Why Oprah loves the Acai diet
Oprah Winfrey raves about Acai as a weight loss supplement on her show, and lists it as the #1 superfood for age defying and other health benefits. The following quote can be found on her website “ This little berry is one of the most nutritious and powerful foods in the world!”
Of course it’s not just Oprah that is raving about Acai – its been featured on scores of tv shows like Rachel Ray, and are all over the internet in recent months. But just what are acai berries? This short article attempts to address this question that is on a lot of peoples’ lips.
The Acai Berry [pronounced a-sigh-y] is a small, black, round berry. Resembling smaller version of a grape, this fruit has a small amount of pulp surrounding a large seed at its center. Acai Berry fruit is used in a wide variety of health foods and other common consumer products like ice cream. Acai berries are harvested almost exclusively as food in the Amazon region of Brazil. While the acai diet may be growing in popularity in the US and Europe, it is interesting to note that some of the people living around those areas where acais are prominent have an acai diet almost by default: the acai berry makes up 42% of the total food intake by weight. It goes without saying that acai growth is hugely important for those people and provides their food and their income.
Because the acai berry travels so badly and degrades so quickly after harvest, it is rarely eaten in its natural form outside of the immediate region in which it is grown and harvested. It is exported across the world as acai juice or acai fruit pulp. Those wanting to take up the acai diet will find a good alternative in the acai products now making their way to market. The berries are freeze dried immediately after harvest and put into a convenient powder form. While not as tasty as the berry itself, it is the easiest way to begin the acai diet.
Lose Weight with Acai Berry
Acai can be a great weight loss aid. The berry’s incredibly high levels of essential fatty acids, fiber, phytosterols and amino acids work together to help your body burn fat more efficiently, process food more quickly and shed the unwanted pounds that you’d like to lose.
Antioxidants
Acai berries have far more antioxidants than any other fruit – three times as much as blueberries, which is second. Besides that, the nutrients in acai berry help many other diseases, from diabetes to arthritis to blood clotting. Here are some of the ways adding Acai Berry to your diet may help you:
- Boosts energy levels
Improves digestive function
Provides many important vitamins
Minimizes inflammation
Is an extremely powerful antioxidant
Acai has high levels of fiber
Cleanses and detoxifies the body
Strengthens the immune system
Fights cancerous cells
Helps maintain healthy heart function
Prevents atherosclerosis
Promotes healthier and younger-looking skin
Helps alleviate diabetes
Slows down the aging process
Improves circulation
Improves mental clarity/focus
Enhances sexual desire and performance
Contains several important minerals
Normalizes and regulates cholesterol levels
Promotes sound sleep
Enhances visual acuity
Fatty Acids
Did you know Acai Berries are the only fruit to contain appreciable amounts of fatty acids? Don’t be fooled by the terminology though, some fatty acids are good. Our bodies need essential fatty acids to maintain proper health. We are unable to produce Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. It just so happens that these fatty acids are plentiful in Acai berries. Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids help increase your metabolism. The are also very effective at inhibiting hunger. Both of which helps you to lose weight more quickly. In providing these Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, the Acai berry can help you shed those extra pounds.
Fiber
Acai contains a generous amount of fiber, which helps your digestive tract to move food through your body. In this way, excess food is eliminated rather than absorbed and turned into fat. Similar to the fatty acids mentioned above, fiber also helps to satiate hunger.
Amino Acids
The Acai berry is rich with amino acids, which are widely known as the building blocks of protein. Your muscles need these amino acids in order to operate properly, and to regenerate from resistance training trauma or other exercise stress. Since the fatty acids in Acai increase your metabolism and the amino acids build your muscles, we can say that the nutrients in Acai berries help your body burn fat and energy more efficiently, causing you to lose weight.
Phytosterols
These building blocks of cell membranes help fortify your digestive tract, moving waste materials out and absorbing nutrients more efficiently. Acai berries are an excellent source of Phytosterols.
Disease Fighting and other Health Benefits
Published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a study showed that extracts from acai berries triggered a self-destruct response in up to 86 percent of leukemia cells tested.
Acai berries are already considered one of the richest fruit sources of antioxidants,” said Stephen Talcott, an assistant professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. “This study was an important step toward learning what people may gain from using beverages, dietary supplements or other products made with the berries.
Why Use Acai ?
I personally enjoy the Acai Berry because of it’s antioxidant properties. In this day and age of phytoestrogens, chemicals, pesticides, and other nasty environmental toxins, we can’t get enough antioxidants. Others swear by it as a weight loss aid and energy booster. Less proven, but also important, are the disease fighting properties that are being subscribed to the wonder berry. Whatever your reason for interest in trying Acai Berry products, below are the 2 most common forms that you will find outside of Brazil.
Acai Berry Supplements
Supplements are the most convenient way to get your Acai Berry. But beware – there are some unscrupulous sellers who push garbage and disappear tomorrow. In particular, stay far away from the “Free Trial” offers. They say you only need to pay some nominal amount for shipping, like $3.95. But they get your credit card number, then keep shipping you more product at exhorbitant amounts like $89. They hide the fact you signed up for a subscription, and make it very hard to contact someone to cancel. A huge rip-off. So, which should you try? The best we can recommend right now is Acai Pure. This is a 100% acai berry product is not gummed up with fillers or additives. It is not loaded with accessory supplements for marketing purposes. AcaiPure includes only the highest grade Acai powder available anywhere on the planet, and is America’s #1 anti-oxidant cleansing formula! You can find numerous polls around the web that rank Acai Pure higher than most other acai berry products. Acai Pure is always ranked in the top 3 and is often rated #1.
Acai Juice or Drinks
You can get acai juice products from various MLM companies like Monavie. You can also go to your local health food store, GNC, Vitamin World, etc… and get an acai juice product. Unfortunately, these Acai berry juice supplements are notoriously full of sugar or are diluted with other fruit juices so much that they are not even worth taking for the health benefits. The only one I have been able to find that is 100% Acai, with no water or other fruit juices mixed in is Amazon Thunder.
With Amazon Thunder. you know it’s not diluted as soon as you open the bottle and try to pour it out. I say “try” because its sometimes like pouring ketchup. It’s closer to a paste than a juice. This tells your right away you’ve got nothing but mashed acai berries. I must say, I found the taste a little strange at first, but am now totally addicted to it! I believe this is by far the most concentrated, undiluted, and intact form of Acai and the best way to get all the nutritional benefits from this wonder berry. The only problem is the convenience factor is not as great as a supplement form.
In Conclusion
If you are interested to find how Oprah’s favorite new superfood works for you, don’t fall for the hype.
By investing in a 100% pure acai berry product like Acai Pure or Amazon Thunder, you will get all the antioxidant benefits that your body needs, with very little caloric intake.
Related Articles
[...] an acai diet really can work. Not only does acai combat the physical effects of advancing age — increasing [...]
November 5th, 2008 at 3:27 am