Acai Brazilian berries, or acai berries--pronounced ah-sigh-ee--are the fruits of acai palm trees that grow in the rain forest of Brazil. These grape-like berries have been the subject of many health-related articles and are one of the many recent foods to be labeled a "super food."
Description
An acai berry has a deep purple/black color, similar in appearance to a grape, although more the size of a large blueberry. Each berry contain a single seed which takes up much of the inside of the fruit.
The flavor of the acai berry is said to be a mixture of red wine and chocolate.
Availability
The acai berry must be imported from South America; it is not available at a local farmer's market. Health-food stores and gourmet food stores are likely to carry the acai berry itself.
Mass markets of all types--department, drug and health-food stores--are likely to carry one or more acai berry products such as juice, tablets or energy drinks.
Flavoring ice cream, smoothies or sorbets with acai berry is another way to enjoy this fruit. It can also be made into jellies and jams.
Nutritional Benefits
Like many other fruits, the acai berry offers not only flavor but nutritional benefits including fiber, antioxidants and heart-healthy fat as explained by nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky of the Mayo Clinic. These healthy fatty acids are omega-3 and omega-9.
Anthocyanins, thought to be the substances in red wine that make it good for your heart, are also in the acai berry, although in substantially higher amounts than what is found in red wine.
Health Benefits
Health food and dietary supplement manufacturers and distributors have grabbed onto the acai berry and its super food status, claiming the fruit will do everything from increase metabolism to fight cancer.
Many of the claims attributed to this fruit have little or no research behind them. An exception is a 2006 study done by the University of Florida which revealed 86 percent of leukemia cells in a culture that were exposed to the antioxidants of acai berry self-destructed, as reported in an article by the American Cancer Center.
Additional Research
October 2008 saw the published results of the first study done on humans on the effects of the acai berry. Texas A&M University's Texas AgriLife Research scientists studied 12 volunteers to determine whether the antioxidants in the acai berry were actually absorbed and utilized by the body.
The results of the study confirmed that the body does in fact absorb the majority of the antioxidants in the fruit, rather than simply excreting them as waste.
Considerations
The Texas AgriLife Research team feel the next step in research should be to determine if there are disease-preventing benefits to the acai berry and what portion sizes would be most beneficial.
Until then, both the AgriLife researchers and Katherine Zeratsky of the Mayo Clinic recommend that if you'd like, add the acai berry to become a part of a balanced diet, as with other foods, at least until research proves otherwise.
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