Acai Berry
This small grape-sized little berry that grows predominately in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil is packed with an amazing amount of free-radical fighting antioxidants which are used by your body to fight cancer cells and boost your immune system. Acai berry is considered to have the best overall nutritional value of any fruit on earth with high quantities of vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C, iron, fiber and calcium, as well as other types of minerals, acids and other healthy ingredients that benefit your body.
Natives of the region have harvested acai berry as part of their diet for hundreds of years and subsequently they are incredibly healthy and free of many of the harmful toxins that exist in bodies of the people in the western world. Pure acai berry pulp, acai berry juice, and quality acai supplements, will be completely free of any negative side effects.
The fruit, a small, round, black-purple drupe about 1-inch (25 mm) in circumference, similar in appearance but smaller than a grape and with less pulp, is produced in branched panicles of 500 to 900 fruits. Two crops of fruit are produced each year. The fruit has a single large seed about 0.25–0.40 inches (7–10 mm) in diameter. The exocarp of the ripe fruits is a deep purple color, or green, depending on the kind of acai and its maturity. The mesocarp is pulpy and thin, with a consistent thickness of 1 mm or less. It surrounds the voluminous and hard endocarp, which contains a seed with a diminutive embryo and abundant endosperm. The seed makes up about 80% of the fruit and 74% of the fat in the berry is coming from healthy unsaturated fats such as Omega 3, Omega 6 and Omega 9.
The acai berry we are talking about is a natural fruit, not any chemically processed or a genetically engineered acai berry product. The best acai berry products are the ones which contain 100% pure, organic and natural acai berry, and where the only processing ever done is dry freezing its pulp and skin and grinding it into powder (no laboratory processing or aditives). Look for products that are certified kosher, vegan and organic. High quality acai products have high ORAC levels. Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) is a method of measuring antioxidant capacities of different foods.
Freeze-dried acai powder was shown to have mild inhibitory effects on cyclooxygenase enzymes COX-1 and COX-2, and chemically-extracted polyphenolic-rich fractions from acai were reported to reduce the proliferation of HL-60 (experimental leukemia) cells in vitro. In vitro anti-proliferative effects were also observed with extracts from acai pulp oil. In a study of rats fed a high cholesterol diet, supplemental feeding with dry açaí pulp reduced blood levels of total and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and superoxide dismutase activity. Orally-administered acai has been tested as a contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging of the gastrointestinal system. Its anthocyanins have also been characterized for stability as a natural food coloring agent.
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