If you want real acai berries then you will have to go to the Brazilian rain forest Seriously. Once harvested the fruit degrades so quickly that distributors cannot get it out of Brazil without some pre-processing (or freezing) which turns it into a different product. If you’re really interested in getting as much acai as possible then you should move to the areas where they harvest the acai fruit: these people take in acai fruit comprising around 42% of their food by weight. Wow.

One of the better ways to get the acai to your grocery bag is with acai preserves. Acai preserves really are just what they sound like, and you would make them in same way that you would make strawberry or raspberry jam. And like with strawberries and raspberries, the more the better; so it is with acai preserves which contain up to 99% of their volume as acai fruit.

Pretty impressive by any standard, but phenomenal when you compare it to the alternatives which can be pills and powders said to contain acai. I would much rather have the real thing in front of me.

The good thing about the very simple way in which acai preserves are made is that the minimal processing means maximum retention of all the goodness and nutrients in the acai.

Getting acai berries from the Amazon basin to your house is a bit of challenge: they degrade so quickly that transporting as they are is completely unfeasible. So distributors have turned acai into a variety of different forms in order to ensure its safe passage.

The form of acai that you can buy in shops (and over the Internet) that maintains the antioxidant properties of the Acai berry is acai preserves. Acai preserves are essential just squashed acai fruit combined with a little bit of natural cane sugar as an accelerant. The acai preserves sold in some of the stores (online or off) are up to 99% full of acai fruit. That’s a pretty impressive statistic, and when you compare it with some of the blended juices, or even with the pills and powders that you see advertised all around, you can see that acai preserves are a great alternative.

Inside the acai preserves jar you will see a rich purple color substance which is a thick sold, puree-like texture. This, my friends, is just squashed acai with as little processing as you will see. The lack of processing means that acai preserves preserve any nutrients and goodness that made you want to take acai in the first place!

The benefits of acai berry supplements are quickly gaining a foothold in many households where people want the benefits of acai without the hassle of having to integrate acai purees or acai preserves into their diets. Maybe people don’t like the taste of acai but still want the benefits: this is where acai supplements play their role, too.

The acai is a wonderful little fruit — often referred to as a berry but actually a drupe — that grows on the top of the acai palm in the Brazilian rain forest The acai grows in large bunches of between 900 and 700 berries, and is harvested by the local population. The local population know the value of acai and eat tremendous amounts of it: up to 42% of their total food intake by weight consists of acai.

Acai has a high fat content — that’s mono unsaturated fat: ‘good fat’ — and this means that it degrades very quickly one it has been picked. Getting an acai berry out of Brazil intact is a challenge in itself. To counter this problem distributors make great products like acai berry supplements. Acai supplements have the benefits, and are not only easy to transport across the world, but are also incredibly convenient for those using them once they get there.

One of the easiest ways to get acai goodness into the daily routine of a busy family is through the introduction of acai supplements. One of the benefits of acai berry supplements contain all the nutrients and valuable antioxidants that you would find in the raw berry itself. Unfortunately you are unlikely ever to be able to make that comparison, since you are unlikely to ever see a ‘real’ acai berry before it has degraded beyond recognition: the fruit degrades extremely quickly in even the most favorable circumstances.

The fruit of the acai palm is not, in fact, a berry. It is a drupe. The drupe is about 25mm in diameter with a seed inside that takes up around 80% of the fruit’s volume. It looks a lot like a grape but, by virtue of the much larger seed, has a good deal less flesh on the fruit. The similarities with grapes continue: acai berries grow in large bunches of between 700 and 900 on the acai palm.

Acai berries have a high fat content and it is because of this that the berry doesn’t last long away from the tree. Acai supplements, juices and preserves are the only way to allow the goodness of the acai to travel properly; of these, the benefits of acai berry supplements are perhaps the most convenient.

There is a lot of talk about super foods, and many people are recommending a lot of different products and foods as being ’super’. What exactly is this ’super’ suffix, though? What makes a particular food ’super’? Quickly put, a super food is one that covers many of your mineral and nutrient requirements as possible.

The acai berry has become very popular as a super food of late. It has become very popular with good reason, as really it offers benefits in terms of instant delivery of amino acids and antioxidants that beat its nearest super food rivals by an order of magnitude. The acai berry is the super super food, if you like.

While there could conceivably be some danger in consuming a lot of one particular foodstuff, this level is likely to be basically unachievable with something natural like the acai berry. The locals that harvest the acai berry in the Amazon rain forest in Brazil (where it grows on tall trees) eat a lot of acai berry. The actual figure of acai berry consumed is not known but some early reports suggest that as much as 42% of their food intake consists of raw acai berries. How is that for a very impressive figure?

Monavie juice is a bit of a phenomenon: it is acai juice without any acai in it. Think that sounds a bit like a misleading sales pitch? You’d be right, and you’d be in good company: the FDA agreed.

Monavie is a product produced under its own brand, but is ultimately owned by a parent group which specialises in MLM products. Much of the Monavie management team have extensive experience in the MLM field, some with other health foods. Some have even been found guilty of illegal business practices in the past.

It it no surprise then to find that the Monavie brand steps on the riskier side of the moral line. The product is claimed — by its owners — to be a cure for just about everything. This brazen embellishment of the truth — it is true that acai is good for you, but nothing that Monavie claimed could be proven — is the start of a line of customer deceit that attempts to hide what is basically a sub standard product sold at very high prices.

There are lots of alternatives to Monavie acai juice and they are all better than this stuff: better and much, much cheaper. A better option all round.

The acai berry has absolutely stormed into popular dieting culture over the past few years. And rightly it should, too: this is truly a wonder food of the highest order. People with huge influence like Oprah Winfrey are recommending acai juice to her watchers and listeners; Dr. Nicholas Perricone has put the acai fruit at the top of his highly respected list of super foods. Even the New York Times has run articles extolling the virtues of acai juice.

You might think that there must be something in these stories if they are so frequently seen and heard. And you would be right. Its powerful mix of anti-oxidants and amino acids help the body combat again and even improve defenses against critical diseases like cancer and diabetes.

Acai appears most commonly as acai juice: this is the most convenient to the end consumer and it helps the distributors retain much of the natural feeling about acai berry whilst allowing it to travel much better. Certainly when you compare acai juice to its distant relatives like acai powder and acai pills, you can see why so many people plump for the acai juice version.

If you’ve not tried acai juice before then now is a great chance. You won’t regret it!

The acai fruit — a berry — comes from the acaipal which is native to Central and South America. Acai is extremely important to the residents of the regions in which it is harvest: not only does the sale of the berries provide the majority of their income, but almost half their diet, too. The berry itself degrades very quickly indeed, meaning that the only time it is seen in places outside the Amazon Basin is when it has been changed in some way. One of the best ways of doing this is to produce acai juice from the fruit as soon as it is harvested.

Monavie is one company that is attempting to get their Monavie acai juice products to the mass market in the US and Europe but — and this is said from a purely independent viewpoint — they seem to be going about it in completely the wrong way. Not only has the Monavie alienated potential customers by pricing its product at almost twice the level of competing products, but it has also captured the attention of the FDA by, amongst other things, promising benefits from acai that are quite simply unproven. Not a good start from the Monavie product range, it seems!

Pure, Fresh and Organic Acai, pronounced (ah-sa-ee), is an all natural super antioxidant energy fruit found in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. Its dark purple pigment is loaded with nature’s goodness, as its packed full of antioxidants, amino acids and essential omega fatty acids. Studies have showed that Acai has up to 30 times the anti-oxidant power as red wine and blueberries.
Unfortunately, Acai fruit is extremely perishable and begins to decay within 12 hours of harvesting. Something must be done to prevent the decomposition, and therefore the most commonly available form when it is found outside the Amazon is: in a mash mixed with water or other fruit juices, pills or powders, or mixed into a frozen sorbet or prepackaged smoothie.
But processing can also destroy many of the magical properties of the Acai Berry, and no pill or powder can contain the same levels of antioxidant properties as the real fruit; explaining why we dont see pills for blueberries or red wine. Mashing the berries into a bottle form can protect the berry. Monavie, Sambazon, bossanova and others are decent products that are nicely packaged and well marketed, but are mostly composed of water and other fruit juices, with very little Acai.

We do highly recommend the Amazon Thunder brand of Acai puree. Note that it is not called a juice – it is a semi-viscous paste that is not thinned out with water or cheaper juices.
The only other alternative that maintains the antioxident properties of the Acai berry is Acai Preserves, a whole berry fruit product that is thick, creamy and uses the mouthwatering berry juices, fruit and skin. Acai-Zone preserves are 98.5% Acai berry, mixed with just a touch of natural cane sugar. Acai preserves have a flavor reminiscent of chocolate syrup, but is still fruity. It is a dark purple color, with no separation or clumps. It’s definitely a solid puree type texture. The whole fruit preserve is not chemically treated or altered, nor frozen and therefore will deliver much higher levels of antioxidant properties and beneficial nutrients.
All of the Acai berries natural goodness can only be found in the fruit itself, and the less processing the better. So far, Amazon Thunder acai puree, and Acai-Zone preserves are the closest thing to picking the fresh fruit right off the tree, and actually much tastier!

Have it on ice-cream, in a peanut-butter sandwich, on pancakes, muffins or toast. We even have chefs cooking with it as a glaze for meats, also added to port wine to make a sauce reduction. Acai preserve is incredible mixed with yogurt, granola and sliced banana for all natural, low carbohydrate energy!
However the universal favorite way to enjoy the whole Acai berry fruit preserve is as a shake. Combine two to three table-spoons of Acai fruit preserve in a blender with 3 cubes of ice, 1 table-spoon of guarana syrup, honey or cane sugar, add 1 ripe banana or frozen strawberries. Using the blender, chop the ice and blend until it forms a smooth rich shake. Many like to add a handful of salted peanuts! Add water to thin-out if necessary. Natural energy!

The acai berry is doing very well for itself indeed. The little berry with the big benefit has shot from obscurity to massive popularity in a big way over the last five years, with acai pulps and acai juice being sold in many health food specialists and over the Internet Acai juice is especially popular as an easy way to get your daily fix of the acai wonder fruit.

And wonder fruit it is. Sources as varied as the New York Times, Oprah and food guru Dr. Nicholas Perricone are loading praise on the acai berry and acai juice in particular.

In his book on healthy foods – The Perricone Promise – Perricone names the acai berry as the number one super food. Although it doesn’t travel well at all and therefore cannot be shipped to consumer countries, all of the goodness can be retained by making a delicious acai juice. Perhaps unsurprisingly acai juice is much more popular than the acai powders and pills that some distributors are providing. Why go for this alternative when you can have the real think in a convenient drink format?