’m always suspicious of network marketing products that don’t openly advertise their ingredients. Sure, the Zrii website lists the “featured” ingredients — Amalaki, Ginger, Turmeric, Tulsi, Schizandra, Jujube and Haritaki — but it does not conspicuously tell you what else is in the juice, but if you dig around the site and read the fine print, you learn that the primary juices in the Zrii product are:
• Apple juice
• Pear juice
• Pomegranate juice

Fine print? Just what fine print is Mr. Adams speaking about? Read the back of the bottle! You will plainly see all of the ingredients in Zrii. Ingredients that he missed:
* Purified Water
* White Grape Juice Concentrate
* Pear Puree Juice Concentrate
* Concord Grape Juice Concentrate
* Pomegranate Juice Concentrate
* Cranberry Juice Concentrate
* Raspberry Juice Concentrate
* Lime Juice Concentrate

Mr. Adams goes on:
This discovery, all by itself, is worthy of a great deal of skepticism about the integrity and value of the product. But that’s not where my concerns end. I’m also concerned that:
• The website does not offer a nutrition facts label that clearly lists all the ingredients. To really find out what’s in it, you have to “read the fine print” in the F.A.Q. section.

Again, Mr. Adams liberal use of quotations is misleading. ”read the fine print” in the F.A.Q. section?? He would make you believe that Zrii has posted information in secret areas of the website that is hard to find. It’s true that there is a lot of information in the FAQ section of the website. FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. How is that fine print exactly?

Mr. Adams goes on:
The website does not say HOW MUCH of each ingredient is in the juice. Are we talking 99% apple and pear juice and 1% of the other botanicals? Or is it more like 80% / 20%?

If you go to the Zrii Radio section of the website and listen to the Scientific Advisory Board calls, you will learn about the following:

* The formulation team, even after having locked down the main botanicals (Amalaki, Ginger, Turmeric, Tulsi, Schizandra, Jujube and Haritaki), spent nearly a year to come up with the right combination and mix of ingredients to insure potency, taste and so that there are no counter-effects of the botanicals being mixed

* There are no more than 15% of filler products outside of the core ingredients. This directly answers Mr. Adams questions of filler juice ratio to the main botanical ingredients.

Let’s continue. Another one of Mr. Adams points:
The website says the product is pasteurized. That means it’s heat processed, and heat processing destroys many of the natural medicines that the product is touted to contain in the first place!

Here is what the website actually states in the FAQ section:
Is Zrii pasteurized?

Given the presence of fruit juices, the product has to be pasteurized. Zrii employs a highly effective flash pasteurization process which heats the drink for a shorter period of time to preserve its potency.

Again, very misleading on the part of Mike Adams.

Here is one of his biggest journalism sins in my opinion. Mr. Adams states in his article:
The product is packaged in a plastic bottle, not glass. Does the plastic contain the toxic chemical Bisphenol-A? Most plastics do.

Wow - So, because Zrii uses plastic bottles, he automatically jumps to this conclusion? Here is what the website states in the FAQ section:
Is the plastic used in Zrii bottles safe? Which plastics have been shown to leach?

Within the world of food-grade plastics, High Density Polyethylene HDPE #2 (Zrii’s bottle) is considered one of the safest and easiest to recycle.

There has been some concern in recent months regarding the leaching of chemicals in plastics. This concern stemmed from a study suggesting that #7 plastics (also called Lexan) can produce the unwanted chemical bisphenol-A (BPA), thus leading to a variety of health issues. One major manufacturer of reusable sports bottles just switched form #7 plastics back to HDPE #2 for this reason.

At this point, it’s Mr. Adams credibility that really suffers due to his inaccurate, misleading, and selective use of information.

Here is more of Mr. Adams article:
Don’t get me wrong: I’m a strong supporter of Ayurvedic medicine and the healing benefits of the touted ingredients. I openly advocate the use of turmeric to prevent cancer, ginger for circulation, schizandra for immune modulation, and so on. These are powerful ingredients if used with proper potency. But understand this: Nowhere in Chinese medicine or Ayurvedic medicine does it say that you should combine a few milligrams of these ingredients with a bottle of pasteurized, non-organic apple juice and chug it! This product, in my opinion, is an insult to genuine Ayurvedic medicine.

This paragraph is completely misleading because he thinks he has already convinced his audience that Zrii is made up of mostly fruit juices and not beneficial botanicals — which is not true. As well, the Chopra Center’s endorsement is clearly evidence of the contrary. The Chopra Center is thought to be one of the foremost expert institutions in Ayurvedic medicine in North America and yet Zrii is the only third-party product that it endorses.
Here is some more misleading information from the article:

The current talk about Zrii seems focused on two things: 1) The seven key ingredients (which are dwarfed by the grape and pear juices), and 2) The income opportunity.

So, he is jumping from his weak conclusion in the beginning of the article (referencing the amount of traditional fruit juice), which is wrong and is now stating it as fact. Again, sloppy journalism.
I could go on and on about additional flaws that Mr. Adams makes. Okay, one more:

In my personal opinion, the Zrii company will fail unless it substantially reformulates its products.

Okay, at least he is stating his opinion this time and makes it clear. However, his opinion on the formula of Zrii is completely based on him reading certain sections of the website. This is hardly a qualified opinion (nutritional or medical).

Do your own research on Zrii. Listen to the Scientific Advisory Board calls that are recorded and published on the Zrii website. Even if you only spend 30 minutes of research, I think you will find it refutes much of the claims of Mike Adams. It appears that Mike Adams did much less research to write this very poor article.


I give my heartfelt thanks to the author of this blog post for dissecting Mike Adams non-researched journalism and giving consumers factual information. As always, each must make his/her own choices based on their own research.