Acai Berry
What is Acai Berry?
Acai berry is a fruit found in Brazil that is fast becoming popular for health conscience individuals due to the wonderful tasting pulp that is full of antioxidants. The acai berry is very popular with such items as pills, juices, and drinks. Researchers are more excited about the acai berry not for its great taste, but for the benefits that have been found through various studies.
The acai berry has properties that during a study at the University of Florida destroyed cultured human cells. The University of Florida was the first to study the affects of acai berry and learn the health benefits found in this miracle fruit.
Recently a study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that provided the research results that extracts from the acai berry developed a type of self destruction in leukemia cells around 86% of the time.
One of the professors at the institute, Stephen Talcott stated that the fabulous acai berry is at the top of the list when it comes to beneficial properties and may be one of the riches sources of antioxidants found in any fruit. The study examined benefits from fruits containing antioxidants in which one was acai berry. The items in the study were such things as supplements, drinks, and other products derived from various fruits.
As with all studies, the benefits are always examined but are never stated to prevent or cure any type of illness including leukemia even though the self destruction of the leukemia cells did occur in 86% of the cases. The study was not performed with actual humans but only cell cultures. However, the findings are promising for the fight against cancer or possibly preventing cancer. The acai berry is not the only fruit that contains these antioxidants but the acai berry has a higher concentration than other fruits such as mangoes, grapes, and guavas.
The major dilemma of finding a cure for cancer is learning how the acai berry antioxidants will affect our bodies, the way our body will absorb the nutrients, how our metabolism will work with the antioxidants, and the various other biochemical processes throughout our body. Just because the acai berry has all the antioxidants to fight or ward off cancer, not enough is known concerning the way in which the antioxidants will work in the human body. The study only showed the way in which the antioxidants fight off leukemia cells in a Petri dish in a lab.
Over the last five years, more and more products are being introduced that are being created with the acai berry. As there have not been adequate studies, related to how the acai berry will work with our bodies more studies need to be performed. However, many believe the antioxidants will aid in the prevention of high cholesterol, high blood pressure and other illnesses. Many of the studies are leaning toward the acai berry being classified as a super food.