Acai Berry

Acai Berry Review

What is Acai Berry?

Acai Berry is a small, black-purple edible fruit that comes from the açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea Mart.), that is native to South America. The Acai berry has become an extremely popular health supplement because of it's high antioxidant capacity. The Acai Berry is often promoted as a "Super Food" and has been widely marketed for osteoarthritis, weight loss, anti-aging, high cholesterol, detoxification and more. Recently it has been promoted as a miracle weight loss supplement. Unfortunately many of the claims, particularly with regard to weight loss, are unfounded and there is no definitive evidence to support these claims.

Who Should Consider Taking Acai Berry?

The Acai Berry has been shown to have a good antioxidant capacity, however the actual antioxidant level is lower than a number of more cost effective alternatives. There is some recent research that suggests that acai berry may help to lower cholesterol although the amount of acai berry consumed was significant (100g twice daily). There is also some recent research that shows that acai consumption can help to improve the range of motion and reduce pain levels in people with arthritis and other inflammatory joint conditions. However, there is currently no definitive research to back up most of the health claims especially with regards to acai berry consumption and rapid weight loss.

Summary of Acai Berries Phyiological Effects:

  • Acai Berry has been demonstrated to have a potent antioxidant effect, although levels are less than more cost effective alternatives
  • It may help to reduce the level of certain markers of metabolic disease
  • Acai Berry can help to lower cholesterol levels
  • Appears to reduce pain levels in inflammatory joint diseases
  • Acai Berry has shown the ability to improve the range of motion in people with inflammatory joint diseases
  • Current research does not support the use of Acai Berry for use as a weight loss product

Acai Berry Research

Research has shown that Acai Berry has a potent antioxidant capacity (Schaus et al., 2006; Jensen et al., 2008; Honzel et al., 2008) that can increase the antioxidant capacity in humans (Jensen et al., 2008). The antioxidant capacity of Acai Berry has been measured at 102,700 Total ORAC units (μmol TE/100 g) per 100g of acai powder. Although this level is considered high it is lower than a number of other sources of more affordable antioxidants, recorded in scientific literature, including: Turmeric (127,068 μmol TE/100 g), Cinnamon (131,420 μmol TE/100 g), and red grape pomace extracts (245,000 μmol TE/100 g). Because antioxidants have been shown to protect against the damaging effects of free-radicals, that are continuously produced during normal metabolic processes, many antioxidant rich fruits (like Acai Berry) are marketed as "Super Foods".

Acai berry does appear to have potent anti-inflammatory properties, this is most likely due to the range of polyphenols, present in Acai berries, these protect against cellular oxidative damage and provide anti-inflammatory signaling that leads to reduced production of free radicals by inflammatory cells (Kang et al., 2010). Recent research has also demonstrated that the consumption of Acai Berry Juice resulted in significant pain reduction and improvements in measures of range of movement (Jensen et al., 2011).

Acai Berries have beeen shown in the laboratory to posses potential anti-cancer properties. The Acai berry pulp has been demonstrated to attenuate cell proliferation and the size of tumors in rodents (Stoner, 2009), and the polyphenolic fractions of Acai berry pulp have been shown to reduce the proliferation of HL-60 leukemia cells (Del Pozo-Insfran et al., 2006).

With regard to Acai Berry and weight loss there is to date no independent studies, published in peer-reviewed journals, that support the use of Acai berry as a weight loss supplement. There have been recent studies that demonstrate Acai Berries ability to reduce the mean fasting glucose levels, mean plasma insulin levels, and lower total cholesterol levels (Udani et al., 2011). Importantly the Acai Berry lowered LDL-Cholesterol (Bad cholesterol) without altering HDL-Cholesterol (Good Cholesterol) levels. Whilst this sounds promising the amount of Acai berrry consumed was significant (100g twice daily) and there are far more cost effective and research proven supplements available.

Is Acai Berry effective?

There is currently no definitive research to back up most of the health claims associated with Acai Berry products. In particular there is no current research to back up the claims regarding Acai Berry and rapid weight loss. Acai Berry has been shown to possess strong antioxidant capacities and appears to reduce the pain asociated with inflammatory joint disorders and may help to improve range of movement. A more Cost effective alternative would be Turmeric

How to take Acai Berry?

Although Acai Berry appears to be safe and free of side effects (Schauss et al., 2010) there's currently insufficient evidence to support it's use for weight loss and many of the other health claims, therefore we are unable to provide information on how to take Acai Berry.

Acai Berry References

Udani, J. K, Singh, B. B., Singh, V. J. and Barrett, M. L. (2011). Effects of Açai (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) berry preparation on metabolic parameters in a healthy overweight population: A pilot study. Nutr J. 2011; 10: 45.

Kang J. Li Z. Wu T, et al. (2010) Antioxidant capacities and anti-inflammatory effects of flavonoid compounds from açai pulp (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) Food Chem.122:610–617.

Jensen, G. S., Ager, D. M., Redman, K. A., Mitzner, M. A., Benson, K. F., and Schauss, A. G. (2011).Pain Reduction and Improvement in Range of Motion After Daily Consumption of an Açai (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) Pulp–Fortified Polyphenolic-Rich Fruit and Berry Juice Blend. J Med Food. July; 14(7-8): 702–711.

Schauss AG. Wu X. Prior RL. Ou B, et al. (2006) Antioxidant capacity and other bioactivities of the freeze-dried Amazonian palm berry, Euterpe oleraceae Mart. (açai) J Agricul Food Chem. 54:8604–8610.

Jensen GS. Wu X. Patterson KM, et al. (2008)In vitro and in vivo antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacities of an antioxidant-rich fruit and berry juice blend. Results of a pilot and randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. J Agric Food Chem. 56:8326–8333.

Honzel D. Carter SG. Redman KA, et al. (2008) Comparison of chemical and cell-based antioxidant methods for evaluation of foods and natural products: generating multifaceted data by parallel testing using erythrocytes and polymorphonuclear cells. J Agric Food Chem. 56:8319–8325.

Del Pozo-Insfran D, Percival SS, Talcott ST. (2006). Acai (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) polyphenolics in their glycoside and aglycone forms induce apoptosis of HL-60 leukemia cells. J Agric Food Chem.54:1222–9.

Stoner GD. Foodstuffs for preventing cancer: the preclinical and clinical development of berries. Cancer Prev Res (Phila Pa) 2009;2:187–94.

Schauss AG, Clewell A, Balogh L, Szakonyi IP, Financsek I, Horváth J, Thuroczy J, Béres E, Vértesi A, Hirka G. (2010) Safety evaluation of an açai-fortified fruit and berry functional juice beverage (MonaVie Active(®)).Toxicology. 2010 Nov 28;278(1):46-54. Epub 2010 May 7.