Acai Health Watch

You may have heard of VeeV, an acai spirit or liqueur.  This article in Digital City shares some ideas about keeping healthy with booze this flu season.   While VeeV itself doesn’t make any health claims,  the acai berry itself is packed with nutrients.   This tasty acai cocktail recipe will at least help you relax, if not provide all your body’s needed vitamins.

“So go ahead and make a VeeV Anti-Oxidant Cooler, with 2 oz of VeeV, a splash of pomegranate juice, 5 blueberries and 8 pomegranate seeds.Muddle the berries in a mixing glass and add the VeeV and pomegranate juice in a cocktail shaker. Shake and strain, pour into a chilled glass, and watch every illness you’ve ever had get annihilated. (Okay, not really. But wouldn’t that be fun?)”

Fight Flu Season with Anti-Oxidant Booze – Digital City – Local Lifestyle and Entertainment News.

Ever heard of the maqui berry?   It’s one of those superfruits called “the next big thing” in diet and nutrition.   The Los Angeles Times shares some pr info regarding the maqui berry.  If there is difficulty finding scientific studies on the acai berry to prove its health benefits, we can only imagine how hard it will be to prove the maqui berry’s effectiveness.  Nevertheless, if it tastes good, we’re in!

“And there’s more: According to the press materials, the maqui — a purple berry from the Patagonia region of South America — is “traditionally used by the indigenous Mapuche Indians for supporting stamina, increasing strength, and promoting healthy immune response. The only unconquered Native American Indians in all of the Americas, the Mapuche Indians’ legendary strength and stamina are attributed to drinking a fermented Maqui drink several times a day. Research shows Maqui is the highest antioxidant superfruit in the world — two to three times higher than acai, pomegranate, goji berry, or mangosteen.”

What’s the next superfruit to be seen with? |  Los Angeles Times

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.

Physician and nutritionist Martica Heaner discusses acai’s health benefits, including whether claims that acai facilitates weight loss are legitimate.  She talks about how much of the language used in marketing acai products really just amount to ads, because there’s little medical research on acai to back it up.

Here’s Dr. Heaner’s take on weight loss and the acai berry:

“As far as weight loss goes, there’s no plausible mechanism that has been shown for why acai berry products might aid weight loss. Fruit can help with weight loss because it is high in fiber and nutrients and has few calories. Once fruit is turned into juice, however, it becomes another sweetened drink, often adding surplus calories to a diet that can lead to weight gain, not loss, if not monitored.”

Beware of the Hype on Acai Berries – MSN Health & Fitness – Weight Loss.

Ever wonder what MonaVie tastes like but aren’t ready to commit to buying a big bottle?  Here’s an interesting report on one person’s experience with MonaVie from a “layman’s” perspective.  He defines superfoods and explains how acai beverages like MonaVie provide health benefits.  There are several MonaVie acai juice formulas that promote different aspects of your health.  One called MonaVie Active enhances joint health.  Another, MonaVie Pulse, delivers heart health benefits.

“I tried it. It tastes good, like a fruity V8, but somehow cooler.  It’s not a “drink,” think about it like a liquid vitamin that you drink a little bit of every day. It comes in bottle form, a energy drink and a gel.  My favorite is the energy drink MonaVie EMV, it isn’t quite as thick as the traditional MonaVie bottled drinks and tastes great.  I would put up against Red Bull in a minute.  Not only does it taste great with Vodka, but apparently if you drink it with out the booze, it is actually much healthier for you than the every day energy drinks.”

Superfood, Super Tasty, Super Good For You. – Pace of Chicago.