Yes, I know it was on Oprah so it must be legit then…or is it?

Now normally I just ignore all the hyped up marketing campaigns for the new in thing but I have been asked so many times about the health benefits of acai berry and if it is legit. I decided to do a little research to see what I could find out about it.

Here are a few excerpts from the scientific literature.

“This study demonstrated that açai offers a rich source of bioactive polyphenolics and confirmed the importance of investigating whole food systems when evaluating the potential health benefits of individual phytochemical compounds.”

J. Agric. Food Chem., 2006, 54 (4), pp 1222–1229

“The fruit of Euterpe oleraceae, commonly known as acai, has been demonstrated to exhibit significantly high antioxidant capacity in vitro, especially for superoxide and peroxyl scavenging, and, therefore, may have possible health benefits.”

J. Agric. Food Chem., 2006, 54 (22), pp 8604–8610

“The acai berry is the fruit of the acai palm and is traditionally consumed in Brazil but has gained popularity abroad as a food and functional ingredient, yet little information exists on its health effect in humans.”

J. Agric. Food Chem., 2008, 56 (17), pp 7796–7802

At first glance you might think hey this is some great stuff. It’s been on Oprah and Rachel Ray and it even has scientific articles.

Do the health benefits of acai berry have potential…absolutely.

Problem is the hype doesn’t equal the research. I only found 4 articles when doing a search of scientific journals. The bottom line is there is very little research out there to support all the claims.

I’ll leave you with a quote from the head researcher Dr. Talcott.

“A lot of claims are being made, but most of them haven’t been tested scientifically,” Talcott said. “We are just beginning to understand the complexity of the acai berry and its health-promoting effects.”

If you would like to try acai berry I would recommend
LifeTime Acai Juice, it has been getting good reviews.