The acai palm tree is one of eight palm species classified under the genus Euterpe. Pronounced “ah-sigh-ee”, acai grows abundantly in the floodplains and swamps of Central and South America where the tropical climate is friendly to this blackish purple drupe.
Acai palm trees are grown for their fruits and hearts. While it has been a staple food for many years in Brazil, the acai berry has become extremely popular in the US in recent years that global demand has gone through the roof.
Similar to grapes, the acai palm tree produces berries in bunches, going from a green color to a dark rich purple as they ripen. Acai fruits are round, with a single large seed enclosed in a fibrous pulp covered with an oily skin coating. One acai palm tree can produce four to eight bunches a year, with each bunch weighing up to 6 kilograms.
For hundreds of years, Brazilians have been using oil from the acai fruit to treat diarrhea. They also add shredded acai rind to topical wash solutions for skin ulcers. In Peru, acai seeds are ground, toasted and applied to fevers. In Colombia, the acai, also called naidi, is a very popular gastronomic delight.
Along the banks of the Amazon River, natives consume acai like water. They extract the juice by first soaking the fruit in water. Once the skin is softened, the acai is squeezed and strained to produce a dark purple liquid. Acai extracts are consumed as fresh fruit juice or added to ice cream, liquor and sweet snacks. Amazonians drink up to 2 liters of acai juice per day.
Since the time of tribal wars among Amazon warriors to modern Rio de Janeiro, juice from the acai berry has been and remains an important part of South American diet.
The secret behind those beautiful Brazilian bodies is bunched up there in the acai palm tree.
The acai berry, only recently discovered in the U.S., has been named one of the Top-Super-foods . It has many benefits that range from high,quick energy and even helping in the research of deadly cancers.
The Acai berry, also known by the name of Cabbage Palm, has been growing in the Amazon in a region called the Varzea Flooded Forest for hundreds of years, but was only known to the native people until recently when it has swept across the world as the newest of the Top-Ten-Super-foods. The Amazon Flood plains are so called due to the fact that the Amazon River overflows it’s banks and floods the surrounding area with more than nine meters of water.
The acai palm tree re grows with ease and even regenerates where human development has destroyed parts of the rainforest. Therefore it is easily maintained and grows for a long time, about 100 years.
The cycle starts in the rainforest. The acai berry palm, has a long thin trunk up to 25m high and a clutch of branches at the top from which hang ribbon-like leaves. Hundreds of acai fruits dangle from branches in clusters that look like nests of bluebottles.
The fruit picking is always done by hand. In the afternoons, the natives climb the huge trees, cut off the branches, usually with machetes and climb back down, as they have done for centuries. The branches are then loaded into boats and when the baskets and boats are full, they’re shipped off to the markets. The Acai berries are harvested in the months of August through December.
The berry consists of a large seed or pit, with only 9% of the berry being actual fruit. It deteriorates rather quickly, in les than a day, so harvesting and shipping must be done very quickly. Once within a processing plant however, it can go through freezing and will last 4 x longer. In the local markets and shops, store owners get a hold of the berries fresh and mix it with oil and water before being manually crushed and strained. They are then able to sell it quickly and it’s very fresh.
This super food is the staple of some of the poorest sections of the Amazon basin but is also very popular all across Brazil with people of all ages and status’. It is considered to be the single most nutritious fruit out of the hundreds of edible plants available in the Amazon rainforest. It has saved many families and hundreds of people from starvation and thus is considered incredibly important to not only the people of Brazil and starving families, but all across the world as it becomes more well known for it’s amazing benefits.
When a shop near his Copacabana home specializing in obscure foods started to import frozen acai, he began to incorporate it into his diet and also to encourage all his jujitsu students to drink it. The jujitsu boys were pin-ups with the best bodies: everyone wanted to know what ‘miracle’ potion they were drinking. Soon Rio’s surfers became fans, and gradually the drink crossed over to become part of beach culture. By the early 1990s, no juice bar could exist without selling it.
Acai is becoming known as the most beneficial fruit in the world. Acai berry from the Amazon forest is one of the most nutritious and powerful foods according to Dr Nicholas Perricone. The acai berry has been around for thousands of years and not until the 1990’s was it introduced to the western world. Acai berry was first used by the tribes of the Amazon jungle as a cure for various ailments. It comes from a palm that has a long thin trunk up to 25m high with a group of branches with 3 meter long leaves at the top and the berries hang from these branches in clusters, each of them producing 700 to 900 fruits. Each acai palm tree produces about 20 kg of fruit per year and the wine produced by this fruit has become one of the most important products in terms of finance. In the city of Belem in Brazil, over 30,000 people are involved to keep up with its enormous demand. Acai is now a fruit that is taking the fruit industry by storm.NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF ACAIAcai has been eaten for hundreds years by Brazilians. In the 1950’s, medical professionals began to recognize the health benefits of the palm fruit. Recently, several medical studies in the United Sates have documented the health benefits of Acai. Best studies have shown that this berry is one of the most nutritious foods in the world. In fact, the berry has prodigious nutritional properties. It has high levels of iron, calcium, carbohydrates, fiber and antioxidants. It also has many important vitamins and minerals, including B and E vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids, Omega-6, and Omega-9. HEALTH BENEFITS OF ACAIMany positive things have been mentioned about acai berry. It has been recognized as one of the foremost superfoods for anti-aging. For example, its amino acids and trace minerals can help slowing down the destructive effects to the skin which cause the signs of aging and can help diminishing also inflammation, a leading cause of the aging process. Its antioxidants properties help to lower the incidences of heart disease and its high levels of Vitamin E helps the immune system to function better.There are claims also that acai is a natural cholesterol controller helping to reduce the bad cholesterol in the blood and to increase the good cholesterol. Other claims include that this fruit berry helps with weight loss, blood circulation and can function as a natural form of viagra. While more study needs to be done to prove the effectiveness of the claims, there is no doubt that adding Acai to your diet will improve your health. The Acai Palmberry of WholeHealth contains pure, whole freeze-dried, organic acai palmberry pulp in a vegetarian capsule. Amazon region is not damaged during the production of this product. Press the banner below and place your order to enjoy a better health.Acai is becoming known as the most beneficial fruit in the world. Acai berry from the Amazon forest is one of the most nutritious and powerful foods according to Dr Nicholas Perricone. The acai berry has been around for thousands of years and not until the 1990’s was it introduced to the western world. Acai berry was first used by the tribes of the Amazon jungle as a cure for various ailments. It comes from a palm that has a long thin trunk up to 25m high with a group of branches with 3 meter long leaves at the top and the berries hang from these branches in clusters, each of them producing 700 to 900 fruits. Each acai palm tree produces about 20 kg of fruit per year and the wine produced by this fruit has become one of the most important products in terms of finance. In the city of Belem in Brazil, over 30,000 people are involved to keep up with its enormous demand. Acai is now a fruit that is taking the fruit industry by storm.NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF ACAIAcai has been eaten for hundreds years by Brazilians. In the 1950’s, medical professionals began to recognize the health benefits of the palm fruit. Recently, several medical studies in the United Sates have documented the health benefits of Acai. Best studies have shown that this berry is one of the most nutritious foods in the world. In fact, the berry has prodigious nutritional properties. It has high levels of iron, calcium, carbohydrates, fiber and antioxidants. It also has many important vitamins and minerals, including B and E vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids, Omega-6, and Omega-9. HEALTH BENEFITS OF ACAIMany positive things have been mentioned about acai berry. It has been recognized as one of the foremost superfoods for anti-aging. For example, its amino acids and trace minerals can help slowing down the destructive effects to the skin which cause the signs of aging and can help diminishing also inflammation, a leading cause of the aging process. Its antioxidants properties help to lower the incidences of heart disease and its high levels of Vitamin E helps the immune system to function better.There are claims also that acai is a natural cholesterol controller helping to reduce the bad cholesterol in the blood and to increase the good cholesterol. Other claims include that this fruit berry helps with weight loss, blood circulation and can function as a natural form of viagra. While more study needs to be done to prove the effectiveness of the claims, there is no doubt that adding Acai to your diet will improve your health. The Acai Palmberry of WholeHealth contains pure, whole freeze-dried, organic acai palmberry pulp in a vegetarian capsule. Amazon region is not damaged during the production of this product.
Gilles Coulombe B.A. B.LL D.S.A.
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December 22, 2009 8:42 pm | 
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