Friday, June 12, 2009

What is Acai Juice Good For?

By Erin Cathleen

Acai juice is becoming more and more popular nowadays. It is made from juicing acai berries, which are purple berries only found in the rain forests of South America. The areas where they grow are usually swamps and floodplains. They grow on the acai palm tree, a member of the genus Euterpe palms. There are eight other species in the same family as the acai palm. You will find many acai palm trees in Central and South America, from Belize southward to Brazil and Peru.

When the acai berries are young, they are green in color. When they are older, they turn more purple. Some of them are very dark purple but others are lighter in color. They are as small as blueberries, some are smaller but some are bigger. An acai palm tree are very tall trees and can grow as tall as 15 to 25 meters high and near the top of the tree are the little acai berries in bunches, similar to grapes. The stone in each berry is very large.

Eating the acai berry can make you healthy. People native to the Amazon believe that the berry has miraculous power. They have recognized the nutritional and medicinal benefits of this fruit for centuries. People in Brazil and Peru would drink the acai juice made from pulping the fruit or they might just consume the acai pulp itself.

Pronounced "ah-sigh-ee, the acai fruit has been a popular fruit among the people of its native land for generations. In the US, acai palm trees do not grow so people drink acai juice instead of eating acai berries. Recently, the acai berry has become the subject of a North American health craze with many companies introducing various acai juices, health products and weight loss supplements.

When the acai juice was not so popular, you could only find a few brands in only selected, specialized health food stores. But, now that the demand for acai based products has skyrocketed, there seems to be more acai juice brands than most other juices. Two famous companies have attracted the most attention. They are Sambazon and MonaVie. Sambazon has a wide range of acai products, not just acai juices, whereas MonaVie is a network marketing company with only a few lines of products.

No matter where you buy your acai berry, you need to do your research beforehand. You can find out a lot of about berry as well as its nutritional content before you make a purchase. By doing so, you will be able to avoid falling for scams. There are many scams that take advantage of the acai berry craze nowadays. If you are afraid of buying online, you can just visit your local grocery stores and see what acai juice they have.

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