Acai Berry – A Beneficial Anti Oxidant
Posted on 30. Jul, 2010 by admin in MonaVie EMV
Everyone is interested in good health. Man has always explored every aspect of keeping healthy and fit. Using scientific tools he has analyzed the food he eats and determined which are good and which are harmful to him. The harmful chemicals such as the free radicals, Omega fatty acids and anthocyanins that the body produces came to be discovered.
Free radicals are formed within the body when the body performs the natural processes of life. One specific free radical is the oxygen free radicals. It causes oxidative stress in the body, giving rise to a lot of diseases and health problems. So preventing the increase of free radicals in the body is the first solution. This has lead to the discovery of various types of food which have strong anti-oxidant qualities.
Most fruits and vegetables are rich in anti-oxidant chemicals. The Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity or the ORAC of some of fruits for quantities of 100 Gms are the following:
- Apples: have 218 ORAC
- Bananas: 221 ORAC
- Bluberries: 2,400 ORAC and
- Acai Berries: 5,500 ORAC
Acai Berry is a fruit that belongs to the family of palms like dates but look like the dark blue-black variety of grapes. The acai berry like the date has a fleshy exterior and a hard core. The fleshy parts of the fruit are rich in ORAC. Therefore this fruit when consumed regularly will give the body the minimum of 3,000 to 5000 ORAC that the USDA recommends for adults.
A lot of research and results have shown that the fleshy parts of the acai have to be processed into pulp as soon as the fruit is ripe else the fruit will simply wither away and will lose all the antioxidant value that is has. Therefore pharmacists and supplementary nutritional food productionists’ have achieved technical processes to freeze the pulp and process it into a dried powdered form.
Another popular method is to use the pulp directly in energy drinks, food preparations so that the anti-oxidant property of acai berry can work on the body. Additionally the acai berries help the body to maintain the chemical balances of the body and thus prevent the development of several chronic diseases. Acai berries are also known to control hyper blood pressure, diabetes, heart complications, gastro intestinal tract disorders and other lifestyle related health disorders. It is also a popular ingredient used in various detoxification products.
