The acai berry is the most recent super fruit to hit the market and the acai berry nutrition facts tell you why. Whether you saw it on television talk shows or in the supplements aisle, you have no doubt heard it touted as the greatest food to have come along in quite some time. People have begun exploring the acai berry as a treatment for countless ailments and illnesses. And when you look at the acai nutrition facts, it is easy to see why they think this little berry could be so popular.
The Battle of Antioxidants and Free Radicals
If you’re paying any attention at all to many of the leading diseases present in our society today, you’ve most likely come across the terms free radical and antioxidant. These are like the good and evil in our bodies, the former causing the diseases and the latter combating its effects. Free radicals are produced in the body even while we go about our daily activities. These are naturally produced atoms that lack an electron pair, and they go about stealing electron from other atoms, which in turn cause other atoms to turn into free radicals. Now in low levels, free radicals are tolerable in the body but an excess of them can trigger a host of illnesses including some of the most serious ones like cancer and heart diseases. Antioxidants slow down the negative effects of free radicals by providing that much-needed electron.
And this is where the acai berry is so incredible. ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) measures how well a food combats free radicals. The avocado, long known for lowering rates of prostate cancer, has an ORAC count of 19. Cranberries, touted as the king of super fruits, measures an astounding 94. But the acai berry has an ORAC count of 610. Go ahead and read that again. It’s not a typo. The acai berry doesn’t just push the bar, it sets an entirely new standard among super fruits.
More Acai Nutritional Info
The fact is that most fruits are good for you. And while acai berries rank the highest in the ORAC chart, that isn’t where they stop. Like most fruits, they are a good source of fiber. The skin of the acai berry also contains compounds called anthocyanins. Studied as part of The French Paradox, these compounds are believed to support a healthy heart and reduce occurrences of coronary heart disease, a major problem in America. Acai nutritional studies also show that acai berries are rich in unsaturated fats. These good fats provide the body with a source of essential fatty acids. Some, such as Omega-6, cannot be produced by the body and must come from a food source.
Does That All Make the Acai Berry a Super Fruit Worth Studying?
If the acai berry doesn’t constitute a super fruit, what does? It contains many of the healthy properties of other fruits, in addition to astronomical levels of antioxidants. While you will likely never get to have a fresh acai berry, unless you visit Brazil, you can get all the nutrition from pure acai supplements. If you obtain a high quality supplement, you can experience the benefits of acai for yourself. The acai berry is one of the most beneficial foods you can eat, the acai nutrition facts don’t lie.
