Monday, November 24, 2008

Facts About the Acai Berry

By Frank Cassa

If you watch TV or read news articles, you will most likely have come across the acai berry. You probably have heard that it is a very healthy fruit, much healthier than other berries, fruits or vegetables. The acai berry has been featured in many TV programs, magazines and news.

The acai berry is not a new type of fruit. It is not a hybrid berry and its nutrients and health benefits are natural, not artificially created. The acai berry is native in low-lit, swamp areas. There are a lot of acai berries in the Brazilian rain forest where it is hard to get to.

The acai berry grows on a tall, large tree called Euterpe oleracea but most people just refer to the tree as the acai palm tree. The acai palm tree can have many trunks. Some of them have just a few trunks but there are some that have 25 trunks. Each acai berry tree can be as tall as 25 meters tall and as wide as six inches in diameter.

Each acai berry tree has many branches dropping down from it like flowing ribbons. The branches cluttered together and on them are the acai berries. Each acai berry is on a branch is very close to the next berry on the same branch.

Most people know what a blueberry looks like. The acai berry is very similar to the blueberry in appearance because it is small and round. Its color is purple/black. Some acai berries are more black than purple whereas others are more purple than black. Each acai tree has many fruits and are capable of producing up to 20 kgs of acai berries.

Like most berries, the acai berry is edible. Many people eat the acai berry as fruit but some make use of other parts of the berry too. The acai pulp is where most of the nutrients are and it is very commonly used in wines, liqueurs, or as food flavoring or colorant. The acai berry has many uses so it is not surprising that there are many acai berry products around.

The acai berry has many healthy and medicinal properties. It is one of the best antioxidant and contains many minerals, essential fatty acids, and lots of other nutrients that the body needs to be healthy. The acai pulp is where most of the nutrients are found so to get the most health benefits of the acai berry, eat the pulp too.

Since people now know that the acai berry is so healthy, the acai berry is more in demand now than ever. In the past, the acai berry used to be hand picked but nowadays many companies have them mass harvested to meet the world demand of the acai berry. Unfortunately, automation will always decrease the effectiveness of the end product.

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