Exotic Fruit Juices Exposed

Every day, I am asked a dozen times, “What do you think of that Acai (a-sigh-EE) berry? Is it any good?”  The great news is that while Acai berries are a tasty and wonderful fruit, there isn’t any outstanding research out there to back up their claim that it is any better than say, your typical apple, oranges, cranberries and blueberries.  There is not one shred of evidence that shows that it is better than any other fruit(s) in this planet.

The popular Men’s Health magazine recently did an article on this and found out the history of this so-called “exotic” fruit from the Amazon.  From the information that they gathered, “Last year, 53 new food and drink products containing the Brazilian berries with the funny name were introduced in the United States.  Total sales of all things acai surged to $104 million — more than double the 2007 figure, according to the market analysis firm Spins.  Not surprisingly, some of the beverage world’s big players took notice: Pepsi-owned Naked Juice also sells acai blends, and Jamba Juice offers an acai concoction.”

Further, they stated that, “In truth, what we’re guzzling by the gallon is very skilful marketing.  Rather than being a “global wonderberry, acai might better be described as an overhyped jungle juice that’s no better for your health than the average orange.  Instead of the happy tale of the little berry that could, the acai phenomenon is really just the latest example of how time and time again we turn off our brains and open our wallets when we’re presented with a bottle of exotic “superfruit” juice that’s been packaged as a shortcut to immortality.”

In other words, WE’VE BEEN HAD.  Again.

There’s definitely no doubt that Acai berry offers nutritional benefits (like most fruits that’s out there).  The big question mark is whether this Acai berry is the all mighty and powerful fruit that we thought it would be.

HERE ARE THE FACTS:

• Acai berry and Omega 3’s.  One of the unique selling points of Acai berry is that it has Omega 3’s, the fatty acids found in cold-water fish (i.e. salmon) that is endorsed by the American Heart Association as a cardiovascular support.  While it’s true that very little fruit out there contain Omega 3’s, Acai is one of them but not necessarily loaded with Omega 3’s. VERDICT: You would need to take almost 2.5 gallons of Acai fruit compared to taking a 3 ounce serving of salmon.

• Acai berry and Fiber.  1 gram of fiber in 8 ounces of Acai juice.  How about this? Drink a quart of juice, or eat a slice of 100 percent whole-wheat bread.  VERDICT: Acai juice will set you back 600 calories, versus 100 for the bread.

• Acai berry and ORAC value.  Ever heard of “antioxidants?”  Yes you have and ORAC value is just a form of measurement about how good of an “antioxidant” a fruit is.  Antioxidants are properties of a fruit (in this case) that make it good for preventing disease(s), researchers believe them to be similar to a “PacMan” gobbling up the bad cell molecules that play a role in aging and disease in your body.  Simply put, the higher the ORAC value the “stronger the PacMan” is in gobbling up the bad cells in your body.  Hence, within the marketing world, antioxidants and ORAC value have an even greater impact: They move product. Here’s a good example, fresh blueberries have 6,552 ORAC points per 100 grams, while Red Delicious apples have 4,275 per 100 grams according to USDA data.  Now, let’s look at Acai.  The USDA has yet to test the berry, but it’s marketed as having 50,000 ORAC points (nearly 8 times that of blueberries). VERDICT: An average person on the street looks at this and says “whoa!” this Acai stuff is awesome!  The jaw-dropping 50,000 ORAC is for 100 grams of powdered Acai extract that was calculated, while the ORAC score of blueberries was calculated using fresh diluted (but also more real world representative) form of blueberries.

The kicker though is that, even if the numbers are correct – and Acai scored higher than any other fruits on this planet – there’s no evidence that it’s better than “regular” fruits, says Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D., and director of USDA antioxidants laboratory at Tufts University.  Reason: they do not say about what happens in the body.

So, what should we do as a health conscious consumer?  While there isn’t any harm in trying Acai berries, just because it sounds “exotic” and it’s from the “amazon” doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s better than other fruits out there.

MY VERDICT: Eat “real” fruit and save your money from multilevel marketing concoctions.