The healthiest food on the planet?
Best Goji Berries To Buy
We here at Excuse Proof Fitness (Derek and Shane) LOVE our goji berries, also known as wolfberries or by their Latin name Lycium Barbarum.
Not only are they great because of their delicious taste, but they have some incredible health benefits. Goji berries are one of the most prized herbs in Chinese medicine for longevity. They are an adaptogenic “herb” which means they help balance the body’s chemistry and resilience to stress.
Now, I won’t go overboard and claim they are going to fix all of one’s health problems like some overzealous health gurus out there are saying, but a few thousand years of successful use in China for improving overall health and well-being leads me to believe there really is something to this fruit, and anyone who’s tried them on a regular basis can likely attest the same. I’ve even heard stories saying that Tibetan monks who study Chinese medicine have said if one is going to start studying any herb in Chinese medicine, study the goji berry first.
But if you’ve ever tried Goji Berries bought from a local health food store or vitamin store, you may find them to be very dry, somewhat bitter, and not particularly all that enjoyable by themselves.
I felt the same until I found what I consider to be the best Goji Berries out there, Dragon Herbs Heaven Mountain Goji Berries. I have no association with Dragon Herbs, but we as well as some other goji fanatics found them to be the best because they are:
A) Much more moist than the typical hard-as-a-rock gojis
B) Fresher
C) Come from the original source of Goji Berries in Tibet.
Best Places To Buy Goji Berries Online
Having a local Dragon Herbs here in LA makes getting access to them easy. But you can actually find them at the best price online through iHerb, one of my favorite online supplement retailers. Considering they are pretty much the same price as most other goji brands, I figure you can’t go wrong.
Buy Discount Goji Berries Online through iHerb
Note: First time iHerb customers save $5 on their first order through that link
Other Places To Purchase Goji Berries
Goji berries are popular enough that you can find them in most major health food stores like Whole Foods and supplement retailers. The price will be higher and typical gojis don’t taste that great, but if you buy in bulk or just before expiration you can find good deals and the health benefits are still there in the drier gojis.
How Much To Take
The health benefits of goji berries can be obtained with just an ounce or two a day. That makes a typical 8oz bag last a week. So factoring that in, you’re looking at spending a few dollars a day to get your goji fix. Not bad when you can consider them a “supplement” that far exceeds any multi-vitamin. But that being said, we realize they’re not within everyone’s budget.
If you’re looking for a good alternative adaptogenic herb that’s more budget friendly, I highly recommend the herb Ashwagandha as the Sensoril extract. It amounts to a few bucks a month and has been shown in research to have a pretty powerful effect at reducing excess cortisol, the primary stress hormone. This is due to its adaptogenic nature similar to goji berries. While they don’t offer quite the exact same health benefits, Ashwagandha is worth taking regardless as an all around general health tonic.
Note, some cortisol is necessary and the beauty of herbs like Ashwagandha is they keep things in balance without dropping hormone levels too low or raising them too much.