Acai Berry Diet

In the past few decades the overweight problem has become the center of attention for nutritional healthcare professionals, diabetes mellitus professionals, endocrinologists and basically for any general practitioner as well as for a huge slice of the world's population that experiences the effects of "western" diet. The basic aspects of such a diet include being rich in sugar and fat, rather low on protein, and at the same time extremely attractive as a consequence of being chemically enriched. It is at the same time practical; the modern individual cannot always (if any time) spare of his time in order to settle down and have a quiet, healthy meal. Thus the term fast-food was enrolled. Had the effects been predictable at the beginning of the fast-food era, perhaps that laws would have been passed to prevent them from ever reaching the market. Not only did they manage to bring almost everybody's weight to an alarming pre-obese if not even obese state, but they also generated metabolic illnesses and also boosted the ones already existent. The effect was the ever increasing consumption of medical resources in a rather desperate fight to balance the people's lust for tasty, juicy food by introducing them to the side effects. In the past few years, the public consciousness regarding the phenomenon has increased, and more and more tend to rely on healthcare professionals in order to establish the premises of a healthy personal way of living, at the same time asking for as little change in their ways of life as possible.

The term diet is generally thought of as a means of weight loss. This is in somewhat true, but this fact is generated by the major slice of pathology - being overweight. However the same general term, "diet" can be employed to describe food regimens that lead to gaining body mass. Not only weight is comprised in the term "diet". Various diseases have been proved to benefit from different restrictive diets - diets in which some of the normally occurring compounds have been banned. For example doctors recommend diabetic patients to limit their sugar, hypertensive people to limit the intake of salt, renal failure sufferers to decrease the protein consumption level and so on. So basically, the term diet actually refers to a certain way that an individual modifies his food intake habits, both qualitatively and quantitatively in order to obtain an expected effect out of it.

The most flashing, renowned and aired in prime-time diet of the moment seems to be the Acai Berry diet. Opinions about the Acai Berry vary widely, some seeing it as a miracle, number one super-food in the world, others claiming that the product simply has a very intense commercial aspect while its true benefits are rather modest. The Acai Berry is actually a fruit, generated by a palm tree living in South America, in the Amazonian rainforest, mainly in Brazil. The natives have been long acquainted with the fruit and have made it part of their diet for hundreds of years. No Acai Berry distributer has however funded any research in order to establish its true properties and to obtain proof of how it might be helpful in different conditions. At the present time, only suppositions exist on how the berry works. Perhaps that it would be interesting to compare the incidence of some diseases in natives and then asses them comparatively with the incidence of the same diseases in the general population to see if the berry (which sometimes consists as much as 42% of the natives' daily diet by mass) induces various effects.

Until then it seems that people outside the area where it is grown are willing to give it much credit, even into treating serious illnesses like heart disease, diabetes mellitus or cancer. This aspect has led to an extremely intense commercial development of the phenomenon. First of all, the initial use of the tree was detoured. The natives used to mainly chop down the tree and use it as wood since it is pest-resistant. At the same time leaves were employed into local industry like hats, roofs and baskets. The fruit is found at the top of the tree (25-30 meters in height) in panicles. After the Acai Berry became popular, the cutting down practically ceased, as the berry business proved far more profitable even for the natives. This is actually a positive aspect, since it preserves the rainforest. Not only that the cutting ceased, but the natives even started to use the seed of the tree for replanting chopped grasslands, as a response to the acute increase in demand of berries in the past years.

The main disadvantage of the berries is that they are highly perishable. This means that not only do they lose their attractive taste, but they also deteriorate their chemical composition and properties. They are known to be extremely easily spoiled in direct sunlight. This led to the necessity of funding the construction of facilities that would process the fruit as soon as harvested. As soon as these few obstacles were thrown apart, the Acai Berry miracles started to come on stage.

There are incredibly many positive effects that are currently linked to the berry, yet they almost all lack scientific proof. The biochemical composition proved many beneficial molecules to exist within the skin and pulp: carbohydrates, protein, fats (including the highly desired omega-6 and omega-3 acids), phytosterols, vitamins (especially A vitamin) and some high amount of antioxidative compounds.

By similarity, and by giving credit to in vitro (experimental, lab studies on animals) studies, effects on humans were postulated, though this is a mistake that should never be done whenever bringing a chemical compound into human use. Since the product is however natural, long-time consumed by natives and perhaps because of huge commercial interest, not many questions have been asked before its entry on the market. Different distributers now claim that Acai Berry can: prevent atherosclerosis, alleviate diabetes, slow the aging process, regulate cholesterol levels, fight cancer, reduce inflammatory stress throughout the body and improve blurry vision. As tempting as it may seem, especially when allopathic medicine fails to combat some conditions, all these effects are pure suppositions, based on how the substance inside the berry act.

The Acai Berry diet, is not necessarily aimed at losing weight, though the public made it that way, probably both because the term is usually associated with weight loss and because overweight causes a lot of social and psychical stress that many would pay millions to finally get rid of. Basically with any type of "diet" the idea is to somehow modify the way of life, starting probably with the food and ending with hours of sleep, level of physical exercise, mentality improvement and others. What needs to be understood is that the Acai Berry is not a way of living by itself, but is more of a nutritional supplement that MIGHT aid in achieving a healthy lifestyle. However this tends to be seriously misinterpreted since Acai Berry gets to be prime-timed for usually one or two effects, especially assuming that it might induce weight loss.

Due to the increased concentration of carbohydrates, right amount of fat and protein, but mostly because of the correct ratio of saturated to unsaturated lipids, it seems that indeed it is a healthy food. Of course, it does not posses all the nutritional ingredients necessary in a balanced diet and thus it may not constitute a main course, or an only course. More specifically: you cannot live only by eating Acai products, nor will that make you healthy, on the contrary. The term supplement suggests that Acai Berry products can prove useful in different regimens, as long as associated with a wide range of other measures: exercising if you want to lose weight, sleeping if what you're expecting is a decrease in the stress level and so on.

At the same time, it seems of crucial importance the way that the Acai Berry product is processed. As stated before it is highly perishable. In order to fully supply the need on the market, distributers have created an extensive range of products: fresh juice, puree, smoothies, pills, Acai-based preservatives, Acai powdered supplements, energy drinks and bottled Acai wine are all present in stores. Of course due to specific means of being processed, some if not most of the natural characteristics of the fruit have been lost and its current beneficial effect might be seriously dropped. Nevertheless pure Acai Berry products are fare rarer than mixed ones, since this is more economically viable. This is possible because at the present time there is no FDA regulation to state what percentage of Acai derivatives a product must contain in order for the label to state the presence of Acai inside. So basically when buying Acai Berry Juice, there is a good chance that it is actually mixed juice with some berry juice inside.

Starting a diet with Acai Berry might raise a few questions: what kind of product to use, how much to use, what else to eat etc. Theoretically if one would like to get the most of the natural properties of the berries, fresh products are the most indicated. Yet, the Acai Berry is not that rich in vitamins as supposed. Except for the 1002 U of vitamin A, it really lacks other vitamins. Since they are the most degradable with preservation processing, it seems that the efficiency of fresh vs. dry product is the same. Most probably the difference comes in the taste. Taste is actually a major advantage of the berry; surprisingly many people questioned describe it as chocolate-taste.

Much of the benefits are assumed in the name of the many anti-oxidative compounds within the berry. There is a rather generalized fear of terms like free oxygen radicals, ionization process, oxidative breakdown and others. This is because this process is also implied in carcinogenesis, but very little people know that it is a very normal process, that life depends upon. Practically we only need to clear the body of an excessive amount of oxidation breakdown products and not of all of them, case in which we would starve (because we depend on oxidation in order to get energy from sugars and fat).

The many anti-oxidative compounds identified within the fruit lead to promoting Acai Berry diet as a helpful and healthy one, however it is impossible to evaluate the exact oxidative status of a certain person and prescribe exact dosages of anti-oxidative substances especially in a very random-composition product such as a fruit. Many sites over the internet give as testimony the ORAC index (Oxygen radical absorption capacity) of the berries that is huge when compared to other fruits, thus proving an out of the common property of the berries. However while investigating several different sites, you might find several different numbers that differ among themselves by means of tens of thousands - the conclusion of this is that this appreciation is a highly suspicious one.

The effect postulated in treating heart disease relies on a previously valuable proven effect, that of having a good omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid dietary ratio. Since omega-3 acids like for example alpha-linolenic acid will give birth to final molecules that will fight inflammation and atherosclerosis is in fact an inflammation of the vessel's wall, at least this effect seems to be rather logical.

Yet it is not the pulp and skin that contain enough fatty acids, but of course, as in any plant it is the seed that does. And at the same time pharmaceutical industry has purified and concentrated omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids from fish liver a long time ago, thus this is not a major reason for trying Acai Berry diet.

Acai Berry diet is also recommended for its anti-aging capacity, which again is closely related to the anti-oxidative properties. Although a part of the aging process does come with oxidation indeed, it is probably not safe to assume that an anti-oxidant would automatically reverse aging and have no side effects. Another important part of the body that implies oxidation is the immune system: neutrophils as well as macrophages use oxygen radicals intensely and willingly generated within them in order to break down bacterial structures thus killing them. So administration of an excess of anti-oxidative substances although might help with aging, would also cause immune suppression that in turn might lead to cancer, or infectious diseases being acquired more easily.

Another assumption is that Acai Berry diet will improve your vision. Not only the anti-oxidative compounds probably led to this but also the quite significant amount of vitamin A. Vitamin A is indeed crucial to a good eyesight especially for nocturnal vision, and although it is rational and logical to believe that the fruit by its content will help, there are far more concentrated pharmaceutical products that will aid more in case the deficiency is really caused by a lack of vitamin A.

A last effect worth discussing is that of improving the sexual drive. It is hard to believe that any of the compounds inside the fruit might have a direct effect on the sexual drive, and that finally there is a cure for low desire. Perhaps that as with many new products, commerce strategies include addressing the segments of pathology that are most bothering and most appealing to the public (like overweight, impotence, stress, cardiovascular disease etc.).