What Are The Health Benefits of Indian Gooseberry (Amla)?
Written By Michael Greger M.D. FACLM on November 2, 2021

Amla, also known as Indian gooseberry, is one of the most antioxidant-rich foods on Earth. Though unfamiliar to many, particularly in Western countries, it is commonly used in Ayurvedic herbal preparations.

What Is Indian Gooseberry (Amla)?
Indian gooseberries, not to be confused with Barbados gooseberries, Cape gooseberries, Chinese gooseberries (also known as kiwi fruit), Jamaican gooseberries, Tahitian, or star gooseberries. The true Indian gooseberry, also known as amla, is arguably the most important medicinal plant in Ayurvedic medicine, and is also used in traditional Chinese and Thai medicine.

What Are The Indian Gooseberry (Amla) Benefits?

Powerful Source of Antioxidants
The #1 most antioxidant-packed single whole food on the planet, on average, is amla. A teaspoon of that gooseberry powder (that’s about four cents’ worth of amla) provides 1,500 units of antioxidant power! That’s more than the average person gets in an entire week. See how this compares to common breakfast foods in my video A Better Breakfast.

Reducing Cholesterol Levels
As discussed in the video Amla vs. Drugs For Cholesterol, Inflammation, & Blood-Thinning, 500 milligrams (which is like a tenth of a teaspoon) of powdered amla works just as well as Zocor, a leading cholesterol-lowering drug.

Red yeast rice extract was recommended by my gerontologist some years ago as a substitute for statin drugs. It gave me terrible heart burn, so I quit taking it. Even though it is a "natural" substance used in Chinese medicine, it has all the same side effect as statin drugs. It is worth reading the list of things you should not take or eat while on statins.
See https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements-red-yeast-rice/art-20363074
My previous primary said she was looking for other treatments for high cholesterol, because so many of her patients (both sexes) were suffering terrible side effects. When I did a search for "women and statins," the only thing that came up was drug-company sponsored research that was investigating ways to get more women to take statins -- and also encouraging prophylactic statins for healthy patients, because they have few and minor side effects! You may be interested in THE GREAT CHOLESTEROL MYTH by Bowden and Sinatra. Sinatra is a cardiologist with multiple degrees and Bowden a Ph.D. nutritionist. They lists hundreds of studies to back up their opinions. It's a terrible name for a really good resource. (A terrible name because it's a turn-off for those of us who depend on our doctors to guide our health decisions.) Dr. Sinatra said that he does prescribe statins in specific cases. I understand there is a new edition of the book that contains studies completed within the last couple of years. I took their advice and only track my triglycerides. I got terrific triglyceride numbers with Bergamot, as well as increased levels of good cholesterol. My triglycerides went way up during chemo, and now that is over and I'm back to working on my triglycerides. Bergamot is high in polyphenols, so I'm trying to up my polyphenols, and I've learned that olive oil has a very high level of polyphenols, which may be why the Mediterranean diet is so heart healthy. I now put olive oil on my toast and put an extra dash of it in my salads, and it's the only oil I use for cooking. I, too, tried niacin and discarded it because my body never adjusted to the flushes.