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Poll

Is The Acai Berry The New Miracle Fruit?

This South American fruit may help you drop pounds, could boost your energy, and get much needed antioxidants into your system, but is it safe?


Acai berry advocates have touted this fruit as a miracle food.  It is said to 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 and disease, lower blood pressure, fight aging and inflammation, and protect against heart disease.   The grape sized berry has been used for centuries as an important part of the Amazonian diet.  Sounds great right?


There’s even more. The fruit has more protein per pound than an egg.  Is almost the perfect food for amino acids, and also has critical trace minerals important for muscle regeneration.  It has a remarkable concentration of antioxidants including twice as many antioxidants as blueberries, ten times as many antioxidants as red grapes and 10 to 30 times the antioxidants of red wine. The berries promote cardiovascular and digestive health as a result of an amazing combination of healthy fats (monounsaturated), phytosterols and dietary fiber. They contain fatty acids which are full of the goodness of monounsaturated oleic acid which when combined with omega 3 fish oils help all your hormones, insulin receptors and neurotransmitters function more effectively. Note: this helps lower insulin levels and reduce inflammation. This is very important, because inflammation causes aging.


If the acai berry sound too good to be true, maybe that’s because, unfortunately, it kind of is. Unless you live in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest, you can’t just go down to the grocery store and buy a bucket of them. They are extremely perishable and spoil within a day of being picked from the tree.


Of course this is great news for large companies who can process the stuff, mix it with normal fruit juices, and sell it for a lot of money per bottle. Other acai products are just out there to jump on the recent acai popularity bandwagon, and are made in such a way that they keep hardly any of the nutritional qualities of fresh acai.


So the lesson is, know what you’re paying for and be sure to check with a doctor (as you should before using any supplements). 

 

Source: acaiberrystudies.com