Acai Berry Favonoids
Filed Under News February 15, 2008
Acai (ah-sigh-ee) grows wild on palm trees that are native to the rainforests of Brazil and the Amazon basin. Each of the Acai palm trees is able to produce around 20 kilograms of fruit annually. Acai’s dark purple color comes from polyphenolic compounds present in the fruit.
Historically, Brazilians have used Acai berries to treat digestive disorders and skin conditions.
The antioxidant benefits of the Acai berry, combined with the fatty acids it contains, make this one of the most important superfoods. The Acai berry is thought to have 10 times more antioxidants than red grapes, 10 to 30 times the anthocyanins of red wine and twice as much as that found in blueberries. The Acai berry is widely acknowledged to have the highest nutritional value of any fruit in the world, and this has earned the Acai berry the title of superfood.
Acai berry flavonoids known as Anthocyanins also found in red wine are believed to contribute towards the “French Paradox”. The French drink large amounts of red wine and have one of the lowest number of people suffering from heart problems even though many of them are smokers and their diets are very high in saturated fat and cholesterol.
In studies carried out in the USA it has been found that the juice of the Acai berry could destroy up to 4/5ths of all cancer cells in the body because of the antioxidant properties contained within it. It is said that Acai berry has twice as many cancer beating antioxidants in it compared to blueberries. A study done by the University of Florida and published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in January of 2006 did research that showed that the antioxidants in the Acai berry trigger a self-destruct response in 86% of the cultured Leukaemia cancer cells tested.
Antioxidants may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s
Filed Under News February 3, 2008
A new study has found that Apples contain protective antioxidants which help in reducing the risk of dementia in people.
According to the study by researchers in the United States, apples and other fruits like oranges and bananas are important sources of vitamins, minerals and fibre which protect against neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. The researchers at the Cornell University came to the conclusion after investigating the effects of apple, banana, and orange extracts on neuron cells.
They found that the phenolic phytochemicals of the fruits prevented neurotoxicity on the cells. Among the three fruits, apples contained the highest content of protective antioxidants, followed by bananas then oranges. “Our study demonstrated that antioxidants in the major fresh fruits consumed in the United States and Korea protected neuronal cells from oxidative stress.
“Additional consumption of fresh fruits such as apple, banana, and orange may be beneficial to improve effects in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s,” the researchers wrote in the ‘Journal of Food Science’.
The study came just days after British scientists discovered the key to reversing the effects of dementia. The researchers at the University of Sunderland found that regular exposure to safe low-level, infra-red light could turn back the brain’s biological clock and reverse the effects of memory loss.
Cranberry Antioxidant Level Highest in USDA Report
Filed Under News February 1, 2008
The latest Agricultural Research Service Report from USDA, containing the results of the most comprehensive analysis of antioxidants in foods, shows cranberries score among the highest of all common fruits on the antioxidant scale (www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=15866).
The report includes antioxidant values for a wide variety of foods, which are measured by their Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, or ORAC value. With 9584 ORAC units per 100 grams of fresh fruit, cranberries have the highest antioxidant capacity when compared to 19 common fruits.
