Acai Berry Introduction

Acai berry (pronounced “ah-sigh-ee”) is a small grape-sized berry that grows in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil. Natives of the region have harvested this berry as part of their diet for hundreds of years. The highly desired acai fruit is only 10% of the actual berry. The other 90% is made up of the seed. The acai berry is harvested by the thousands and put through a process that separates the pulp from the seed to produce a thick, edible acai berry juice.

Although the acai berry is popular in Brazil, only recently has its popularity spread to America. Doctors, scientists, nutritionists and countless media outlets rave about its many nutritional qualities and health benefits. Calling the acai berry “the number one super food in the world” might sound like a stretch, but this view is not unrealistic. The little berry is packed with an amazing amount of free-radical fighting antioxidants and is considered to have the best overall nutritional value of any fruit on earth.

Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity or ORAC is a method used by the USDA of measuring antioxidant capacities of different foods. Other popular fruits don’t even come close to the antioxidant power of the acai berry.

In all this talk about antioxidants and nutritional value, what does it mean exactly? In simple terms, the acai berry can help support the immune system, aid in weight loss, improve digestion, reduce pain and soreness, promote healthy sleep, increase energy and stamina, increase libido, fight cancer, lower blood pressure, fight aging, and protect against heart diseases.

With all of this nutritional value and antioxidants, the acai berry must taste awful, right? Wrong. The acai berry has a flavor that is best described as a delicious blend of berries and chocolate. Perhaps that’s why the Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about how acai berry is replacing wheatgrass as the drink of choice at health bars all over the country.

Not only is acai berry replacing wheatgrass as the new health fad, it also seems to be the newest fad diet as well. Clever companies are realizing what a huge discovery acai berry is and capitalizing on it with heavily marketed diet supplements. While many of these weight loss claims are exaggerated, the acai berry has been scientifically proven to contain several key ingredients that aid in boosting the metabolism, suppressing appetite, and building muscle tone.