Benefits of Acai Berry

Perhaps you’ve been reading the news and noticed all the hype about acai lately. It has kind of been hard to miss if you are reading the right sections of the newspaper or you ever turn on Oprah. Acai berries have been named the number one super food by both Oprah and the New York Times, and have been attributed a whole slew of incredible properties up to and including possibly being the cure for cancer. Quite a lot for an unassuming little purple berry from the rainforests of Brazil.

The first thing people think of when they talk about acai berries is their incredible antioxidant count. Did you know that acai berries have at least ten times the antioxidants of the next best fruit? That makes them the highest ranked antioxidant packing natural substance yet known to man.

Antioxidants are important in a couple of ways. When your body’s cells die they release a signal to your white blood cells to come and dismantle them, carting off all the remains. Sometimes though, those white blood cells can’t get there in time and the cell dies on its own, releasing all sorts of little bits and bobs into your body.

These bits can include what are known as free radicals. There are also other ways in which you can acquire these free radicals, including pollution, exposure to harmful substances or, according to some, even cell phone signals and radio waves.

Anyway, free radicals are unstable molecules that go around looking for something to steal atoms from to make themselves stable again, and unfortunately, the thing they most often go for first is your DNA. When free radicals steal from your DNA this causes the sequence to malfunction, resulting in mutation and often cancer.

A very similar process is also what causes aging. Scientists are pretty sure that without these free radicals, there would be no such thing as aging past a certain point. Ok, here’s where antioxidants come in. These molecules have the ability to bond with the free radicals, giving them something else to glom onto instead of your genetic sequences, or in other words, fewer carcinogenic mutations.

In addition to antioxidants, acai berries are also jam packed with fiber, which is crucial to proper digestion. They also have a ton of phytosterols, which are the building blocks for the cells which make up many of your digestive membranes, and essential fatty acids, which are crucial for proper organ and brain function.

When you factor in acai’s huge array of other vital vitamins and minerals, it’s like taking a whole day?s worth of vitamin and diet supplements, all in one tasty purple chocolate laced berry flavored snack.