The most notable (and fantastic) claims for the Acai berry is its ability to promote wight loss. This fruit may well have the power to aid in dramatic weight loss. However, the real value in this amazing Amazon fruit may lie in its powerful antioxidant properties.
The antioxidant properties in Acai berries may make a significant contribution to your overall health.
Americans just like you and me spend several billion dollars a year on antioxidants in an effort to increase overall health. There's a simple explanation for this. Science has been examining antioxidants and their role in everything from preventing cancer and heart disease to boosting the immune system and slowing the aging process.
Like a protective shell, antioxidants provide a layer of protection for the cells and tissues of the body. For example, antioxidants protect against free radical damage. What's the big fuss about free radicals? Free radicals (generating oxidative stress) seem to play a very important role in the development of progressive diseases and aging.
The oxygen we breathe is continuously moving through the blood stream and transported to our cells. Some oxygen gets loose in the bloodstream and produces unstable by-products called free radicals. Your normal body processes, such as metabolism, can produce free radicals.
Free radical production can also be compounded and accelerated by environmental factors, such as pollution and cigarette smoke. Imagine the abnormal, negative effects of smoke, car exhaust fumes, and massive soil and air pollution on our bodies.
An overload of free radicals in the body causes damage to the cells, ultimately resulting in disease and accelerated aging. Antioxidant-rich food may help prevent various cancers, heart disease, and diseases of aging.
A Diet rich in fruits, nuts, and vegetables has long been considered to be an excellent source of antioxidants. In fact, nothing else can compare with a varied and complex diet derived from foods grown in nutrient-rich organic soil and conditions. Unfortunately, that's pretty hard to come by in our fast paced, fast food world.
The early evidence from these studies indicates that this antioxidant activity translates to animals, protecting cells and their components from oxidative damage. Getting plenty of the foods with a high-ORAC activity, such as spinach, strawberries, and blueberries, has so far:
- raised the antioxidant power of human blood,
- prevented some loss of long-term memory and learning ability in middle-aged rats,
- maintained the ability of brain cells in middle-aged rats to respond to a chemical stimulus, and
- protected rats' tiny blood vessels—capillaries—against oxygen damage.
For more information on this study, click here.
The Acai (açaí) berry is the fruit of the açaí palm, is native to tropical Central and South America. The purple variety of Acai berry most often used commercially was found to have excellent levels of antioxidant activity: against peroxyl radicals and good activity against peroxynitrite. The assay for superoxide gave a value for Acai berries (freeze-dried) of 161,400 units per 100 g - the highest yet found for any plant evaluated to date.*
It seems antioxidants are critical to our long-term well being and that Acai berries are a powerful an accessible source of them.
The real bottom line is eating a diet that includes a variety of fresh, deeply colored fruits and vegetables, such as broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, sweet peppers, carrots, mangoes, kiwi, berries and cantaloupe and other plant foods, such as grains, legumes (beans, lentils, and split peas) and nuts, is the safest and most effective way to boost your antioxidant supply and reap the health benefits these substances may convey.
If you're not able to consume a large and varied amount of high ORAC-value fruits and vegetables, you might want to consider supplementing your diet with Acai berry. Based on independent research, there is no higher value antioxident than this amazing fruit.
