Acai Berry as part of a healthy diet

The acai berry is a berry about the size of a grape that grows in the Amazon rainforest of South America.  For many years, this small, purple berry has bee used by natives from Brazil to Peru in their diet for its health benefits, detoxification abilities, and taste.  It has become commercially available in the United States over the past few years, and has recently been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show.  The reported benefits of the berry include increased energy, lower blood pressure, detoxification and blockage of free radicals, and its high antioxidant content.  In general, purple berries are good for your body to detox — Concord Grapes are excellent — and Acai berries are no different.

Virtually all of the berry is useful.  The skin is full of anthocyanins, which is the main antioxidant ingredient of red wine.  However, pound for pound, the acai berry is richer in anthocyanins, and doesn’t contain the alcohol, of course, making it a more healthy selection.  It is also rich in polyphenols, fiber, essential fatty acids, and plant sterols.  A diet full of fiber and sterols is heart-healthy, is good for cholesterol, and good for the digestive tract.  While no one berry is going to make you significantly healthier, eating acai berries regularly will help in your healthy diet.

There are several methods you can use to add the acai berry to your diet.  There are commercially available juices that you can drink, or mix with other juice.  Acai berry juice is similar to grape juice, and has more antioxidant punch than Cranberry juice.  It can also be mixed into smoothies or other fruit juice cocktails.  There are acai berry bars, that look like granola bars, or snacks that contain the berry.  Finally, you can buy it in powder form, either as a mixer, or as a capsule that you can take on its own.  If you do this, be sure you watch the intake amounts on the label, as its hard to know how much power equals one berry

The benefits of acai berry to your health have been tested and studied.  In 2006, the University of Florida found that certain amounts of the berry extract were useful in treating certain kinds of cancer in a lab setting.  In 2008, Oprah Winfrey and the well-known Dr. Oz, began researching and touting the benefits of the berry on her show.  As its acceptance and proof has grown, it has moved from hard to get supplement, to being available in specialty stores, to being widely available, even in supermarkets.