Acai berries are being touted as the new weight-loss phenomenon. Everyone’s talking about them, try searching in Google for ‘Acai ‘ and see how many results come back! Well, certainly there’s also a huge gap in terms of real clinical research which verifies some of the claims made by acai berry product vendors. But the fact remains that, whether miracle weightloss aid or not, acai berries are superb for you generally.
They are a useful source of fibre, and are high in antioxidants and omega 3 fatty acids. On the weight loss front, they’re considered to increase the metabolic rate, thus accelerating the rate that fat is burnt. Learn more.
While acai berry products come in varying shapes, textures and sizes, it’s often a healthy idea to stick to the fruit in its natural form as that is where you get the greatest nutritional value. If the concept of eating tons of plain fruit does not sound appealing, here are three fast, straightforward to follow recipes for giving yourself a berry treat:
1. Acai Power Breakfast
Ingredients: 1 cup acai berries, cubed or sliced, 1 cup muesli (or cornflakes), 1/2 cup soy milk.
The ingredients speak for themselves! Combining acai berries and breakfast cereal is a great way to start the day, since it kick-starts your metabolism and gives you sufficient energy to power thru your day and still feel really good at the end of it. It’s always possible to add other seasonal fruit to this bowl of breakfast goodness to make it even healthier.
2. Chocolate and Acai Super Smoothie
Ingredients: 1 cup milk, 2 tbsps chocolate mix or protein powder, 21/2 tbsps acai berry pulp, 1 scoop reduced fat vanilla icecream and 1 banana
Extraordinarily simple to prepare: just put all of the above ingredients together in your blender, give it 1 or 2 bursts and your super smoothie is prepared! This is packed with nutrients and energy and will keep your going for hours.
3. Cooling Acai Tonic
Ingredients: 200 ml Acai juice, 2-3 tbsps each of orange and lemon juice, 200 ml club soda, mint leaves, ice.
It’s summer, the sun is blazing down, the heat is intense and you’re very probably dehydrated. The best way to rehydrate, while also giving yourself a pleasant, cooling break from the heat is to make yourself an Acai tonic utilising the ingredients listed above. Crush the ice and mix it along with the acai, lemon and orange. Slowly pour in the soda while stirring, and ultimately top the mixture off with some crushed mint leaves.
James Perron enoys wrting about health and nutrition at smoothies for kids. Check out his website today.
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