Screenshots

How come NZ Ribena do not have Vitamin C and Malaysia Ribena has?

Given Malaysian company's track record, I will only believe it if the remark were issue by a third party examiner.

That is PURE MALAYSIAN BULL SHIT! The ISSUE was that Ribena ADVERTISED and CLAIMED blatantly that it has FOUR TIMES the Vitamin C compared to oranges which is NOT TRUE! And WHO proved that the packet drink have any C at all? The company should go into damage control instead of letting the Chandran MD talking "C". He should be given the Donald Trump words!! Shame!!

Taken from amirmahmoodrazak.blogspot.com.my

Just for the less enlightened;

1. Blackcurrants are especially rich in vitamin C and, weight for weight, contain more than three times as much as an orange*.

* Ref: Food Standards Agency (2002) McCance and Widdowson’s The Composition of Foods (6th Summary Edition), Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry.

2. The amount of vitamin C you get from Ribena is stated in the affixed label (per serving size).

Please stop embarassing yourselves by confusing the two.

GreenJellyBean is right they should ask 3rd party to make the statement.
I been buying ribena for me & for my son to drink, now I dont think I would do that anymore.

Hi,

The issue here is not blackcurrants but rather Ribena.

Firstly, the confusion for Malaysia can easily be cleared by providing an independently approved chemical analysis test - we shouldn’t take the word of a company whose track record of honesty at this stage is dubious at best.

Secondly, I think if the fallback of “contain the stated levels of Vitamin C, as described on product labels” is used too frequently, a company’s credibility should be questioned. Legally I won’t argue there are wrong - yes blackcurrants have a lot of Vitamin C, but that may not in the spirit of goodwill be the same as drinking Ribena is good enough for you.

Anyways I think the Malaysian public has to be educated that these drinks are in the bigger picture of things not really sufficient for good health.

Food for thought.

Victor
1800naturalhealing.com

I also agree with the 3rd party statement; this is what PR practitioners always preach to their clients.

You can claim whatever you want, but a third party endorsement is always the best.

Which is why many people go for ISO certification as it means an international body has certified your processes.

Perhaps the Consumer Association of Penang or the national arm can do this for Malaysia's Ribena.

Heck... let's buy some and get our daughters to do it! Oh hang on...

Are our school labs as extensive as the ones in Kiwiland???

Also for the less enlightened;

1. Blackcurrants are especially rich in vitamin C and, weight for weight, contain more than three times as much as an orange. WHEN it is still in fruit form! When turned into the purple syrup, it is NOT.

To quote New Zealand Herald, "GlaxoSmithKline New Zealand admitted that its Ready To Drink Ribena, which its labelling said contained 7mg of vitamin C per 100ml, in fact had no detectable vitamin C content.

It also admitted it may have misled customers in advertisements saying the blackcurrants in Ribena syrup had four times the vitamin C of oranges.

When properly diluted, Ribena had about 1.5 times the vitamin C of comparable orange drinks. Tests also showed it had more sugar than Coca-Cola."

NOTICE the last sentence? MORE sugar than Coke!

Thank goodness we have FAIR TRADING ACT in New Zealand! What do Malaysian consumers have? I also noticed that in the Ribena ad, it says "DO MORE,FEEL BETTER, LIVE LONGER" Live longer? Try that ad in New Zealand!

It’s great the Ribena controversy is under Screenshots radar as it immediately gets needed heath exposure.

This type of food controversy has been the rage in the US for years. It’s only now that we’re exposed to it.

Meanwhile we’re fighting small fry stuff, like local politics, we’re infiltrated by foreigners. In the end we’re the dumb ones and they’re the smart ones.

We can talk about freedom, rights etc…

Friends, I’ve news for you… we lost our basic rights to life and health. We’ve been basically overrun by foreign corporations.

Lets put it into perspective:

We have the Malaysian Medical Association that is beholden to the foereigners. Any doctors that sells vitamins can be reported to the association. The claim is that if the FDA allows or prohibits it, we should follow the ruling.

What they’ve failed to realize is that the FDA has only one master - and that’s the drug companies and big business. An example is Bovine Growth Hormones (rBGH) that make cows produce more milk. The problem isn’t recognized here because the FDA has approved it.

Bovine Growth Hormones aren’t politically more important and more profiatble than halal. Halal grabs the local limelight.

rBGH is such a big problem in the states that ice cream companies like Ben & Jerry (yuuum) and even now Starbucks have in the US stopped using milk that has rBGH.

Meanwhile in Malaysia we are continuing eating and drinking it. No wonder our cancer rates are increasing. Want to east ice creams and chocolates - don’t eat American. Want to eat steaks - forget about US prime. Australian and New Zealand is best.

This controversy is gathering force now in the US. We’re behind as we’re only gathering force now with our blogs for politics.

Let’s see how bad it gets: sugar is known to all medical professions except the so-called conventional ones to cause cancer, hypertension, stroke, heart attacks and diabetes. You can find out more at 1800naturalhealing.com .

The MMA would prefer you take drugs rather than avoid sugar. The Ministry of Health would rather not propose a lifting of sugar subsidies but do a tai-chi move on the “fast” food companies.

If the Health Ministry was really serious about health issues, it would step in to settle the matter once and for all.

Historically, GlaxoSmithKline has been known to stretch the truth to the point of almost lying. This is not the first time

The UK in the late 1990s a Ribena product called RIBENA TOOTH KIND claimed to be safe for tooth decay. This was proved to be an elastic claim at best.

For Glaxo’s local mah-chai to tell the locals that all is well via a press statement is a joke which isn’t worth more than the paper it’s printed on (or is ti the waste of bandwidth). Glaxo effectively hoodwinked the countries with more effective consumer rights than our for the last 50 odd years and you expect me to believe a local flunkey!

Show us the report - I say.

The Australian version of Ribena contains, according to consumer magazine Choice, essentially sugar and water with only 5% blackcurrants.

This is being sold in our schools because it was not “junk”. Now that it is “junk”, is the government going to do anything?

Glaxo will squirm and protest that the labels are correct, however, the issue in Australia and New Zealand was that they had intention to mislead by their advertising claims knowing full well that parents don’t have time to study the labels and do the calculations. It’s probably the same here.

So Glaxo profitably poisons Malaysians from a young age. Once they get older and don’t want anymore Ribena, what do they do?

They sell us drugs! GlaxoSmithKline is one the world’s largest suppliers of diabetes, cancer, hypertension drugs!

Amazing isn’t it - they’ve got us from cradle to grave. Talk about conspiracies! These are the experts. And meanwhile we have waste of time issues that have initials e.g. AAB, SIL, KJ, SO, KM whatever etc.

By the way 250 ml of Ribena (Australia) has 9 teaspoons of sugar. Way to go. Slightly more than Milo - the Malaysian standard of non junk food.

More later…

Victor Liew
1800naturalhealing.com

Milo? its butter fat is wrung from throwaway remnants of cocoa beans that were used to make chocolates. As in thrown-away. Big money made there.

MOH should upgrade its consumer food and drug admin; the govt shouldn't see NGOs such as CAP like they were the plague. After all, the govt also drink ribena and milo. Remember the eyedrops? Lately, some cosmetic.

Elsewhere there was a brouhaha that pernicious additives were added to prolong the usability of the cooking oil used to fry fries in KFC. Something like 10 days reuse was mentioned. It was in another country. But who knows what happens in this country? Look into Mac's and the others too.

From my personal experience growing up, I drank Ribena (syrup range) because it was purple (A fascinating colour for a drink) and sweet. The reason my mother bought a purple and sweet drink for me was because she believed the claims that the Ribena drink has a much higher Vit C level than oranges. And also because I dislike oranges, and at that time the fruit was one of the more affordable source of Vit C.

The one thing I associate Ribena with is its Vit C level claim. Jumping animated Ribena berries going "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" then a manly narrator going along the lines of, BLACKBERRY CONTAINS FOUR TIMES THE VITAMIN C AS ORANGES etc was part of my childhood memories.

According to Wikipedia.org's Vit C entry, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C#Plant_sources
the blackcurrent has 200mg Vit c per 100g serving, while the orange has 50mg Vit c per 100g serving. That is not disputable unless you are a food scientist or something.

The problem is the misleading advertisements that massively encourage (and successfully at that) parents to purchase Ribena for kids based on the Vit C level. And GSK took no action until the two girls brought it to the NZ CC.

I feel kind of cheated, heh.

Victor Liew,

".... Any doctors that sells vitamins can be reported to the association...." - your source?

"the MMA would prefer you take drugs drugs rather than avoid sugar" - care to substantiate your claim?

"..... convinced me that mainstream medicine is almost clueless in curing"- oh, and is your "Natural healing" evidence based?

BTW, when "Natural Healing" fails, who will the 'victim' consult?

Thank goodness we have FAIR TRADING ACT in New Zealand! What do Malaysian consumers have? I also noticed that in the Ribena ad, it says "DO MORE,FEEL BETTER, LIVE LONGER" Live longer? Try that ad in New Zealand!

Thank goodness? Oh please. They got NZ$200,000 fine more less if Im not mistaken.

While Ribena actually rakes up to $8 million in sales.

This is just like the SilverBird case last time. Bang bang bang, but soon nobody remembers and cares.

What's important for the consumers is that that company make this declaration nz, au. I'm sure besides the NZ$200,000, they are going to be more losses for GSK since the consumers now are aware of it. It's sales will drop.

In malaysia, the consumers' power is quite weak.

suanie,
That's the price of not reading CAP paper ;) I learn it 15 years ago.

1 slice of papaya will give you many times the nutrients(and Vitamin C) of Ribena. And don't forget guava. :)

BTW, the blackcurrants 4 times vitamin C of orange is pure marketing.

IMHO, most adult don't even THINK. What is so special about Vitamin C value? There is abundance of fruits that contain more vitamin C values than orange. For example, papaya, guava, pineapple,watermelon.

Orange vitamin C is just a marketing over hype create by orange farmer(And bet who is the major orange exporter in the world?).

What Ribena did is take advantages of the hypes. New Zealand is main exporter of kiwi. And kiwi contains more nutrients than blackcaurrants.

Yeap, I failed as a consumer :( I think my mother didn't have much choice since I dislike consuming most fruits, including papaya, guava, etc. Especially pineapple. Ewww blearghhh :P

I think the blackcurrant hype began with this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackcurrant#History

"During World War II most fruits rich in vitamin C, such as oranges, became almost impossible to obtain in the United Kingdom. Since blackcurrant berries are a rich source of vitamin C and blackcurrant plants are suitable for growing in the UK climate, blackcurrant cultivation was encouraged by the British government. Soon, the yield of the nation's crop increased significantly. From 1942 on almost the entire British blackcurrant crop was made into blackcurrant syrup (or cordial) and distributed to the nation's children free, giving rise to the lasting popularity of blackcurrant flavourings in Britain."

Dr Strangelove,

I'm not so fanatical as saying that natural healing will always work.

What I'm saying is that organizations like the MMA and the FDA are adamant that conventional medicine is the ONLY way.

To answer your question - “oh, and is your "Natural healing" evidence based?”…

My “natural healing” is more than “evidence based”, it is independently evidence based…

Unlike the more recent, so-called conventional medicine non-independent evidence based “science”.

Conventional medicine has had to withdraw Vioxx and Bextra, because the companies were guilty to creating the evidence to support the evidence based science.

How does http://www.1800naturalhealing.com/ hope to succeed then?

Example: Vitamin C and cancer

March 28th, 2006 independent researchers published in the prestigious Canadian Medical Association Journal that intravenous Vitamin C therapy is shown to bring about prolonged remission of cancer.

Did you here of it in The Star or NST or CNN? Nope. Does the National Cancer of Malaysia talk about. Does the Malaysian Oncology Society talk about other than saying if you get treatment early i.e. they want to zaaaaap you, you will get better (yeah sure!)

But if you’re a cancer sufferer it’s big INDEPENDENT evidence based science that should be of paramount knowledge.

The exciting Vitamin C cancer news is now going to be hidden again.

My goal with http://www.1800naturalhealing.com/ is try highlight these “natural healing” gems.

Doctors like to talk about “evidence based science”.Give me a break…

Modern medicine is the NEW RELIGION. When a new drug is announced the drug companies ex. GlaxoSmithKline, wheel out some “distinguished” doctor (the new HIGH PRIEST) who will pronounce that the new drug is great. All the other mindless doctors will say PRAISE BE TO YOU O’ MIGHTY ONE.

Don’t believe me - follow the Sunday Star’s health pages. Every few weeks, they will have some doctor pushing a new drug. It’s disgusting.

So, Dr Strangelove, I pose the question back - what happens when conventional medicine fails us? What is our recourse?

Some independent evidence based science for you to mull over…

In a landmark study, Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA: July 26, 2000;284(4):483-5), it was shown that for the US, doctors were the third leading cause of deaths after heart disease and cancer.

How many in the US die at the hand of doctors - 225,000 per year!

ALL THESE ARE DEATHS PER YEAR:
• 12,000 -- unnecessary surgery
• 7,000 -- medication errors in hospitals
• 20,000 -- other errors in hospitals
• 80,000 -- infections in hospitals
• 106,000 -- non-error, negative effects of drugs***

Just look at the “non-error, negative effects of drugs” 106,000!

If this is happening in litigation happy US - what about Malaysia? Who is going to help us when conventional medicine fails us in Malaysia?

No natural healing is not always the end-all, but in http://1800naturalhealing.com will point out that there are alternatives and you really shouldn’t believe every word the good doctor says.

Your doctor maybe as clueless as you are on matters of health.

Victor

Ok Victor,

You are entitled to your opinion and l respect that, despite the fact they mostly appear to be sweeping statements. I also not going to continue debating this matter with you as i hate typing and this is not the right avenue too.

However, i have to reply some of your accusations for the benefit of the readers here:

1- As to "what happens when conventional medicine fails us" well... when conventional medicine fails , one has to accept the fact there is no other option ( as far as i am concern) . However, if the patient wants to seek alternative therapy, it's their right.

2-We docs know the pathology of diseases . That's why we know alternative treatment is pointless.

3-As to....."Don’t believe me - follow the Sunday Star’s health pages."...i'd personally slap those idiots who write crap in these papers. i don't agree with what they write. it's mostly rubbish. laymen read these columns and think they're smarter than us.

4-I feel you are being disrespectful when you say we docs are clueless when it comes to treatment. I spent 6 yrs in Med Sch and I AM NOT CLUELESS. Treating a patient is more than just prescribing drugs.

5- I don't need any paper to tell me the benefits of Vit C or any other vitamins. Only an idiotic doc won't trust vitamins. BTW, vitamins are supplements and not used as treatment unless one has a deficiency of a particular vitamin.

6- Don't use JAMA to prove your point. U.S. docs are not as great as they claim to be. There are a lot of dumb docs everywhere.

7- ".... some “distinguished” doctor who will pronounce that the new drug is great..." Yes...after conducting several trials.

8- "Conventional medicine has had to withdraw Vioxx and Bextra, because of their SIDE EFFECTS and NOT because Pfizer or Merck were guilty of creating the evidence to support the evidence based science"

9- Your comments on the MMA are INCORRECT. MMA has no powers to do anything to any doc. only the MMC has that right.

10- "Your doctor maybe as clueless as you are on matters of health." Not really. He/She still knows more than a layperson.

I won't be posting any comments on this matter.

Good day, Victor.

Dr Strangelove,

I mulled a few days and decided to do a final reply as your statements are frankly contradictory.

IMHO you’re a touch closed minded.

Those interested in preventing illness can start their research at http://www.1800naturalhealing.com .

I’ll just comment on the “doctor’s” statements.


>> 1- As to "what happens when conventional medicine fails us" well... when conventional medicine fails , one has to accept the fact there is no other option ( as far as i am concern) . However, if the patient wants to seek alternative therapy, it's their right.

Fair enough opinion.

>> 2-We docs know the pathology of diseases . That's why we know alternative treatment is pointless.

If you insist, but it's either incredibly arrogant or naive statement.

Example - chemotherapy for cancer cells has always been the significant norm. But now conventional medicine is saying that it may be viral. Or is it coincidence that they've now found away to patent the anti-viral cancer drug that they would say its possibly viral. The $$$$$$$$ signs are there for the drug companies. Natural healing and alternative medicine have for years said that cancer is probably viral, parasitical or diet based especially sugar.

No Sir ..... you doctors only think you know anything about the pathology of disease - BUT it's the chemists at the drug companies that have the knowledge.

Clinical practitioners knowledge is due to 6 years of spoon feeding as opposed to independent thinking and intellectual probing.

>> 3-As to....."Don’t believe me - follow the Sunday Star’s health pages."...i'd personally slap those idiots who write crap in these papers. i don't agree with what they write. it's mostly rubbish. laymen read these columns and think they're smarter than us.

The point is that it's not laymen but doctors that are making the pronouncements in the Sunday Star.

For example: that egotistical Datuk Prof Dr XXX - I'm sure you know who I mean who keeps on endorsing new drugs - example low testosterone means no libido, no muscle strength and mental alertness - TAKE THIS NEW DRUG! but….

Prostate cancer! Solution - cut the “balls” off as testosterone caused it. This without doing the WHO mandated saliva test for hormone levels - the patient probably has estrogen levels higher than a woman! They ASSume.

So cut the testosterone, PSA down, therefore, I, Datuk Prof Dr XXX am a genius. It’s just a shame you’ll probably die of a heart attack soon.

Call that medicine? Is it QUACKERY? Where is the MMA/MMC on this? (refer to Pt 9 below)

Slap the bastard please!

>> 4-I feel you are being disrespectful when you say we docs are clueless when it comes to treatment. I spent 6 yrs in Med Sch and I AM NOT CLUELESS. Treating a patient is more than just prescribing drugs.

I agree with you I made a sweeping statement here, but IMHO a lot of doctors (not all) only prescribe drugs.

Got the flu - antibiotics on the way.

How do they even know that it's viral? Now there's research coming out that's showing that too much antibiotic use in youth may lead to breast cancer. (Damn - it’s a study from JAMA which Malaysian doctors, you anyway, are too smart to read - ref Pt 6 below)

If doctors are so smart and concerned why don’t they band together and tell the government that it should ban antibiotics in our livestock when it clearly shows that it’s making us more susceptible to bacterial infections? (Environmental Microbiology July 2006). This is what http://www.1800naturalhealing.com is all about.

>> 5- I don't need any paper to tell me the benefits of Vit C or any other vitamins. Only an idiotic doc won't trust vitamins. BTW, vitamins are supplements and not used as treatment unless one has a deficiency of a particular vitamin.

If more doctors took the time to read some INDEPENDENT research papers rather than being spoon fed by drug salesmen there wouldn't be so many CLUELESS doctors.

And BTW most people probably are nutritionally deficient and hormonally imbalanced - the hazards of 21st century living I suppose, and your job is getting extremely difficult - I don't envy you.


>> 6- Don't use JAMA to prove your point. U.S. docs are not as great as they claim to be. There are a lot of dumb docs everywhere.

Huh? And you claim I make sweeping statements and then criticize me for referencing JAMA?

>> 7- ".... some “distinguished” doctor who will pronounce that the new drug is great..." Yes...after conducting several trials.

But the trials are NOT INDEPENDENT and the drug companies have been shown to fudge the so-called "evidence" based science, which conventional doctors who almost NEVER read the research claim to need the proof (refer to Pt 8 below)

All doctors are doing is going on the word of some paid “HIGH priest” famous doctor.
For doctors when they say EVIDENCE BASED SCIENCE it means research done by drug companies.

>> 8- "Conventional medicine has had to withdraw Vioxx and Bextra, because of their SIDE EFFECTS and NOT because Pfizer or Merck were guilty of creating the evidence to support the evidence based science"

You CONTRADICT yourself - if there were fair clinical trials how can there be such dangerous SIDE EFFECTS?

Where have you been? - to say MERCK is honest?…..give us all a break.

MERCK is showing very probable GUILT of hiding evidence that VIOXX had great heart risks. Just check the editorial of New England Journal of Medicine (or is this unacceptable to you too?) or the Wall Streets Journal and The Economist.

Someone is guilty of fudging the numbers and doctors are way TOO FORGIVING OF THEIR TRANSGRESSIONS.

Drug companies are desperate to generate profits as a lot of their patents are running out. They lack the integrity to provide care for people....

GlaxoSmithKline’s ”Do more, feel better, live longer” is a load of junk. There’s an absolute lack of integrity with selling sugared water to kids especially when they will heap far greater profits with diabetes and hypertension drugs!

And these are the people you people trust?

>> 9- Your comments on the MMA are INCORRECT. MMA has no powers to do anything to any doc. only the MMC has that right.

You're right but..... it's like putting the fox to guard the chickens.

>> 10- "Your doctor maybe as clueless as you are on matters of health." Not really. He/She still knows more than a layperson.

You're right, but it's the doctors’ arrogance to admit a possible lack of knowledge that is the problem.

So the readers of this blog site can draw their own conclusions - just as we Malaysians are seriously questioning the “news” propagated by the NST, Star, Utusan of our world…

We must question the medical treatments we may need - the so-called guardians of our health are failing to address the issues.

For the others, don’t be a pawn of international MNCs. Open up your minds and learn more about natural healing at http://www.1800naturalhealing.com for the health of your families.

Final comment thanks.

Victor.