When it comes to diets, I have to admit I’m lazy. At the very mention of the “D” word I begin to feel hungry and deprived and, as for endless sessions in the gym, I use the normal excuses of not having enough time and being too tired. So when I heard claims that the acai berry is a completely natural new wonder supplement for weight loss – with tales on the internet of how you can potentially lose 30 pounds in 30 days – I thought I’d give it a try.

The açai berry (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) is a deep-purple-coloured, grape-like fruit which grows on slender palm trees, predominantly in humid Brazil. For hundreds of years rainforest tribes have harvested and used acai berries for their medicinal properties, and the fact they’ve been found to have 10-30 times more antioxidants than grapes means they’re being hailed as the latest super food.

Pure Brazilian Açai

The berries also contain high levels of fibre which can speed up the digestive transit and fatty acids that help reduce cholesterol.

There are several ways to buy and take açai berry supplements, from juices to tablets, but I was advised to look for the 100 per cent pure freeze-dried variety, making sure there were no fillers or hidden ingredients. At around £30 for a month’s supply, the capsules are not cheap (the berries perish within a day of harvesting, making the extraction of their juice extremely difficult) but beware of websites offering free trials as these often end up costing you a lot more.

I started taking my açai berry supplement twice a day, one capsule with breakfast and another with my supper. I decided to wait a month before I weighed myself to see if it made any difference.

I generally eat quite healthily but am ashamed to say I do very little cardiovascular exercise, plus I’m also partial to the odd glass of wine and slice of cake. So, in the name of research, I convinced myself to stick to these bad habits to find out if the acai berry had any effect on its own.

A month later and I was reasonably surprised to see that I had lost 3lbs – not exactly the dramatic weight loss I had dreamed about but not bad. However, I had noticed that my energy levels had definitely increased and I was even sleeping better at night (I occasionally suffer from insomnia). I had also been told on several occasions that I looked really well, something I had noticed myself: my skin seemed to have more of a glow and my hair looked shiny.

Now the three months are up and I’ve lost a total of 7lbs. My figure hasn’t changed as much as I’d have liked, but the energy boost, shiny hair and compliments more that make up for it and I’m still taking the supplement.

100% Pure Açai costs £29.99 for a month’s supply. Visit www.evolution-slimming.com for more information.

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.

In this study, the antioxidant capacities of freeze-dried acai fruit pulp/skin powder were evaluated by different assays with various free radical sources. It was found to have exceptional activity against superoxide in the superoxide scavenging (SOD) assay, the highest of any food reported to date against the peroxyl radical as measured by the oxygen radical absorbance capacity assay with fluorescein as the fluorescent probe (ORAC_FL), and mild activity against both the peroxynitrite and hydroxyl radical by the peroxynitrite averting capacity (NORAC) and hydroxyl radical averting capacity (HORAC) assays, respectively.

The SOD of acai was 1614 units/g, an extremely high scavenging capacity for O₂^•-, by far the highest of any fruit or vegetable tested to date.

Total phenolics were also tested as comparison.

In the total antioxidant (TAO) assay, antioxidants in acai were differentiated into “slow-acting” and “fast-acting” components. An assay measuring inhibition of reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation in freshly purified human neutrophils showed that antioxidants in acai are able to enter human cells in a fully functional form and to perform an oxygen quenching function at very low doses. Furthermore, other bioactivities related to anti-inflammation and immune functions were also investigated.

Acai was found to be a potential cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 and COX-2 inhibitor. It also showed a weak effect on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide but no effect on either lymphocyte proliferation and phagocytic capacity.

Published today in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, the study showed extracts from acai (ah-SAH’-ee) berries triggered a self-destruct response in up to 86 percent of leukemia cells tested, said Stephen Talcott, an assistant professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Stephen Talcott, an assistant professor with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences in Gainesville, holds a South American acai berry.

“Acai berries are already considered one of the richest fruit sources of antioxidants,” Talcott said. “This study was an important step toward learning what people may gain from using beverages, dietary supplements or other products made with the berries.”

He cautioned that the study, funded by UF sources, was not intended to show whether compounds found in acai berries could prevent leukemia in people.

“This was only a cell-culture model and we don’t want to give anyone false hope,” Talcott said. “We are encouraged by the findings, however. Compounds that show good activity against cancer cells in a model system are most likely to have beneficial effects in our bodies.”

Other fruits, including grapes, guavas and mangoes, contain antioxidants shown to kill cancer cells in similar studies, he said. Experts are uncertain how much effect antioxidants have on cancer cells in the human body, because factors such as nutrient absorption, metabolism and the influence of other biochemical processes may influence the antioxidants’ chemical activity.

Another UF study, slated to conclude in 2006, will investigate the effects of acai’s antioxidants on healthy human subjects, Talcott said. The study will determine how well the compounds are absorbed into the blood, and how they may affect blood pressure, cholesterol levels and related health indicators. So far, only fundamental research has been done on acai berries, which contain at least 50 to 75 as-yet unidentified compounds.

“One reason so little is known about acai berries is that they’re perishable and are traditionally used immediately after picking,” he said. “Products made with processed acai berries have only been available for about five years, so researchers in many parts of the world have had little or no opportunity to study them.”

Talcott said UF is one of the first institutions outside Brazil with personnel studying acai berries. Besides Talcott, UF’s acai research team includes Susan Percival, a professor with the food science and human nutrition department, David Del Pozo-Insfran, a doctoral student with the department and Susanne Mertens-Talcott, a postdoctoral associate with the pharmaceutics department of UF’s College of Pharmacy.

Acai berries are produced by a palm tree known scientifically as Euterpe oleracea, common in floodplain areas of the Amazon River, Talcott said. When ripe, the berries are dark purple and about the size of a blueberry. They contain a thin layer of edible pulp surrounding a large seed.

Historically, Brazilians have used acai berries to treat digestive disorders and skin conditions, he said. Current marketing efforts by retail merchants and Internet businesses suggest acai products can help consumers lose weight, lower cholesterol and gain energy.

“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.”

In the current UF study, six different chemical extracts were made from acai fruit pulp, and each extract was prepared in seven concentrations.

Four of the extracts were shown to kill significant numbers of leukemia cells when applied for 24 hours. Depending on the extract and concentration, anywhere from about 35 percent to 86 percent of the cells died.

The UF study demonstrates that research on foods not commonly consumed in the United States is important, because it may lead to unexpected discoveries, said Joshua Bomser, an assistant professor of molecular nutrition and functional foods at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

But familiar produce items have plenty of health-giving qualities, he said.

“Increased consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with decreased risk for many diseases, including heart disease and cancer,” said Bomser, who researches the effects of diet on chronic diseases. “Getting at least five servings a day of these items is still a good recommendation for promoting optimal health.”

Can an antioxidant-rich juice containing freeze-dried Acai and its pulp and 18 other fruits and berries really inhibit lipid peroxidation and protect cells from free radical damage during oxidative stress in humans? That is one of several questions answered in a study that appeared today in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (JAFC), a leader among journals in the fields of applied chemistry, nutrition and agriculture.

Co-authored by AIBMR’s Senior Director of Natural and Medicinal Products Research, Alexander G. Schauss, PhD, FACN, and Chief Scientific Officer, John R. Endres, N.D., the research team lead by Dana Honzel and colleagues in the United States and Canada, found that indeed there is such a juice. Called “Monavie”, this fruit and berry juice, whose ingredients are dominated by a palm fruit found growing only in the Amazon, known as “Acai” (Euterpe oleracea Mart.), demonstrated significant antioxidant protection in healthy adults placed under oxidative stress, both in a pilot study and later in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study.

Unsure of whether any fruit/berry juice could protect cells exposed to reactive oxygen species (ROS) under experimental conditions, Honzel and colleagues first tested whether the acai in Monavie could protect human erythrocytes and polymorphonuclear (PMN) cells. The procedure utilized a new cell-based antioxidant protection model using erythrocytes (CAP-e) and PMN cells, called the CAP-e and ROS PMN assays. Not only did the Acai in Monavie provide strong inhibition of ROS, indicating potent anti-inflammatory properties, it also showed significant immune supportive properties, confirming earlier studies led by Schauss and colleagues published in the same journal in 2006.(1,2)

The sequential use of these assays provided the bridge from analytical to biological testing needed prior to starting clinical trials. Based on the value of using these assays in sequence to test natural products both in vitro and in vivo, the laboratory that fostered the development of these assays, NIS Labs, was selected as the winner of the annual Virgo Scientific Excellence Award.

The randomized trial, led by Gitte Jensen, PhD, and colleagues in the USA and Canada, demonstrated that when subjects, 19 to 52 years of age, consumed 4 ounces of Monavie, 91% of them showed a significant inhibition of lipid peroxidation in their serum within two hours even when in a state of oxidative stress compared to no evidence of inhibition when consuming a placebo subjects believed was also an antioxidant.

“It was an elegant research design that allowed us to see if Monavie juice could really demonstrate any benefits,” commented Alex Schauss. “We were surprised by the strength of the data whether we examined the data between subjects or in the same subject, as subjects didn’t know what product would do what from week to week. That it worked so fast – by the first hour for the vast majority – was impressive in itself. This confirmed earlier studies we published with other co-authors including researchers at the University of California-Irvine School of Medicine, who showed that the freeze-dried acai (added to Monavie) acted as both a fast- and slow-antioxidant.”

Based on the findings reported in both papers (appearing in the same issue of the journal), AIBMR scientists believe there is more to protecting human cells from free radical damage than just its ORAC, TEAC, FRAP or DHHP scores or percentages. “We have some theories as to why Monavie juice protects human cells as strongly as it does. One thing is certain, boosting the ORAC value of a juice is not the path we would take as it disregards other factors that contribute to health, such as compounds we have identified in this juice not found in other juices to date that affect cell signaling”, said Alex Schauss.

Rio de Janeiro is the city that worships health and beauty and where the healthy and the beautiful drink açaí. Pronounced ah-sah-yee, açaí is more of a lifestyle option than a foodstuff; a magic fruit potion that fuels the hedonistic energy of Brazilian beach life.

Shortly after I moved to Rio, I was told about the açaís berry’s amazing nutritional properties: Brazilians believe it gives you strength, energy and is great for sex. A friend told me that when he was having difficulty in fathering a child, the first thing his doctor recommended was ‘drink lots of açaí’. And it worked!’

I took my first sip at one of the juice bars that line the blocks by the beach. The berry juice is served half-frozen and its thick gloopiness means that you slurp it up with a spoon. This seems to accentuate its carnal, brutish aspect. As does the fact that the people who drink it are invariably nearly naked, in Speedo trunks or bikinis.

The way it looks is integral to its appeal. It is made from dark violet berries about the size of a raspberry; a deep, dense colour that seems weighted down by its nutritional secrets. It reflects no light and has the texture of mud. I wasn’t immediately sure about the taste, which was very sweet and medicinal. But by the end of the cup I was hooked. It is fruity with a chocolatey kick.

The nutritional breakdown of açaí is prodigious. It has high levels of iron, calcium, carbohydrates, fibre and antioxidants. And energy. A small 100g cup has almost 300 calories. Combined with the mystique of its Amazonian origins, açaí’s contents have made it the beverage of choice for Rio’s sporty elite.

Açaí is indigenous to the flood plains of the Amazon estuary. The açaí palm regenerates with ease and in areas where human development has destroyed natural vegetation the first tree that grows in its place is açaí. (Açaí palms cover an area equivalent to half the size of Switzerland.) In this region, its abundance and role as primary nutritional resource cannot be over-estimated: it is literally the fruit that has saved many poor families from starvation.

‘Açaí is the main food staple of river communities in the Amazon estuary,’ says the agronomist Oscar Nogueira. It is drunk for every meal – in much the same way as bread or rice is eaten in other cultures.

Having become an açaí fan in Rio I was keen to visit Belém, the main city in the Amazon estuary and world centre of açaí. If ever a city was so strongly defined by a single fruit, it’s Belém. There is a local saying: ‘Who arrives here and stops, drinks açaí and stays.’ In Belém more of the fruit is drunk than milk. An estimated 200,000 litres of the purple liquid is consumed per day among a population of 1.3 million.

Açaí is highly perishable and the only way it gets to Rio is in frozen packages. In Belém, the fruit is always consumed fresh. Since it goes off within 24 hours, in order to service the population with fresh açaí on a daily basis an enormous infrastructure has grown in Belém that employs an estimated 30,000 people.

The cycle starts in the rainforest. The açaí palm has a long thin trunk up to 25m high and a clutch of branches at the top from which hang ribbon-like leaves. Hundreds of açaí fruits dangle from branches in clusters that look like nests of bluebottles.

The fruit picking is done by hand. In the afternoons, river-dwellers scramble up the trees, cut off the branches and climb back down again exactly as they have done for hundreds of years. In the evening, boats containing baskets of açaí leave the rainforest heading for Belém’s market, where they arrive in the middle of the night.

The açaí market is a dockside next to the city market. By the early hours small boats have started arriving with baskets of the fruit which quickly fill the quay. By 3am men like Armando Ribeiro arrive.

Armando owns the Casa do Açaí, one of Belém’s 3,000 açaí points, where the fruit is pulped,into juice. Armando buys several baskets of the best açai and takes it back to his premises, a small patio in a backstreet. When I arrive, shortly after 11am, Armando has been pulping the fruit for an hour. Customer demand for açaí is at lunchtime, and they prepare it fresh. He pours the fruit into the pulping machine and keeps on re-pouring the discharge until the blend is perfect. He sells three versions; thick (£1), medium (60p) and dilute (40p).

In Belém, you are never more than a block away from an açaí point. Wherever you look, your eye always finds a red açaí sign. I find a bar and order a bowl. It is served like soup. The taste is almost unrecognisable from what I have become used to in Rio. The exotic sharpness and zesty kick is not there. The sensation is of a simple, neutered, bitter freshness. Açái is not a versatile fruit since it can only be stored frozen and cannot be cooked, so for the most part, it continues to be drunk just as the indians have drunk it for centuries.

For açaí to catch on outside the Amazon, it needed a pioneer. That man was Carlos Gracie, the great-grandson of Scottish immigrants from Dumfries, who was born in Belém in 1902. In his early teens, a chance meeting with a Japanese immigrant led to his obsession with the martial art jiujitsu. In 1922 the Gracies moved to Rio and Carlos opened Brazil’s first jiujitsu academy.

When a shop near his Copacabana home specialising in obscure foods started to import frozen açaí, he began to incorporate it into his diet and also to encourage all his jujitsu students to drink it. The jujitsu boys were pin-ups with the best bodies: everyone wanted to know what ‘miracle’ potion they were drinking. Soon Rio’s surfers became fans, and gradually the drink crossed over to become part of beach culture. By the early 1990s, no juice bar could exist without selling it.

The boom in açaí over the last decade has had more effects than changing the eating habits of Rio’s body-obsessed men (and women). Scientists have discovered that açaí is rich in anthocyanins, the group of chemicals in red wine that are believed to lower the risk of heart disease. Swig per swig, açaí contains over 10 times more of them than red wine. It is also rich in essential fatty acids, calcium and vitamins. Açaí’s recent success is also changing the nature of agriculture in the Amazon estuary. Agronomists have been successful in developing ways of cultivating açaí sustainably with high yield. In the last five years açaí production has tripled and brought work to poor rural areas. Belém, now has more than 60 factories that export. ‘Açaí is the most promising product we have here for development,’ says de Jesus.

Açaí was an Amazonian secret that conquered Brazil. Whenever friends visit Rio they fall in love with the taste. I have lost count of the number of excited conversations about how we could export it around the world. I discovered recently that I’ve been beaten to it. A company in California now imports it to the US. It may not be the same as sipping it fresh in Rio, but make no mistake, one day açaí will conquer the globe.

The acai berry, is a small, round, black-purple fruit about 1-inch (25 mm) in diameter. It is similar in appearance and size to a grape but with less pulp and is produced in branched panicles of 500 to 900 fruits. Two crops of fruit are produced each year. The fruit has a single large seed about 0.25–0.40 inches (7–10 mm) in diameter. The exocarp of the ripe fruits is a deep purple color, or green, depending on the kind of açaí and its maturity. The mesocarp is pulpy and thin, with a consistent thickness of 1 mm or less. It surrounds the voluminous and hard endocarp, which contains a seed with a diminutive embryo and abundant endosperm. The seed makes up about 80% of the fruit.

branched panicles of acai berries

The berries are harvested as food. In a study of three traditional Caboclo populations in the Amazon region of Brazil, açaí palm was described as the most important plant species because the fruit makes up a major component of their diet (up to 42% of the total food intake by weight) and is economically valuable in the region.

Serving of "açaí in the bowl" with Granola

The juice and pulp of açaí fruits (Euterpe oleracea) are used in various juice blends, smoothies, sodas, and other beverages. In northern Brazil, açaí is traditionally served in gourds called “cuias” with tapioca and, depending on the local preference, can be consumed either salty or sweet (sugar, rapadura, and honey are known to be used in the mix). Açaí has become popular in southern Brazil where it is consumed cold as açaí na tigela (”açaí in the bowl”), mostly mixed with granola. Açaí is also widely consumed in Brazil as an ice cream flavor or juice. The juice has also been used in a flavored liqueur.

A Brazilian palm berry sweeping the globe as a popular health food – though little research has been done on it – now may have its purported benefits better understood.

In the first research involving people, the acai (ah-sigh-EE) berry has proven its ability to be absorbed in the human body when consumed both as juice and pulp. That finding, by a team of Texas AgriLife Research scientists, was published in a recent issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Showing the berry’s absorption in humans is important because it is known to contain numerous antioxidants. The berry is heavily marketed in the U.S. as a health food.

The study involved 12 healthy volunteers who consumed a single serving of acai juice or pulp. Researchers believe the results point to the need for continued research on the berry which is commonly used in juices, beverages, smoothies, frozen treats and dietary supplements.

“Acai is naturally low in sugar, and the flavor is described as a mixture of red wine and chocolate,” said lead investigator Dr. Susanne Talcott, “so what more would you want from a fruit?”

Dr. Susanne Talcott, assistant professor with the Texas A&M University's nutrition and food science department, found that acai antioxidants are absorbed in the human body. (Texas AgriLife Research photo by Kathleen Phillips)

Talcott, who also is assistant professor with the Texas A&M University’s nutrition and food science department, said that previous studies have shown the ability of the human body to absorb target antioxidants (from other produce), but “no one had really tested to see if acai antioxidants are absorbed in humans.”

Sales of acai products have increased dramatically in the U.S. where it has been touted as a metabolism booster, weight reducer and athletic enhancer. Advertisements use buzzwords such as health, wellness, energy, taste and organic.

About the only buzzword not used with acai is “local.” The berries are harvested in the Brazilian rainforest from acai palms that may reach heights in excess of 60 feet – one of the same palms used to harvest edible hearts of palm.

The fruit is about the size of a large blueberry yet only the outermost layers of the fruit, the pulp surrounding a large internal seed, are edible, Talcott noted.

Talcott and her co-researcher and husband Dr. Steve Talcott began studying the palm- berry in 2001. His first scientific report on acai, apparently the first such study in English, was published in 2004.

Initially, their studies on the berry examined antioxidant and nutritional components in pulp and juice. Later studies showed the berry’s activity against cancer cells, Talcott noted.

With that background, the researchers then decided to find out whether those elements were actually being absorbed into the human body or being eliminated unused as waste.

“Like vitamin C, the body can only absorb so much at a time,” Steve Talcott explained.

He said the researchers now “need to determine potential disease-fighting health benefits, so we can make intelligent recommendations on how much acai should be consumed.

For the clinical trial, people were given acai pulp and acai juice containing half the concentration of anthocyanins as the pulp and each compared to the control foods: applesauce and a non-antioxidant beverage.

Acai berry juice, shown here, and pulp contain antioxidants that have been found in a study by Texas AgriLife Research scientists to be absorbable in human bodies. (Texas AgriLife Research photo by Kathleen Phillips).

Blood and urine samples at 12 and 24 hours after consumption showed significant increases in antioxidant activity in the blood after both the acai pulp and applesauce consumption, she said. Both acai pulp and acai juice showed significant absorption of antioxidant anthocyanins into the blood and antioxidant effects. The research couple said future studies hopefully will help determine whether the consumption of acai will result in any disease-preventing health benefit and the proper serving sizes for a beneficial dose for people.

“Our concern has been that it is sold as a super food – and it definitely has some good attributes – but it is not a solution to all diseases,” she said. “There are a great number of foods on the market, and this could just be part of a well-balanced diet.”