What is Acai?

It's been a couple of years since the public started hearing about the acai berry, which began the acai craze. Unscrupulous companies and entrepreneurs began touting acai as the best new superfood, but is it? What is the acai berry and what are the health benefits? And why is Oprah suing acai berry manufacturers and distributors for product claims and false endorsements?

Acai fruit is grown on a palm tree of the same name. The acai palm grows in Central and South America, mostly in swamp land and in areas where there is a prevalence of water. Acai palms can grow to be around 90 feet tall.

The fruit itself is between the size of a blueberry and grape and is used mainly for pulp or the juices inside though the seed makes up a large portion of the size of the fruit. It has been popular among the local populations in Brazil for decades and has just recently been used internationally as a health food and dietary supplement, allegedly due to it's antioxidant properties.

Most recently, acai berries have been marketed as juices, tablets or smoothies, among other items, and companies have been pitching the extreme health benefits. Some scientific studies have proven that acai berries do, in fact, have a high antioxidant capacity which may rival other fruits like blackberries and blueberries, but tests are ongoing and not all scientists agree quite yet.

In addition to having high antioxidant levels, companies are promoting acai berries through the idea that consumption may lead to some or more weight loss than with dieting and exercising alone. Again, these are only claims and scientists are conducting tests and experiments to determine whether this is in fact true.

Acai has come under scrutiny recently due to all of the hype and hysteria in the media. In Brazil, acai has been consumed for hundreds of years, and scientists and sociologists are concerned about the continued welfare of the people who depend on the fruit for nearly 50% of their food consumption.

Brazilian athletes, who were raised drinking acai juice, claim that they have more energy when they consume the fruit, but don't mention any added benefit for weight loss, increased sexual potency or as a cure-all for other ailments.

Texas A&M University researchers Steve Talcott, a biochemist and Susanne Talcot, a food chemist, agree that it appears as though acai does have benefit in the form of antioxidants which have been proven to combat the effects of aging and heart disease. Whether the fruit has any other properties, however, are probably more hype than fact. "It's not a miracle cure-all fruit. I mean, this is a dietary component. The recommendation is to incorporate these fruits into our diet, but don't use them as drugs", commented Steve Talcott.

The decision is left to every individual, but scientific evidence, as of now, does not seem to endorse the acai berry as the "cure all miracle fruit" that it has been hyped up to be.

"Acai Palm". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%A7a%C3%AD_Palm

"Acai Berries and Acai Berry Juice -- What Are the Health Benefits?". http://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/acai-berries-and-acai-berry-juice-what-are-the-health-benefits

"Doubts About Acai Do not Mute Market". http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/acai-miracle-berry-marketing-scam/story?id=10085901