Acai Fruit
In The News
The Wall Street Journal
Men's Journal
The Washington Post
Health Science Institute
4Life
Research Press Release
The
Wall Street Journal April 18, 2003
Açaí Replaces
Wheatgrass In Blenders at Juice Bars
By TATIANA BONCOMPAGNI
Wheatgrass, protein shakes -- so 2002. At juice
bars and health stores around the country, the hip new taste
is açaí,
(pronounced ah-sigh-EE) a grape-size, deep-purple berry that
grows atop palm trees in the Brazilian jungle. In the two years
since it hit the U.S., sales have jumped fivefold to $2.5 million,
says Ryan Black, founder of Sambazon, the fruit's main U.S. importer,
while at Juice It Up, a California chain, açaí drinks
and dishes account for 10% of sales. "People drive out of
their way to get it," says Brandon Gough, the company's
vice president of marketing.
Fans say the fruit (which comes to the U.S. as
frozen pulp) not only tastes good, but also is good for you
-- packed with
anthocyanins, the same antioxidants that give red wine its health
benefits. And, in a hat trick of health-bar chic, it's good for
the Amazon, too, because it's collected by local families who
can earn as much as $1,000 during the December-to-August harvest
season (twice as much as they can usually make). "It gives
them income and another land use besides cutting down the trees
and raising cattle," says Chris Kilham, who teaches ethnobotany
at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Men’s
Journal - July 2003
"The Fruit That Packs a Punch" By
Tyler Graham
FRUIT ARE A BIT like pop stars. Remember when
pomegranates exploded onto the scene last year? But this summer,
there’s a new
contender that’s got something to offer that no kumquat
or baby banana could ever match: Açaí (pronounced
ah-sigh-EE) actually gives you a rush.
A small, purple palm berry that grows wild in
the Amazon, açaí has
been hugely popular in Brazil for years, where it’s whipped
up by street vendors into a frozen slush and eaten out of big
bowls, kind of like Red Bull ice cream. It’s even marketed
to the same hip, athletic set as Red Bull — Brazilian skateboarding
phenom Bob Burnquist wears gear advertising Sambazon, the importer
bringing açaí to U.S. Stores. And the potent fruit
is a favorite of Brazilian surfers and jujitsu fighters.
You won’t see the berry itself at your local grocer; it
spoils too easily. Instead, the pulp is mashed, mixed with a
tiny amount of the natural caffeine source guarana, and sold
frozen. The traditional way to prepare the mix is by blending
a 14-ounce package with a half cup of apple juice and a banana
and topping it off with granola, though health clubs also put
it in smoothies. The taste is like a red wine with a hint of
chocolate; the buzz, like a less jittery, more filling double
latte. "Our customers love it," says Juan Martinez,
of Mani’s Bakery, a trendy Los Angeles eatery. "They
eat it for breakfast and don’t have to eat again until
three in the afternoon."
It’s not completely clear where the boost comes from.
The added guarana per serving contains less caffeine than a cup
of decaf. One guess is that there’s something about the
natural sugars in the fruit that creates a multiplier effect
with the guarana. "It doesn’t really add up," admits
William Obermeyer, vice-president of research for Consumer-Lab.com. "Is
is safe? All I can say is, the buzz has to be coming from somewhere."
Wednesday, August 11, 2004; Page F03
For those put off by juiced wheatgrass and bored with low-carb
bars, there is acai.
Acai (ah-sigh-EE), the purplish fruit of the palmberry plant,
purportedly contains more antioxidants than red wine and has
a beguiling berry-like flavor with intense chocolate overtones.
Health Sciences Institute- July 2003
" Nature's Perfect Food"
Discover the amazing health benefits of the fruit
from the Amazon’s "tree
of life" By Judy Douglas
If you get your health guidance from the mainstream
media, you’d
think the healthiest way to live is to guzzle red wine and drown
everything in olive oil.
That’s basically what they’ve told us in recent
years. First, it was the “French paradox”--the fact
that the French, who generally eat lots of cheese, cream, and
butter; drink lots of wine; and smoke like chimneys, are healthier
than Americans. Scientists told us it was all in the wine—specifically,
in the anthocyanins—the antioxidant flavonoid that gives
red grapes their deep color.
Then it was the “Mediterranean diet,” the
traditional way of eating in the regions of Italy and Spain,
where olive
oil is a staple. We learned that olive oil is a good source of
essential fatty acids that are processed right out of many Americanized
foods.
I’m not discounting the benefits of either of these phytochemicals.
In fact, in a minute I’ll explain exactly why both are
so important to good health. I just question the sources recommended
in the headlines. There’s got to be a better way to get
these valuable nutrients than guzzling wine and drowning in oil.
As it turns out, there is. I learned about it
from HSI panelist Jon Barron. He told me about a single superfood
from the Amazon
that, fresh from the tree, can provide over 30 times the amount
of anthocyanins as red wine and all the beneficial fatty acids
of olive oil in one delicious, all-natural package. And this
is just the beginning of this food’s health benefits. It’s
virtually impossible to over-do this food—which is certainly
not the case with red wine or olive oil.
Get the healing power of many phytonutrients in one delicious
package.
There’s no disputing the health benefits of anthocyanins
and essential fatty acids. Both have proven to be powerful nutritional
tools in the quest for good health.
Research has shown that plant pigments like anthocyanins are
potent antioxidants. The cardiovascular benefits are the most
well known; studies show that anthocyanins can help prevent blood
clots, improve blood circulation, relax blood vessels, and prevent
artherosclerosis. But scientists have also uncovered a whole
host of other powerful effects from anthocyanins, including antiviral
and antiallergenic properties. Some research even suggests that
anthocyanins can prevent cancer, by blocking carcinogenesis on
a molecular level and encouraging tumor cell death.
Essential fatty acids have proven just as powerful. Oleic acid,
a monounsaturated omega-9 acid, and linoleic acid, a polyunsaturated
omega-6 acid, help lower LDL, and maintain healthy HDL levels.
They also increase the absorption of fat-soluable vitamins like
vitamins A, E, D, and K, which are essential to good health.
Research has even suggested that oleic acid may prevent against
cancer and hypertension.
Olive oil may be the best known sources of these
nutrients, but it is certainly not the only one. It’s the pigment
in red grapes that gives wine its anthocyanins—and that
same pigment can also be found in other red and purple fruits
and vegetables, such as blueberries, red cabbage, and purple
sweet potatoes. Oleic acid is also present in pecans and seed
oils, and linoleic acid is found in peanuts.
But there is one food that delivers it all—plus other
healthy nutrients like fiber, phytosterols, and vitamins C and
E. For centuries, it’s been a staple for people in Brazil,
yet virtually unknown to anyone outside the region—until
now.
Discover the health secret of generations of Amazonian Indians.
It’s called açaí (pronounced ah-sigh-ee),
and it’s the fruit of a palm tree that grows in the rainforests
of the Amazon—a tree Brazilians call "The Tree of
Life." About 90 percent of the small, round fruit is its
hard, inedible pit—but that’s OK, because it’s
the outside skin that holds the treasure. That dark purple skin
is what contains the anthocyanins.
The natives puree the skins, creating a treat
that can be served warm as a sauce over fruit or grains or
frozen like a sorbet.
They’ve been eating it for centuries, passing down recipes
from generation to generation. (The native people have also passed
down the story of how açaí was discovered.) Because
fruit itself is perishable, its popularity never spread beyond
the region.
Superfood fights heart disease, cancer, prostate enlargement,
and more.
Since then, the news about açaí has been steadily
spreading—and the evidence of nutritional and health benefits
just keep piling up. Consider this: a 100-gram serving of açaí contains
only 90 calories, just two grams of fat and no cholesterol. Plus,
it delivers 3.5 grams of dietary fiber, something we could all
use more of in our diets. Improved processing of the fresh fruit
is making it possible to preserve more of the fruit’s healthful
attributes. Currently, the puree provides more anthocyanins than
red wine and has antioxidant concentrations that well outweigh
blueberries.
Subsequent research has shown that in addition
to the anthocyanins and essential fatty acids, açaí also contains a
healthy dose of plant sterols, another class of phytochemicals
that have been shown to reduce cholesterol, protect the immune
system, and relieve prostate enlargement. In fact, it turns out
açaí is in the same family as saw palmetto, a common
herbal treatment for prostate enlargement. And researchers at
the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro have discovered that
açaí extract can be used to fight infection, like
the parasitic infection schistosomosis which affects 10 million
Brazilians each year and the common bacterial infection staphylococcus
aureus. It seems there’s no end to this miracle fruit’s
health benefits.
4Life Research Press Release
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