Acai Blog
Acai benefits cholesterol levels: Rat Study
The pulp of acai berries may counter the effects of a high-fat diet and reduce the risk of developing high blood cholesterol levels, says a new study with rats from Brazil.
Animals fed a high-fat diet and supplemented with acai pulp had lower levels of total and non-HDL cholesterol, compared to animals just eating a high-fat diet, according to findings published in Nutrition.
“This is the first study, to our knowledge, addressing the potential benefits of acai intake in the cholesterol profile,” wrote the researchers, led by Maria Lucia Pedrosa from the Federal University of Ouro Preto.
“We observed that the addition of acai pulp in the hypercholesterolemic diet had a hypocholesterolemic effect by reducing cholesterol levels (total and non-HDL), which could be explained by a lower food intake and higher faecal excretion,” they added.
High cholesterol levels, hypercholesterolaemia, have a long association with many diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease (CVD), the cause of almost 50 per cent of deaths in Europe, and reported to cost the EU economy an estimated €169bn ($202bn) per year.
Super fruits from Central and South America
Acai berries (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) have long formed part of the staple diet of Indian tribes. With the appearance of a purple grape and taste of a tropical berry, it has been shown to have powerful antioxidant properties thanks to a high level of anthocyanins, pigments that are also present in red wine.
It is presently being sold in a number of countries, including New Zealand, Australia, South America, Japan, USA, and the Middle East
Commenting independently on the study, acai expert Dr Alex Schauss from US-based contract research organization AIBMR told NutraIngredients that the study does provide in vivo experimental evidence that acai pulp can improve mammalian lipid profiles in response to a high fat diet.
Regarding the safety data, Dr Schauss added that “acai does not appear to cause liver damage as evidenced by the fact that açai does not alter activities of several liver enzymes. This is important since liver damage is a common phenomenon when a drug is taken for a long period of time.”
Study details
Pedrosa and her co-workers used female Fischer rats and divided them into four groups: Two groups consumed a standard diet, and two groups consumed a high fat diet containing 25 per cent soy oil and 1 per cent cholesterol. One standard diet group and one high fat diet group received additional acai pulp at a level of 2 per cent.
After six weeks, the researchers noted an increase in blood levels of total and non-HDL cholesterol and a decrease in levels of HDL cholesterol in the high-fat diet only animals. Such changes were attenuated in the açai-supplemented high-fat diet animals.
The researchers did not directly examine the mechanism behind the effects but noted that the benefits may not be solely due to the polyphenol content of the fruit.
“These results suggest that the consumption of açai improves antioxidant status and has a hypocholesterolemic effect in an animal model of dietary-induced hypercholesterolemia,” concluded the researchers.
Future study
AIBMR’s Dr Schauss noted that future studies should focus on using a better high fat mouse model. “There is a published rodent diet that is close to a typical high fat American diet or McDonald diet that could be used,” he said. He also said that the length of intervention should be increased to six months, while the effects of acai pulp on lipids can be further investigated by looking at both liver and blood vessel morphology, signalling pathways, LDL levels and cardiovascular functions.
Source: Nutrition
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2009.09.007
“Diet supplementation with açai (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) pulp improves biomarkers of oxidative stress and the serum lipid profile in rats”
Authors: M. Oliveira de Souza, M. Silva, M. Eustaquio Silva, R. de Paula Oliveira, M.L. Pedrosa
Sourced from: http://www.beveragedaily.com/Publications/Food-Beverage-Nutrition/NutraIngredients.com/Research/Acai-benefits-cholesterol-levels-Rat-study/?c=LGEN5ofIVLNnf0cCsONmGQ%3D%3D&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter%2BDaily
Warning on Acai Berry Scams
WARNING ON ACAI SCAMS: RioLife
has had an increase in inquiries relating to "victims" of
Acai SCAMS who
signed up for "free trials" and are still being charged monthly
un-authorised transactions. All Acai Scams so far have
originated from
the US.
RioLife does not conduct free trials that require YOUR
credit card information AND we use a thirdparty SSLmerchant facility
(eway.com.au) for all credit card transactions. RioLife encourages ALL
Acai Lovers to exercise extreme caution insigning up for US based
Acai
purchases. We are happy to give you our opinion on these companies if you
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We sell
Acai Berry because we love it and we know you will also!
Riolife Acai Berry Provides Energy for Athletes
Whether you are competing or just training for personal health and satisfaction, it is important to have a well-balanced diet. A good training diet allows you to feel confidant in all levels of competition and maximizes your body!s ability to adapt to your training,therefore maximizing performance.
Any person or individual who engages in physical activity needs to maintain a fuel and nutrient-rich diet. Certain foods provide our bodies with “fuel” to perform exercise. These foods are those rich in carbohydrates, as carbs fuel your work out. If you train when you are low on carbs, then the depleted stores will make you feel tired and your workout will be ineffective.
RioLife Acai berries are the perfect example of a nutritious carbohydrate rich food. They provides an athlete with energy from carbohydrates, calcium for your bones and muscle contraction, and iron to help your body circulate oxygen to your muscles during exercise!
With exercise, our bodies sweat and lose essential salts and minerals. By having RioLife Acai after a workout, it will provide your body with a good combination of carbohydrate, protein, fats and minerals. Another benefit of Acai for the athlete is its high antioxidant content. Exercise equals stress in our bodies, which translates to an increase in free radicals. RioLife Acai's antioxidants may help our bodies with the high stress our tissues experience with exercise.
Not only is RioLife Açaí great for fueling your workout, but it is easy and convenient to consume.
Independent author: Flavia Fayet from http://www.nutriesca.com.au
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Acai Berry provides rich Vitamins & Minerals
Acai Berry is a rich source of Vitamins and Minerals
Vitamins and minerals are substances found in our foods that are needed in small quantities to support your body!s growth and good health. We need these compounds everyday, for several processes in our bodies. In order to get them, we need to eat a variety of foods including fruits and vegetables, which are high in vitamins and minerals.
RioLife Acai is a unique fruit, because it contains a wide variety of these essential vitamins and minerals. Açaí is packed with vitamin E, iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and
potassium!
Let!s take a look at what RioLife Açaí offers:
Acai is rich in vitamin E. Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin which has antioxidant properties. Vitamin E protects our cells, especially their membranes from oxidation, or “destruction”. It also helps prevent the healthy unsaturated fats from being oxidized.
Iron is needed by our body!s red blood cells to carry oxygen and so it literally helps our cells to make energy. This is one of the reasons why Açaí is so energetic! Like other plantderived iron, the iron in Acai berries is not absorbed very well in our bodies. One way to
change this is to ensure you have Vitamin C with it. Vitamin C is found in citrus foods and juices. So by mixing RioLife Acai berries with juice, it helps boost your iron intake!
We need calcium for our bones and teeth to develop properly, for their maintenance, and for our muscles and heart to function. Calcium is deposited in our bones and teeth, making them strong. If we do not consume enough calcium in our diet, our bones become more and more porous, which means that a slight fall may break your bones! That is why it is so important to maintain an adequate calcium intake throughout our lives. The new Australian and New Zealand recommended Dietary Intake (RDI) states that we need 1000mg of Calcium per day. RioLife organic freeze dried Acai provides you with 51.9mg with every 3 scoops.
Magnesium is a mineral needed for our bodies to produce energy. It also helps our bodies in regulating potassium and calcium. It is important in bone formation and muscles.
Phosphorus is another important mineral. It is part of our DNA, cell membranes and enzymes, is needed to maintain our bones and teeth strong, and in our body!s energy metabolism.
Potassium is also a mineral. it is invovled in muscle contraction, maintaining a proper fluid balance in our cells, and blood pressure control.
Next time you reach for your RioLife Açaí, keep in mind the guilt-free goodness inside that packet of fruit!
Independent author: Flavia Fayet from http://www.nutriesca.com.au
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Acai Berry increases your Energy!
Acai Berry provides Sustained Energy!
What can you eat that will give you sustained energy throughout the day? RioLife Acai? Yes!
What does this exotic fruit have that gives you sustained energy throughout the day? Carbohydrates and fibre. But not all carbohydrates give you sustained energy. Carbohydrates, when digested, release glucose, or sugar into our blood. The measure of the extent of the sugar rise caused after a food is eaten is called the Glycemic Index (or GI). The lower the GI of a food, the slower the food is digested and absorbed, producing a gradual rise in blood sugar levels. Foods such as white bread or jelly beans, when eaten, cause your blood sugar to rise very quickly. A blood sugar that is too high or too low is
dangerous for our bodies. So when sugar rises, it stimulates the pancreas to release insulin into the blood. Insulin tells all our cells to open up their “gates” and let sugar in. This then causes the blood sugar level to drop again. When we consume foods that release sugar quickly, our bodies tend to release too much insulin.
Too much insulin means that too much sugar is taken up by our cells, and causes our sugar level to drop to under normal levels. This is the low that you usually feel after a sugar “rush”. It does not give you sustained energy and tends to make you feel tired and fatigued. RioLife Acai berry pulp has a glycemic load of 0.5. The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to determine the impact of carbohydrate in our blood. It gives a fuller picture than GI alone, since it considers the amount of carbohydrate consumed. A GL of 10 or less is considered low, therefore helping control blood sugar levels.
RioLife Acai has a glycemic load of 0.5, meaning that it provides sustained energy for today'ss busy lifestyle. The dietary fibre in Acai acts like a sponge, mixes with all the digestive juices in our bodies binding to the good we have eaten, and helps to slow down digestion. Instead of getting a sugar rush after a meal, the sugar is released slowly, giving you sustained energy! This also helps control appetite and delays hunger, which may help in a diet program.
Unlike most juices, most of the Acai berry's kilo joules come not from sugar but from the healthy unsaturated omega-6 and omega-9 fats. This is one juice you can fell good about drinking! It will fill you up due to its fibre content and at the same time give you sustained energy, unlike other fruit juices! The Acai berry is usually mixed with apple juice, which has a low GI- to give you the same sustained energy as a RioLife Acai smoothie. So next time that you are looking for a pick-me-up, look for RioLife Acai at your local health food store.
Independent author: Flavia Fayet from http://www.nutriesca.com.au
Buy Riolife Acai Berry Online Now!
Acai Berry can help reduce Heart Disease
Acai Berry Heart Friendly Nutrients!
It is known that certain diets promote heart disease. And we also know that the proper diet can help reduce heart risk, even if you have risk factors which cannot change (such as age, genetics and family history of the disease). However, we also know that the lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise and smoking are modifiable! That's great news.
A heart friendly diet not only protects us from dangerous health related conditions. One of the key aspects of a heart friendly diet is the inclusion of fruits and vegetables and the replacement of saturated fat in the diet by unsaturated fats. One way that antioxidants guard against health conditions is by protecting the LDL, or bad cholesterol from oxidizing - which is what forms plaque in our arteries and hence cause atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.
RioLife Acai is cholesterol-free. It is naturally cholesterol-free since cholesterol only comes from animal products! Why do we want to lower our cholesterol? This is because it is linked to heart disease. RioLife Açaí berries are not only cholesterol-free, but low in the heart-clogging saturated fat and high in the heart-friendly unsaturated fats and fibre. Together, these nutrients help reduce cholesterol.
Let!s take a look at the types of fat in RioLife Açaí. There are three types of fats found in our foods. Saturated fat, polyunsaturated fay, and monounsaturated fat. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats tend to be liquid at room temperature (your
vegetable oils, with the exception of coconut and palm which are mainly saturated). Acai berries are low in saturated fats. These are the fats that increase your cholesterol and clog up your arteries. The Acai berry contains the unsaturated fats omega-6 and omega-9 (a classification of the type of unsaturated fats), which reduce LDL-cholesterol levels (think L = Low, so we want them to be low in our blood) when they replace
saturated fats in our diet.
Acai is richer in monounsaturated fats than polyunsaturated fats. Monounsaturated fats maintain the good HDL-cholesterol levels (think H = healthy, or you want it to be high) in our blood. Monounsaturated fats are less susceptible to oxidation than polyunsaturated oils. This makes monounsaturated fats a heart-healthy choice.
Recall that RioLife Acai is a good source of dietary fibre. Dietary fibre helps lower cholesterol and maintains sugar levels in our body.
RioLife Acai is a true heart-friendly fruit!
Independent author: Flavia Fayet from http://www.nutriesca.com.au
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Acai Berry & Fibre
Gut-Healthy Fiber
“Eat more fibre”. Easy to say but hard to do? You have probably heard that before, but why is fibre so good for us?
A high fibre diet (approximately 30-40g per day) reduces the risk of some chronic conditions. It is also a great way to help you feel full quickly and
lose weight. Fibre comes from plant foods: whole grain cereals, vegetables, legumes, fruit, nuts and
seeds, and is necessary for your gut to function properly. However, it is important to drink plenty of fluids in order for the fibre to swell and act as a sponge and regulate your gut movement.
Fibre acts like a sponge and soaks up sugar in the foods you eat, and releases it slowly, helping control blood sugar levels. It also reduces cholesterol absorption and excretion, therefore
reducing blood cholesterol. But that!s not all. Foods that are high in fibre expand
in the stomach and intestine like a sponge, to help you feel full, and these foods tend to be those low in energy. These foods are said to have low energy density. If you compare to a bag of lollies, there is no fibre in it and they are very high in energy, and lollies don!t actlike a sponge and expand in your stomach to help you feel full and stop eating!
RioLife
Acai berries can help you bulk up your diet with fibre, and therefore decrease its energy density. This way you!ll be eating less energy for the same weight of food and therefore help in weight management. RioLife organic freeze dried
Acai has a fibre content
of 1.35g (per 5g serve) compared with an apple (1.8g) or a weetbix (1.8g). In an
Acai berry smoothie with 3 scoops of organic freeze dried
Acai powder, you get around 4g of dietary fibre! The new recommended intake for Australia and New Zealand suggest we consume 30g of fibre per day.
Independent author: Flavia Fayet from
http://www.nutriesca.com.au
Purchase Riolife Acai Berry online now!
Acai Berry & Weight Loss
Acai Berry helps with your weight loss!
How can you improve your mental and physical performance and at the same time control your weight? A smoothie with RioLife organic freeze dried Acai first thing in the morning! Well, after you wake up and shower of course. Many of us skip breakfast and that is not good news.
Having a good breakfast is one of the simplest ways to improve your overall health. Did you know that breakfast skippers tend to be heavier than non-breakfast skippers?
Research shows that people who consume breakfast are leaner and maintain their weight compared to those who skip breakfast. If you skip breakfast, your metabolism slows down to conserve the little energy you have left from the overnight fast, which means that
anything and everything that you consume later in the day, your body will want to store right away! By having a balanced and complete breakfast, you!ll kick start your metabolism. Not only will your metabolism become more efficient during the day, but it will prevent you from being too hungry and making less healthy food choices at your next meal. It will also give you energy to function, meaning that you get more out of your day and feel great!
In addition, by skipping breakfast, delayed cravings peak in the afternoon, which can lead to poor nutrition choices. Breakfast skippers also miss out on vitamins and minerals that they would have consumed in their breakfast meal and do not make it up later in the day.
Lack of breakfast leads to poor memory, concentration, ability to do work and much more! So if you find that you are not at your peak and you skip breakfast, why not try an Acai berry smoothie for a change? Or a scoop of RioLife organic freeze dried Acai with yoghurt
and/or cereal?
If you're short on time, just throw a few spoons in a tub of yoghurt and mix it up. In one serving you!ll get the goodness of fibre, antioxidants, carbohydrates, and healthy unsaturated fats plus vitamins and minerals to help your body function.
A RioLife Acai berry breakfast gives you the nutrition and energy you need in your busy lifestyle!
Independent author: Flavia Fayet from http://www.nutriesca.com.au
Buy Acai Berry online now!
Acai Berry and Antioxidants
The Açaí berry is not your regular fruit!
One of the reasons for this is its high antioxidant content. You have probably heard over and over that there is consistent evidence in research that diets rich in fruit and vegetables and other plant foods are associated with better health. Sound familiar? Probably. So why is that?
This association is partly given to the high content of antioxidants in fruits and vegetables, which protect our bodies against chronic disease by decreasing free radical oxidative damage. Our bodies are in constant attack by free radicals, which are a common by-product of normal metabolism. Think of free radicals as individuals with too much energy and no where to put it. So they are extremely active and attack everything in their path. In our bodies, this translates to the damage of our cells and genetic material. In the long term, this may cause permanent damage that is irreversible (such as cancer). In our day to day lives, we are further exposed to high amounts of free radicals through increased physical activity, stress, pollutants, chemicals and toxins. Antioxidants which are obtained through our diet act like scavengers, which seek and “relax” the free radicals.
Once the free radicals are “relaxed”, they do no further damage. So what kinds of antioxidants are in RioLife Acai berries? The Acai berry is rich in anthocyanins, compounds that provide colour to the fruits and serve as natural antioxidants. Those are the same compounds found in red wine.
However, RioLife Acai berry puree has 10-30 times more. RioLife's certified organic Freeze dried Acai contains 70-210 times more! The richer the pigment colour of the fruit, the more antioxidants it generally contains. One way to help you achieve a high antioxidant diet is to make sure your plate is very colourful. Ensure that you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables at your main meals, and snack on a RioLife Acai smoothie or other fruits and vegetables instead of lollies or chocolate.
The Acai berry's royal purple pigment not only makes the fruit appealing to eat, but studies have shown that berry anthocyanins are beneficial in reducing age-associated oxidative stress (or the free radical damage). If berries can combat premature aging with 25 to 40 times less antioxidants than Acai, then just imagine what RioLife organic freeze dried Acai can do!
The US food industry is now labeling the antioxidants in food with ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity). Data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggests a serving of fresh fruit and vegetables has between 890 and 2,500 ORAC units.
Just one 5g serving of RioLIfe organic freeze dried Açaí will provide you with around 4,695 ORAC units!
Independent author: Flavia Fayet from http://www.nutriesca.com.au
Puchase RioLife Acai Berry online now!
The Seven Benefits of Riolife Acai Berries
What are the Seven Benefits of Riolife Acai Berries?
The Acai (pronounced Ah-Sigh-Ee) berry is a fruit packed with an amazing range of nutritional and health benefits. This small berry from the Brazilian Amazon is so packed with essential nutrients that it is in a nutritional class of its own!
For this very reason, this guide will help you understand more about what Acai berries have to offer and how they may improve your overall health when incorporated into your daily diet.
Today, you will become familiar with all the nutritional benefits of Acai, and in the following 7 installments you will learn in-depth what each of Acai's nutrients are, why they are nutritious and how those nutrients can be easily incorporated into your daily routine. If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact our nutritionist and dietitian Flavia Fayet at www.nutriesca.com.au
Read on and enjoy!
RioLife Acai berries not only taste great, but they provide many nutrients that have been proven to be essential in a healthy diet.
So what does the RioLife Açaí berry have to offer?
1. Antioxidants
2. A great start to your day
3. Gut-healthy fibre
4. Heart friendly nutrients
5. Sustained energy
6. Vitamins & minerals
7. Athlete fuel
Purchase Acai Berries online now!