Friday, May 22, 2009

Losing Weight By The Acai Berry Diet

By Doris Reed

It is all over the Internet and anybody who is searching for ways to lose weight has no doubt heard about the acai berry diet and the magical way it can help you lose weight. Simply consume this small little berry that tastes like a blueberry dipped in dark chocolate and the weight will fall off your body like magic. When you read some of the claims you would think that is how it happens but that is not precisely it.

The acai berry is only found in the Brazilian rainforest and that might be part of the magic but the fact is that the acai berry cannot help you lose weight any more than the blueberry that is grown in the state of Maine. When it comes to weight loss there truly are no magical potions or magic bullets.

In spite of this, the acai berry can be a help to weight loss and an aid to our bodies for the prevention of diseases, the reduction of inflammation in our bodies and the slowdown of the aging procedure. It is not because this little berry is a magical fruit but rather because this berry is one of the healthiest and most nutritious foods ever found in nature.

Antioxidant qualities in a food are measured by the ORAC score or the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity and the acai berry in fact has one of the highest ORAC scores yet found in a food. It has more than 10 times the antioxidants as grapes and even two times the amount of antioxidants as blueberries, which are another potent fruit.

Acai berries are also very plentiful in healthy fats. Up to 50% of the edible pulp of this berry is composed of the essential fatty acids Omega 3, Omega 6 and Omega 9. The fat found in the acai berry is also high in monounsaturated oleic acid, which is the same as olive oil, which is a well-known nutritional powerhouse.

It is also surprisingly unusual that this berry contains the 19 amino acids that are the building blocks of protein. Not only that but the acai berry also contains vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C and E and the minerals potassium, magnesium, copper, calcium and zinc.

The acai berry is extremely perishable and it has only been in very recent times that it has been offered outside of Brazil at all. The berries have to be processed within 24 hours of removal from the tree in order to preserve the nutritional integrity of the fruit. Dissimilar processing methods yield different results and the best way to process these berries is with a freeze-drying method.

No, the acai berry is not a supernatural fruit that will help you lose weight although it is an extremely healthy food that can aid your body in achieving optimal health and wellness and when you do that your body responds in a constructive manner to diet and exercise and the weight can then more simply come off.

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