Acai Health Watch

There are so many great ways to try the acai berry, and while acai powders and supplements are great, they aren’t exactly cheap.  So we were delighted to find this Teavana Imperial Acai Blueberry White Tea.  This unique tea blend is aromatic and soothing. Slightly sweet and never bitter, it’s great iced or hot, or even mixed into a fruit smoothie.  For either the acai berry devotee, tea enthusiast or someone just beginning to explore the medicinal, calming qualities of tea, this makes an ideal gift. It’s a wonderful way to relax and pamper.

What are the health benefits of drinking tea? Green, black and white teas have been found to inhibit growth of cancer cells.  Older women who drink tea are less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis.  Drinking tea considerably decreases the chance of death as a result of a heart attack.  It is high in antioxidants which may help protect against cell-damaging free radicals. Drinking tea also helps maintain strong bones and may even help treat symptoms of diabetes.

Also check out Teavana Youthberry White Tea which includes finely ground acai paired with white tea and tropical fruits.

While it is true that there haven’t been large scale clinical human trials evaluating the health benefits of “superfoods” like the acai berry, evidence is building that the acai berry naturally contains health benefits that may help with disease prevention in the future.  Some marketing messaging for acai berry products is designed to lead the reader in drawing a conclusion that may not actually be true.  Still, there is reason to be optimistic about acai and its health benefits according to Monica Giusti of Ohio State University’s Department of Food Science and Technology.

“Giusti and her colleagues have found that applying anthocyanin extracts from a variety of plants to human colon cancer cells in test tubes can significantly slow down or even completely stop the cells’ growth. Researchers think they will find the same cancer-quashing results from other foods that contain anthocyanins.

And similar evidence is mounting for the potential health benefits from anthocyanins in dark-colored fruits like blueberries and pomegranates, fruits in which growers and manufacturers have invested a lot of research money”

Research has yet to prove benefits of antioxidant-rich berry juices | Health and Fitness – cleveland.com – - cleveland.com.

An outbreak of Chagas disease, a tropical ailment caused by insects has been identified in acai berries in one area of Brazil.  This disease can arise due to unsanitary conditions, leading to food-borne contamination and this is likely how the disease has been transmitted.

“Though still under investigation, health authorities in the Para state of Brazil is reporting an outbreak of food borne trypanosomiasis.

There have been 13 confirmed cases of Chaga’s in the Belem neighborhood. State officials at present suspect it occurred through contaminated food stuffs, including the fruit acai.”

There is no indication that products for export were contaminated.

Outbreak of Chaga’s disease through contaminated acai berries.

With so many packaged foods like cereals being fortified with vitamins and probiotics, it only makes sense that research find ways to nutritionalize favorites like ice cream.  This would transform regular ice cream a “functional food,” or a food that offers essential vitamins and minerals.

A study at the University of Missouri is researching ways to make ice cream both satisfying and healthy through the use of natural foods.  The acai berry and grapes are two ingredients they’re using to prototype a healthy ice cream.  We’ve enjoyed an acai berry flavored ice cream in Rio de Janeiro and it was absolutely delicious and commonplace.  Not sure how healthy it was, but we enjoy the acai berry just the same.

Turning Ice Cream into a Functional Food, Food Nutrition.