How to Choose the Best Acai product

Acai berry supplements have been available for several years, though you may not have realized it. But it wasn't till Acai started getting featured on high profile TV shows such as "Oprah" that news of it's amazing nutritional benefits reached a wider audience.

While it's fantastic that more people got to hear of Acai's health benefits, it's also allowed unscrupulous companies to jump on the "Acai bandwagon". These company's are only interested in profit, and the quality of the Acai berry product you buy from them is secondary. That's why it is vital to understand the different kinds of Acai processing and how they effect the nutritional power of the product you buy.

Spray Drying Acai berries

Some Acai manufacturer use what is called "Spray-dried Acai berry granules". The Acai berry fruit is heated to high temperatures, evaporating all the water content. After that this dried Acai berry matter is coated with a food additive such as maltodextrin.

The issue with Spray-dried Acai is that this heating procedure kills off many of the nutritional qualities of the Acai that we want. Another concern is that the maltodextrin used to coast the dried Acai mass with, has been reported to cause coeliac reaction by the USDA (a serious issue for those suffering from Celiac conditions).

Important to note also is that a spray dried Acai berry supplement claiming to contain 500mg of Acai per serving, will on average only deliver about 300mg of genuine Acai.

Acai Berry Extract

As with other high antioxidant berries, much of their nutritional value is on both the skin and pulp of the fruit. The challenge with extracts is what you are not getting. Extracts do not use the whole of the fruit, resulting in a much less potent product.

Plus it is common for some supplement manufacturers to quote "500mg of 4:1 Acai Extract" - and only put 125mg of Acai in the capsule. This is perfectly legal as they are using the extract ratio of 4 to 1 (i.e. it has taken 4 kilos of fresh fruit to make 1 kilo of dried Acai powder). So while you think you are paying for 500mg, you're only getting 125mg per capsule.

And finally, many extracts use the Spray-dried Acai berry as their starting point - which has already been "cooked", so you are getting even less goodness from your Acai supplement.

Freeze-dried Acai berry pulp

The simplest and most beneficial Acai source. The berries are harvested and the skin and pulp removed. Then the fruit and skin pulp is "flash frozen" within hours of harvesting. This allows the full essence of the antioxidants, essential and healthy fats, fibres and proteins found in Acai to be kept in the finished product.

A positive effect of the freeze-drying process is that as the water content of Acai pulp is removed, it concentrates the nutrients within the remaining pulp. This has the effect of dramatically improving the ORAC score of freeze-dried Acai compared to the fresh fruit itself.

While 100 grams of fresh Acai berries have an already impressive ORAC score of 5,500, the same weight of freeze dried Acai powder has an ORAC score of 34,000 - Over 600% higher.

While it is easy to buy cheap Acai products, they are actually working out more expensive for you. To get the same benefits from buying a quality freeze-dried Acai supplement, you would have to buy 4 to 8 times as many cheap ones - a false economy.

To best enjoy the full antioxidant and nutrient benefits of the Acai berry, be sure only to buy freeze-dried Acai (and preferable organic - pesticide free - and Fair Trade).

More antioxidants than in Acai Juices

One important fact that has been confirmed is that the only way to preserve antioxidants in Acai is to keep them in a frozen and/or freeze dried state. Unless science comes up with a natural way of preserving antioxidants (anthocyanins) in standard liquid format, it is not possible for Acai juices to keep an equivalent antioxidant content to the freeze-dried Acai powder used in supplements.

 

How to avoid the Acai Offer Scams - Click here