Acai Berries Diet

Some people call it the “youthberry” while other refer to it as “Botox in a bottle.”  Whatever you call it, it’s important that you know what it is because it is going to be big this year – not like the people who drink it.So what are acai berries?  The açai berry is a small, purple, blueberry-sized fruit that grows on palm trees in the Amazon.  And the pulp of the acai is said to be what keeps Brazil’s bodies beautiful.

The bronzed, young beachgoers of Ipanema order at acai at the Bibi juice bar, in Rio de Janeiro, while the beachless people of northern Brazil prefer the acai in pulp form, mixed with flour, yogurt or dried cassava powder.

Claims of its rejuvenating and detoxifying properties are heard all across the continent; packed with cholesterol-lowering Omega 3, Omega 6 and Omega 9, it is 10X richer in anthocyanins than red wine, the substances thought to be responsible for France’s low rate of heart disease.

Amid some rather scandalous claims from surfers about açai improving both sex life and surfboard technique, one sober scientific report from the University of Florida reports that, in many experiments, açai triggered a self-destruct mechanism in up to 86 per cent of leukaemia cells.  And a British organization, Heart Research UK, confirms that the antioxidants in açai remove unstable molecules from the body known as “free radicals”, caused by pollutants like cigarette smoke, and increasing the aging process.

So what does this perfect food taste like?  Well, eaten on its own, açai is actually an acquired taste.  That is the reason the vitamin and wellness industries carefully remove the pulp from the acai when fresh, freeze dry it, preserving all of the nutritional compounds, and convert the healthy material into capsul or tablet form.

Helping to make the rainforest self-sustaining, the harvesting of the acai berry is actually environmentally friendly and organic. In fact, the new-found global demand for açai means increased revenue for the people of Para province, rather than with the destructive act of harversting hearts of palm.  The significance of this is that removing the heart of a palm involves cutting down the entire tree, whereas removing the fruit merely requires cutting off a branch.

The fruit is so important to Para, Brazil that there are now more than 60 factories processing the berries 24/7 in order to keep up with the rapidly growing global demand.