Definitely you have heard of the Acai berry, even if you’re not sure how to speak the name. (It’s ah-sigh-EE.) The tiny purple Acai berries have been touted for more healthful qualities than you’d think a simple berry could bear. Who’d have believed that this modest product of Brazil’s Amazon jungles could do everything from quick weight loss to acceptable sexual dysfunction — while boosting your immune system, too?
According to Spins, a market research and consulting firm for the natural products business, Americans spent more than $108 million on the Acai berry products in the 52 weeks ending Feb. 21, up from just over $62 million the year before.
That’s a lot of Acai berries. But are consumers’ getting their money’s worth? That depends on what they suppose.
The Acai berry products have been highlighted as super foods on some high-profile TV shows — though not, Winfrey and Ray are quick to mention, endorsed by those celebrities, despite the reality that many advertisements for the Acai berry products bear their likenesses. Many Health experts listed the Acai berries at the top of his list of 10 most healthful foods before backing off and saying they belong on that list, but possibly not on the top. Anyone with a Facebook or e-mail account has most likely seen ads for this supposed wonder Acai berry.
The delicate, highly perishable Acai berries don’t keep or travel well, so they are not available intact in these parts. But you can buy powdered or frozen Acai berry pulp to add to smoothies, bottled beverages featuring the Acai berry juice (generally combined with other fruit or berry juices) and dozens of nutritional supplements purporting to have key Acai berry compounds. You can spend less than $10 on a bottle of 60 (supposedly) Acai berry containing supplement pills or about $40 on a 25-ounce bottle of Amazon thunder Acai berry beverage.
Introduced to the US in 2000 by brothers Jeremy and Ryan Black after Ryan and a friend learned about the Acai berries and their supposed health benefits while visiting Brazil, the Acai berry has blown past the goji berry as the marvel fruit of the moment. (Goji berries, also advertized for their health-promoting qualities, are still going quite strong, with sales topping $9.5 million in the past year, up from $8.3 million the year before, according to Spins.) The Blacks’ company, Sambazon, makes only humble claims for its Acai berry products, simply noting that, in addition to being the uncommon fruit that offers heart-healthy omega fats, Acai berry is rich in antioxidants.
To which many nutritionists will say, “So what?” Any dark-skinned fruit or bright-shaded vegetable encloses antioxidants — composites that keep potentially harmful “free radical” molecules from running out of control in the body, wreaking disorder on cells and DNA.
There is some disagreement as to whether the Acai berry juice has more antioxidants than the juice of other fruits; the Washington-based food industry watchdog group CSPI notes that the Acai berry is only an average source of antioxidants, providing more than, say, apple juice, but less than pomegranate or Concord grape juice. Sambazon’s Jeremy Black quarrels that, saying tests finding more antioxidants in pomegranate juice pitted pure pomegranate juice against Acai berry juice blends containing juice from fruits less rich in antioxidants.
The point may in the end be debatable. While we almost surely need some antioxidants, licensed nutritionist Monica Reinagel (who’s based in Baltimore and writes a blog at http://www.nutritiondata.com) mentions that after a definite point, we don’t need more.
Consuming the government-recommended daily line of five servings of vegetables and two of fruit — which only one in five of us in fact does — likely delivers all the antioxidants we require, Reinagel says, at least if we differ the fruits and vegetables we select. After that, any further antioxidants may well be surplus. “You reach a point of diminishing returns,” she says.
Technorati Tags: acai, acai berries, acai berry, acai berry antioxidants, Acai Berry Benefits, acai berry juice, acai berry products, acai juice, frozen Acai berry pulp