Extract of Acai Fruit
July 1, 2008
Interested in the benefits that acai berries have been mentioned to achieve? You are not alone in wanting a great source of health, many others are looking into the acai berry for its benefits. You may be first starting out on the acai trail, so let’s look at the options. There are many. The acai fruit comes as a non-fresh form to most parts of the world. The acai berry deteriorates fast, within twenty-four hours of harvesting. This is why many people are confused when they go in search of finding fresh acai berries and can not find any. You simply will not find fresh acai berries outside of their native growing areas of the Amazon. There are other ways to get the enrichment of the acai berry in other parts of the globe however, so do not worry. After harvest the acai berry is brought to processing plants in Brazil where the fruit is frozen and from there it goes on its way to places all over the world for use in many different products such as supplements, juices, candy, puree or extracts. Acai extracts are made slightly differently by taking the useful part of the acai berry, the skin and pulp in most cases, and taking the water and moisture out of it naturally to a point where only a powder is left behind. As a powder the acai is now what is called a whole food extract. It is reported that four kilos (or approx. 8.8-lbs.) of acai berries will reduce to make only one kilo (or approx. 2.2-lbs.) of acai fruit extract. Acai extract differs from the acai powder that may be seen for sale or added to food products. Acai powder comes from the fruit’s skin and pulp going through a freeze-drying process that first freezes the fruit and then gets ground up into a powder. The acai extract dries on its own into a concentrated powder form making it a much more powerful ingredient compared to other forms of acai products. Think about it, if all the water is taken from the fruit and only the good nutrients are left, that is what you have. If using a frozen form, you will have all the water still in the product, resulting in more consumption to get equal benefits from the fruit. There of course, there are some who argue that you will not be getting the full value of the whole fruit. That would be one debate that will need to be addressed by you when making a purchase of acai. Two things are certain when looking for acai fruit products. One is that using the seed in an acai product has shown no added benefits except to further reduce the nutritional value further by stretching the quantity of the product with limited worth. It should be noted that the native peoples of the Amazon who have used the acai berries as a food source for hundreds of years so not grind up and consume the seeds of the acai berries. It most often is found as a filler for livestock there. The second thing would be that acai is beneficial in any amount although some acai products will contain more of it than others, it will be you, the consumer’s choice as to which product is best for you. Acai extract may be that most powerful ingredient in which you choose to buy.
