Originating deep in the Amazon Rainforests, the acai fruit is a very special little purple berry. While it may be small in size, it is rich in amazing health benefits. This has led many experts to call this fruit “The top superfood on earth!” and “The #1 food you may not have heard of but NEED to be eating.” Simply adding this berry to your daily routine is a great way to make each day the best one you have ever had.

Almost everyone could use more natural nutrition in their diet. The typical Western World diet is severely lacking in many on the most essential vitamins and minerals. When you combine this with our long work days and stressful lives, it leaves many of us drained and frustrated. The acai fruit is the perfect way to inject healthy nutrition into your diet, and make you feel like you are ready to take on the world.

This little purple berry is packed full of antioxidants, amino acids and Omega essential fatty acids. Its antioxidant levels outranks nearly every other food on the planet, including; pomegranates, blueberries, and goji berries.

Since it is a natural berry, just like blueberries or strawberries, acai provides all these benefits without a harsh crash or any nasty side effects.

Increase Your Energy

We are a society that depends on mass quantities of coffee, energy drinks, and soda to keep us going throughout the day. However, these drinks only provide a temporary boost before the inevitable crash just a few hours later. They can also have some pretty scary side effects like constant jitters or shakes and a racing heart. Luckily, the acai berry provides a natural, healthy, alternative.

Many people report that after just taking acai for a week that they were able to give up their sugar and caffeine addiction for good. Brazilian athletes have known about this fruit for decades, and used it as their secret weapon to dominate everyone else in surfing and martial arts tournaments. If it helps these athletes have enough energy to make it through a grueling competition, it can certainly help you make it through your 9-5 work day.

Look, Feel, and Think Younger Than Ever

Acai has one of the highest antioxidant counts of any food known to man. This means that it helps fight off harmful free radicals that are naturally produced by our bodies on a daily basis. These free radicals are one of the main culprits of aging, and antioxidants are key to reversing the damage they inflict on our bodies cells.

To put it simply, antioxidants can help you look, feel, and act younger. One of the first things that some people who take acai notice is that their skin and hair starts to look like it did 10 years ago. The energy boost helps you feel as good as you did in your early 20s. The Brazilian locals have started to call it “Amazon Rainforest Viagra” because of its ability to increase libido.

Acai is also a good source of essential fatty acids, which have been shown to have a positive effect on improving cognitive abilities (which often diminish with age) and reducing joint pain caused by arthritis. Acai berry is a complete anti-aging supplement, because it can help you feel young as well as look younger.

Promotes Healthy Weight Loss

The unique combination of essential fatty acids, fiber, amino acids, and antioxidants make the acai berry fruit an interesting supplement for healthy weight loss. This combination has been shown to boost the metabolism and suppress appetite. It also helps prevent the accumulation of fat by controlling your blood sugar and preventing insulin spikes. The high fiber content will help keep you feeling full for longer, as well as regulating your digestive system to work optimally.

Most weight loss pills work by speeding up your metabolism, at the cost of speeding up your heart. There have been so many cases of these type of pills causing damage and even death, that nobody in their right mind could recommend anyone take them. With this natural fruit you can be on your way to losing weight in a healthy manner that keeps it off for good. Not only do you avoid all the potentially deadly side effects of normal weight loss drugs, but you also gain all the other benefits we have talked about so far.

May Help Prevent Heart Disease, Diabetes, and Cancer

One of the most important acai studies, conducted by the University of Florida, showed that acai caused a “self destruct” reaction in Leukemia cells. Antioxidants are one of the best ways we currently know of to help lower our chances of getting cancer, and there is no better way to get them than through acai berry juice or pills.

Fiber and Omega fatty acids are two of the biggest weapons we have in preventing diabetes and heart disease. These nutrients both can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Your diet and lifestyle are the most important factor in preventing these deadly diseases, and consuming acai on a daily basis is a great way to start a healthy habit.

What Is The Best Way to Take Acai?

Most nutritionists would agree that the best way to get maximum benefit from acai would be by eating it fresh, and whole. If you live in Brazil, or any other location that has access to fresh acai berries, this is certainly your best option. Since the berry does not hold up well during overseas transportation, most of the world does not have that option. If you have decided to start taking an acai berry supplement, you have quite a few different choices. You will most often find acai berry supplements as a juice (or pulp), powder, or pill.

Before we go into the details of comparing and contrasting the different types of acai supplements, it should be mentioned that quality is the most important factor for all of them. A pill made with a high quality acai extract will be exponentially better for you than an acai juice blend that contains mostly fillers and little actual acai. To get the most out of any supplement, you need to be able to spot the difference between a low quality and high quality brand. For each type of supplement I will give you some tips on picking out one that is of great quality.

Acai Juices and Pulp Purees

If eating fresh acai berries is the best option, then consuming a high quality juice or pulp puree is a close second. Our bodies are designed to absorb the nutrients it needs from what we eat and drink. This means that you will absorb more of the positive aspects of the acai berry if you drink its pulp, compared to taking it in pill or powder form. When you have an acai berry drink you are simply getting the most bang for your buck.

It is essential that the berries are processed and bottled very soon after they are harvested. This ensures that you get the maximum nutrient and antioxidant content, even after it has been shipped overseas. You also want to make sure that the product incorporates the entire berry into the drink, especially the skin. Most of the Anthocyanin (an antioxidant) content of the acai berry is located in the skin. This means that a high quality acai juice will be much thicker than your typical fruit juice. If the product you buy has the same consistency as normal grape juice, there is a very good chance that it is not a high quality brand.

Acai Berry Powders

Another option that is very popular is the use of acai berry powders. This is the most concentrated form of the acai fruit. Many people who are into healthy eating and exercise, already make use of protein shakes and smoothies. This powder can easily be integrated into your current shake, or you can design a whole new recipe around the great taste of acai.

Many people find it difficult to come up with the energy needed to get a good workout at the gym, after a hard day at work. Since this berry is such a powerful source of natural energy, it is the perfect addition to a pre-workout shake, giving you all the energy you need to get the most out of your trip to the gym.

Making an acai powder that maintains all of the vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants that make acai special is even harder than making a quality acai juice. In order for the berries to be turned into a powder they must be dried. However, high temperatures can completely wipe out all of the antioxidant content the berry has to offer. In order to avoid this destruction, acai powder must be made using a process called freeze drying. When it is made this way the powder will retain its dark purple color, and will most likely be slightly oily. Most companies use a process called spray drying. This leaves the powder an unnaturally bright pink color, and completely devoid of any nutritional benefit. When you decide to buy an acai powder, make sure that you are getting on that was freeze dried.

Acai Berry Pills

There is little difference between a quality acai powder and a quality acai berry pill. This is because the pill will be made by encapsulating the quality powder. With a pill you are simply trading the flavor of the powder for the convenience of the capsule. If you happen to be one of the few people who do not enjoy the flavor of the acai berry, you will probably get the most out of purchasing it in pill form. It is also the easiest and quickest way to consume acai, which is important for someone who does not have the extra time to make an acai smoothie every day.

The main problem with purchasing an acai berry pill is that the vast majority of them are low quality. They are by far the cheapest and most efficient way to produce an acai product, which means nearly anyone can produce and sell them. The acai berry scam that is mentioned on this page will always be trying to sell acai in pill form. Finding a high quality acai pill is going to be much more difficult than finding a good pulp puree or powder.

The requirements for a quality acai powder, mentioned above, hold true for a quality acai pill. The problem is, you will often not be able to check these pills out until you have already made your purchase. There is an easy solution to this problem, and I have found this to be the best way to avoid purchasing a fake acai berry pill.

The trick is to only buy the pills if the manufacturer also sells a high quality acai pulp and powder. Try to avoid anyone who only sells it as a pill, unless there is an abundance of proof that they are the real deal. It takes quite a bit more effort to produce a quality juice and powder, so you can be sure that companies who do so have your best interests in mind.

Controversy Surrounding Acai Berry Scams

If you have done any other research on this berry, you may have heard about the controversy surrounding some acai berry free trial scams. These scams where running rampant across the internet for most of 2009. In fact, the Better Business Bureau listed it as one of the top 10 scams in America, for that year. These scam companies used the positive press being given to acai, high pressured sales tactics, and various forms of internet advertising to perpetuate their scam across the web.

It all started when a few prominent doctors started recommending this berry on national television. The word about the positive benefits of the acai berry started to spread from reports done on local news channels, and health segments during the big day time talk shows. At this time the berry was relatively unknown, and there were not many acai products available outside of Brazil. You cannot simply go out to the store to buy these berries at the grocery store, like you would grapes, because they are very difficult to import whole.

The demand for an acai supplement obviously skyrocketed after it received such promising reviews by some very trustworthy doctors. The high demand and low supply market for acai was the perfect situation for these scam artists. They quickly came up with a low quality acai berry pill, and started to sell it online. The fact that these supplements where low quality was not the worst part of the scam. The truth is, 90% of supplements you will find in a health food store are almost worthless. The worst part was, that they were using a free trial offer to trick people into paying $80-$100 each month for one bottle of their product.

The offer made by these companies was so irresistible, that it was no surprise that so many people got caught up in the scam. When you landed on their website you would be told that they were running a free trial promotion to get the word out about their product. All you needed to do was pay for shipping and handling. This promotion would only be given out to the next 100 people, and would only be available for the next couple of minutes. However, these restrictions where just a ruse, and they would never change no matter how many times you visited the site.

What most people did not realize was that when they signed up for the free trial they were also agreeing to be added to an auto-ship plan that would cost them up to $100 per month. They could end this by canceling the plan within 14 days of placing the order. The problem was, the companies involved would not pick up their phone or answer their email when you tried to cancel. Customers were no forced to cancel their credit cards, or be charged each and every month.

With this sort of serious credit card fraud, the companies crossed the line of being a legitimate business with a bad product, to being flat out criminals. It did not take very long for the Better Business Bureau to become flooded with hundreds of complaints each week about these scams.

Another way that this acai scam was perpetuated was by the use of fake blogs. Most people consider a blog a trustworthy source of someone’s honest opinions . They fly completely under the radar when used as advertisements. These companies would set up hundreds of fake blogs claiming to be a user review of their product. Most of the time it would be a story of how a mom lost 15-20 pounds in a month only by using XYZ acai product, which they got for free online. They would even go as far as to fill the blog with fake comments talking about how great the product was, and how others have also used it to lose tons of weight.

These blogs looked completely legitimate and did a good job in convincing people that these products were the real deal. I mean, who would not trust the honest review from a mother of two? If it were not for a simple mistake that these companies made, these blogs still might be up and running. It turns out that one of the companies used the same before and after picture on all of their fake blogs. Jenny in Michigan apparently looked exactly the same as Susan in Florida. The pictures were of a German plus sized model who was photo shopped to look much skinnier in the after picture. These fake acai blogs became so rampant that the FDA was forced to release new regulations that banned their use.

The Federal Government was not the only group of people after the acai scam companies. Many of the doctors and celebrities who originally praised the acai berry as the top superfood on earth, sued these scammers for using their images without permission. Many of the web pages that offered the free trials, were also made to look like a specific celebrity or doctor was recommending the product. This was just another technique these scam artists used to make people trust them enough to give up their credit card number. Obviously, these doctors and celebrities wanted to distance themselves as far away as possible from the criminals using their image illegally, and attempted to use legal action to get them to stop.

The combination of a government crack down and serious legal action caused many of these con artists to shut down, or move on to their next scam. However, as long as there are people looking for legitimate acai products, they will still pop up. The information given in this section should paint a pretty clear picture of what to look out for when you are looking for a place to purchase an acai product online, in order to avoid being tricked into becoming another victim of an acai berry scam.

Where Can I Find This Amazing Acai Fruit?

All of these remarkable benefits are the reason why this superfood has exploded in popularity. It is not often that you can find a natural supplement that is so healthy, and has no negative side effects. It is no wonder that so many people are clamoring to get their hands on this fruit.

Sadly, the acai palm only grows in the rainforest and the berries do not hold up well during shipping. This means that the only way for people outside of South America to get acai is through an acai berry juice or acai powder (either loose or in pill form).

Since this is such a delicate fruit, it is very easy for companies to completely destroy its nutritional value in the packaging and shipping process. This means it is essential to buy your acai from a company that uses the best preservation methods, and works with the locals to get the highest quality berries.
The company that has the longest track record of quality and services, and gets the highest recommendation from its customers is Amazon Thunder.

After trying nearly every acai product on the market, Amazon Thunder is the only one I recommend to those who want to get the max benefit from this amazing fruit.