We all know Rachel Ray swears by Acai. Acai is a berry promoted by Oprah, Rachel Ray, and Dr. Perricone. The acai berry grows rampantly naturally in the rain forests of the Brazilian Amazon. Acai berry is dark purple or green in color. After harvesting the berries, the local population use the berries to make a fruity pulp. They add this pulp to a variety of foods as a flavoring. Acai berry has been used for centuries in the Amazon but is really a relatively new concept in North America and Europe. Acai has only been introduced in a mass way in the past few years.
Scientific teams have discovered that the acai berries are a wonderfully rich source of an antioxidant nutrient called anthocyanins. This is the exact same substance that provides red wine with it’s the antioxidants. Acai Berries are also rich in protein and fiber and also provide essential fatty acids, vitamins B and A, and omega-9 and omega-6.
Acai has gotten a lot of press since being introduced to us by Dr. Nicholas Perricone on the Oprah show. He wrote a book in which he states acai berry is the most perfect food in the world. Acai Berry ranks among his top ten superfoods and if these superfoods are taken regularly they are supposed to make a person feel significantly younger within 10 days. Acai berry has captured the imagination of many celebrities. Rachel Ray drinks acai berry juice daily and speaks about it on her own television show.
Healthy diets and healthy lifestyle information are becoming common knowledge these days. We are aware that we should eat more raw foods and foods that are richer in good fats whole grains. It is commonly known that antioxidants are absolutely critical to enjoying good health. Antioxidants reduce inflammation and that help us fight the ongoing threat of illness and the debilitating effects of aging.
As a science oriented person and an avid healthy lifestyle reader, I was interested in learning more about Rachel Ray and acai berry. Recently, I was very interested to learn that some food scientists had investigated the antioxidant benefits of commonly available acai juice blends. Three acai juice blends containing presumably varied and definitely unspecified concentrations of pure a?a? juice were compared for in vitro antioxidant capacity against other commonly known antioxidant beverages. These other antioxidant beverages included red wine, tea, six types of pure fruit juice and pomegranate juice. I want to note that acai juice blends were being compared to pure fruit juices so we need to be a bit skeptical about the results. The antioxidant capacity of the acai juice blends was approximately equal to that of pure cranberry juice, and was higher than that of pure apple juice, tea and pure orange juice. The antioxidant capacity of the acai juice blends was actually ranked poorer than that of pure pomegranate juice, pure blueberry juice, and the unspecified type of red wine. Is their misinformation being provided by Rachel Ray about acai? I do not think so. Acai juice blends are significantly better for you than some pure fruit juices but not as good as either red wine or pure pomegranate juice.
I have seen these blends and there is no telling whether they are 90% acai or simply apple juice with a splash of acai. The problem with this study is that it uses juices with unspecified quantities of acai. The above experiment was done on commercially available acai berry juices. In fairness to Rachel Ray and acai she promotes a specific type of acai juice which might have a greater concentration of acai.
Keep reading by visiting this blog called “I Love Acai Berry”. Here you’ll find acai articles, including more information about Rachel Ray’s show on acai berry
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