Where To Buy Acai Berries

January 13, 2009 · Filed Under Acai Berry, Weight Loss 

Acai berries come from the acai palm, a plant which is native to Central and South America. The acai berry is noted for its rich antioxidant content.Some of the reported health benefits of acai berry include aiding in weight loss and increasing your energy level.

But what about scientific studies?

According to the USDA website, studies on high antioxidant foods have shown to have some effect on slowing down the aging process:

“Studies at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston suggest that consuming fruits and vegetables with a high-ORAC value may help slow the aging process in both body and brain. ORAC–short for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity–measures the ability of foods, blood plasma, and just about any substance to subdue oxygen free radicals in the test tube.

Early evidence 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.

These results have prompted Ronald L. Prior to suggest that “the ORAC measure may help define the dietary conditions needed to prevent tissue damage.”

Prior is coordinating this research with Guohua (Howard) Cao, James Joseph, and Barbara Shukitt-Hale at the Boston center.

Science has long held that damage by oxygen free radicals is behind many of the maladies that come with aging, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. There’s firm evidence that a high intake of fruits and vegetables reduces risk of cancer and that a low intake raises risk. And recent evidence suggests that diminished brain function associated with aging and disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases may be due to increased vulnerability to free radicals, says Joseph, a neuroscientist.

Such evidence has spurred skyrocketing sales of antioxidant vitamin supplements in recent years.”

Further studies published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry have shown that acai berries have the highest antioxidant activity of any food:

“Tissue damage can be caused by a process known as oxidation. Compounds know as antioxidants are thought to help prevent tissue damage, and thus reduce disease states caused by oxidation. A fruit known as acai has been demonstrated to exhibit significantly high antioxidant capacity and, therefore, may have possible health benefits. In this study, the antioxidant capacities of freeze-dried acai fruit was evaluated and found to have the highest antioxidant activity of any food reported to date. These results suggest that this fruit would be an excellent food to study for potential disease prevention effects in the future.”

(Photo of acai berries courtesy of Breno Peck through Flickr.)

Many people who search online are looking for acai berries to help them lose weight. You will find many weight loss stories using the acai berry on the internet but please be careful to use your common sense.

It is extremely difficult to buy fresh acai berries because of its short shelf life. Most acai berry products you will find in the United States are foods that use it as one of the ingredients or freeze-dried in powder or capsule form. To find out more about acai berries you can take in capsule form, check out Acai Burn.

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