The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reported that different types of mass production of the acai berry can actually decrease the potency of this very nutritious food. The acai berry, found in the Amazon, is one of the best foods available for its amazingly high level of antioxidants. The antioxidant level is actually higher than any other food in the world. This is why it is important to know that some processes can decrease its potency and in result its effectiveness with supplying the body with necessary components for good health.
There have been various groups studying this situation that may dramatically effect consumer’s decisions when purchasing acai berries. The University of California, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and AIBMR Life Sciences has performed studies investigating the potency of acai after it has been processed by manufacturers. These institutions and many others have been looking into the antioxidant abundance of the processed acai berries. Specifically, OptiAcai’s freeze dried pulp and skin powder was investigated for the availability of these beneficial components. The standard used is called ORAC, which is the oxygen radical absorption capacity. These groups found that OptiAcai’s product resulted in a 1026.9 ORAC total while the ORAC score of other commercial acai berries that were freeze dried had a total of 155.
One of the scientists involved in the study was astonished saying, “What mystifies me is that the acai products we tested in the commercial marketplace had a fraction of the antioxidant activity reported in our paper for OptiAcai.”
The OptiAcai processed berries showed “extraordinarily high” peroxyl scavenging activity and very high superoxide scavenging activity. The OptiAcai product actually resulted in tests showing that it was the highest in this category out of any food tested so far. These results present findings that may have incredibly important impacts on the treatment of many diseases.
The impressiveness of the OptiAcai results should not be considered to represent all acai products on the market though. One of the people in the study stated that the effectiveness of acai products in the marketplace vary from brand to brand.
“We believe there are many reasons for the lower ORAC values of various acais that have been on the market for some time,” said an investigator. “First, freeze-drying is superior to spray drying or air drying in retaining photochemicals and nutrients, but more expensive. We believe that other suppliers have not considered the issue of enzymatic degradation of the fruit.”
It has been found that a large majority of the acai berries sent from Brazil to the United States and Europe are packaged in big frozen blocks that cannot prevent nutritional degradation. This is the reason why many of the products that are in the marketplace receive low ORAC scores.
Even though only some of the berries on the market have extremely high potency, consumer advocates still highly recommend acai berries for their nutritional value and their pleasant taste. Mike Adams, author of “The Seven Laws of Nutrition” said, “As with many of the smaller berries such as blueberries, sea buckthorn, and goji berries, acai berries pack a potent nutritional punch in a tiny package. I recommend them to anyone interested in improving their health.
Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/021032_acai_berries_antioxidant.html
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