The short answer… Brazil.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc-Hb4kM5J8

Acai berries grow in the Amazon rainforest and nowhere else. And while a banana grown in South American can make it safely to the United States ready to be eaten, acai berries can’t be imported.

They simply spoil too quickly – even faster than strawberries – with a shelf life of just 24 hrs once harvested.

That’s why in the U.S. and most other countries, you’ll have to get your acai berries in juice, pill, capsule, or frozen pulp form.

But I’ve been told that it’s well worth the visit to Brazil to get your hands on the berry fresh.  I had a friend visit recently and he almost didn’t come back, he enjoyed it so much.

Fresh Acai Berries – Why Can’t We Get Them is a post from: Acai Berry

Natural health is an interesting sphere of learning, especially about the things you eat every day. If you are interested in it, you may be interested too, in learning about the acai berry.

The acai berry is almost the size of a grape. It grows on a tree that is native to the Amazonian rainforests. This fruit has been harvested for years in a multiple civilizations that have had their homes in the region.

The acai, in fact, is an integral part of the diet of the natives of this area (it makes up nearly 80% of it). Of late, the acai berry has become very well accepted in the United States and other neighboring developed countries because of its fascinating benefits to health.

The pulp of the acai berry is just about 90% of the berry. Most of the berry is made up of the seed and the pit. It is interesting to note that the acai berry lasts only about 24 hours after it has been picked. Following this, it begins to spoil. This is one reason why it has taken so long for it to travel outside the area where it is indigenous and reach the confines of the developed world. Nowadays, it is consumed by people who are aware of its nutritional benefits. Good transportation facilities and new, improved ways of packaging the product for shipping have made this possible. Some acai products have been developed that are quite worthless, but this is not true of most. We will share more information on this later.

The acai berry is considered a delightful food where it is grown. It has been proved that it contains more antioxidants than almost any other fruit of its kind. It actually contains 500% more antioxidants than regular blueberries. As legend goes, the acai berry can cure or at least help a range of ailments ranging from impotency to cancer. It is a quick and effective source of energy for anyone who consumes it regularly.

You might not think much of the taste of this fruit, but the acai is really delectable, the taste being somewhere between a punch of berries and chocolate. It has become more favored by many as a drink than wheatgrass.

You might want to try the acai berry soon, but watch out for a few warning signs. Not all acai berry products are good for you, and some are made by such processing as to rob the product of most of the nutritional qualities of the acai. Try to make sure that the product you are choosing has been designed through minimal processing.

The acai berry is ideal for anybody who is looking to add some antioxidants to their diet. Its other health benefits are remarkable too. It is a very old fruit that is just beginning to make a foray into the developed western world. One thing we can assure you of: you will be hooked to this fruit as soon as you have tasted it for the first time.

Are Acai Berries Really That Good For You? is a post from: Acai Berry

Acai berries may be fairly new to the diet and medical world of the northern hemisphere, but the people in the Amazon have long been using this amazing super food for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. Used mostly as a delicious addition to the native diet and to treat skin blemishes and promote digestive health, the acai berry is nothing new to the native tribes of Brazil and the Amazon rainforest.

Unfortunately, is has not been until fairly recently that people outside the Amazon became aware of the acai berry’s amazing abilities. In recent years the super food has been grown and exported from the Amazon at a phenomenal rate, which is only increasing as acai?s popularity grows. We are fast approaching the point where acai products can be purchased on the shelf of nearly any supermarket or grocery store? a far cry from just a few years ago when no one had even heard of the stuff.

The important thing to note about acai is its very short lifespan. From the moment the fruit is picked, you only have about 24 hours until it loses its beneficial properties, so until recently that limited acai?s consumption to a small radius around the area in which it was harvested.

Acai’s commercial popularity actually began with Brazilian surfers who used it as a smoothie additive to help regain their energy through a hard day of surfing. From there its popularity spread until acai smoothie stands peppered the beaches of Brazil, touting their product as a natural energy booster as well as its viagra like abilities.

From there researchers got a hold of the fruit and began testing the claims the surfers and local peoples made about its incredible properties. Lo and behold, most of them were not only true, but vastly understated! Those little purple berries, in addition to tasting great and being packed with energy, were also found to be absolutely bursting with vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and antioxidants, which can help fight and even prevent cancer.

As word spread about its incredible abilities, people began working out ways to preserve the acai berries for a longer shelf life so they could be enjoyed outside of the Amazon and Brazilian beaches. Now a days it can be found in many different forms, such as juices, pulps and purees, in addition to being used as an additive in candies, drinks and an almost infinite variety of dietary supplements. It is sold in grocery stores, health food stores, gyms and doctor?s offices, and has even been featured on Oprah. Quite a ride for something that just a few decades ago had never even been heard of outside remote areas of the Amazon.

History of the Acai Berry is a post from: Acai Berry

Up until about ten years ago, no one had even heard of acai berries outside some of the more remote areas of the Amazon Rain forest in South America. In fact, the native peoples of the Amazon have been using the acai fruit for thousands of years to treat skin blemishes and digestive disorders, not to mention as a tasty addition to their everyday diet.

Eventually word got out to the local population of Brazil living outside the rainforest and spread to the Brazilian beaches through a boom in smoothie sales. That’s right, surfers figured out that those tasty little purple berries made for a perfect addition to their revitalizing smoothies and were perfect for regaining your strength through a long hard day of surfing. Soon these little smoothie stands turned into something of a big business for Brazilian beaches and the word spread.

From there research scientists got involved in an attempt to discover if the little purple berries were really all they were said to be. Their results are still rippling throughout the scientific community today. As it turns out, the benefits of acai berries were actually more than a little understated.

Acai is incredibly rich in antioxidants, a key ingredient in the fight against cancer and aging. They battle free radicals your body is exposed to through stress and exposure to pollution, and help revitalize your body?s systems. They are also chock full of vitamins and minerals and other nutrients, as well as having the same essential fatty acids as olives. This means they help boost your good cholesterol levels as much as the olive oil rich Mediterranean diet, and even has many of the same heart healthy benefits as red wine.

From there the word spread and acai berries could soon be found on health food store shelves across the world as people figured out how to increase their shelf life from the original 24 hours to an almost indefinite amount of time through the use of processing methods, preservatives and good storage practices. While the acai berry may have originally come from the Amazon rain forest and Brazil, they can now be found almost anywhere in the world in a wide variety of nutritious and tasty forms.

Where do Acai Berries Come From? is a post from: Acai Berry