Acai Hysteria: What’s all the fuss about?
It seems that the acai berry is getting a lot of attention these days.
Until a couple of years ago, I had never heard of acai (pronounced “ah-sigh-EE”). Now it seems that the acai berry is discussed everywhere. Cosmetic guru Nicholas Perricone called acai his number one superfood on the Oprah Winfrey website. Wow, even my local community newspaper ran a great story on the acai berry not too long ago.
The acai berry grows in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Acai has been known and used by the natives of Brazil for many years to support good health and vitality.
Today, people who consume acai regularly report many positive health benefits, some of which are better sleep, more energy, a stronger immune system, and better concentration.
A little story
Not many people knew about acai in North America until the mid-2000s, after roads were built in the rainforest to transport acai berries to conservation facilities in large quantities.
You see, the acai berry burps 24-36 hours after being picked. Before the roads into the rainforest were built, the volume of acai berries that could reach the holding facility within a 24-36 hour period was limited to the volume of berries that could be transported out of the rainforest in boats, which is a slow means of transport.
Therefore, until the completion of the truck roads into the rainforest in 2002, only a small quantity of acai berries could be processed and distributed. Acai has been consumed in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo for quite some time, with acai becoming popular among the elite in Europe in the late 1990s.
The completion of truck roads into the rainforest in 2002 paved the way for the acai berry to become popular in North America. So if you haven’t heard of the acai berry until recently, don’t feel like you have your head in the sand because not many other people in North America either. The acai berry in North America is a relatively recent thing.
Before the acai berry was known in North America, some people in the United States discovered it and could imagine the commercial potential.
In 2000, two American brothers, Ryan and Jeremy Black, discovered the acai berry in the form of a mixture of fruit pulp and granola that Brazilian surfers consumed.
Soon after, the brothers started the Sambazon company, which is one of the largest acai retailers in the United States.
Acai Products
Today there are many nutrition and wellness companies that sell a wide variety of acai products.
The juice is the main product of acai. However, today there are a wide variety of acai-containing products in addition to juice on the market. You can buy tablets, gelcaps and powders with acai. Not only that, you can even buy shampoo, lip balm, chocolate, and beer that contains acai.
Acia products are available at major health and nutrition stores such as GNC and Sephora. But let’s not stop there. Acai based products are also available at almost every corner store.
Acai Science
The power of acai is its antioxidant content. To understand the importance of antioxidants, you need to know a thing or two about free radicals.
A free radical is an atom or molecule that has a single unpaired electron in its outer shell. Most biological free radicals are highly reactive and cause damage to cells through a process called oxidation, which is the same process by which iron oxidizes after combining with oxygen.
Antioxidants remove the unpaired electron from the outer shell of free radicals, thus attenuating their damaging effect on cells. Simply put, antioxidants slow the rate of breakdown in the human body.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has tested approximately 300 different fruits, vegetables, and nuts for their antioxidant content. The acai berry was one of the many fruits tested.
The antioxidant content of a fruit, vegetable or nut is quantified using the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) scale. The USDA study found that the six most potent fruits in terms of their antioxidant content are passion fruit, dragon fruit, mangosteen, pomegranate, blueberry, and acai. The acai berry had the highest ORAC score of all the fruits, vegetables and nuts tested.
As mentioned above, the acai berry rots 24 to 36 hours after harvest. This obviously means that the acai berry must be preserved so that it can be distributed to many parts of the world where there is demand.
Proper storage of the acai berry is critical to retaining its high antioxidant and phytonutrient content when it reaches the consumer.
The USDA study found that the only good way to preserve the acai berry is by freeze-drying it, where the berry is frozen under vacuum. Freeze-drying allows the acai berry to retain its original antioxidant and phytonutrient content.
Another preservation method is called spray drying. During this process, the berries are heated until dehydrated and then rehydrated when juices or other types of products are made. The problem with spray drying is that it destroys 90% of the antioxidants and phytonutrients in the process.
However, spray drying is quick and easy and costs only a small fraction of what it would cost to preserve the acai berry by freeze drying.
Juices and other products made with spray-dried acai berries aren’t so great when it comes to maintaining good health. You would have to drink 10 times more than the freeze-dried product to get the antioxidants and phytonutrients your body really needs.
Another important factor in keeping the original antioxidant content of the acia berry intact in consumer-bought juice is not filtering the juice. Acai juice contains seeds, pulps, and oils that contain a rich concentration of antioxidants and phytonutrients. Filtering the seeds, pulp and oils reduces the antioxidant and phytonutrient content by 50%.
Many acai juice manufacturers filter the seeds, pulps, and oils from their juice to make it more aesthetically pleasing. That’s fine if that’s what you’re after. But then again, you have to consume a lot more stuff to get the maximum benefit.
The last major component to keeping the original antioxidant content intact is shipping it in the proper container.
Many acai juice manufacturers package their juice in plastic, which removes the antioxidants and phytonutrients from the juice. Also, if the plastic is transparent, too much light penetrates through the juice and breaks down the antioxidants and phytonutrients.
The best way to ship juice made from acai berries is to pack it in a dark, tightly closed glass. The glass does not leach the phytonutrients and antioxidants from the juice, and the dark glass prevents light from entering.
So what is the verdict?
So is the acai berry as good as it sounds?
If the acai berries are freeze-dried, the juice is not strained, and the juice is shipped in dark glass bottles, then the answer is a resounding YES.
Any other method of preservation and shipping will weaken the acia berry to the point where it really isn’t that useful when it comes to maintaining good health, unless you consume large amounts.
There is enough scientific data to conclude that the acai berry has the highest antioxidant content of any fruit or vegetable. Also, there are enough people who have taken acai consistently and have achieved excellent health results.
The evidence shows that yes, the acai berry does live up to all expectations, as long as it is stored and packaged properly.
