Acai Berry | Acai Fruit | Acai Antioxidants | News

Staying fit is one of the most important parts of being healthy and avoiding heart disease. Fitness and exercise should be an important focus every day of the week, but it doesn’t have to be a chore.
Think outside the box when it comes to fitness and exercise. Walk a little faster and a little farther when you walk your dog. Park all the way across the parking lot when you go to work, or walk or ride your bike. Take the stairs, not the elevator.

The best way to start a proper fitness and exercise routine is to build your social circle. Find friends who are interested in walking, running, cycling, or going to the gym with you. If you don’t have any, post an ad in the local paper, hang flyers, or post online. Create a mom’s fitness and exercise group, a single’s group, a church fitness group, or any type of group that you know will inspire you to get moving.

Açai destroyed cultured human cancer cells in a University of Florida study conducted in January 2006.

In the study, which was published in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, six different chemical extracts were made from açai pulp. Four of the extracts killed anywhere from about 35 percent to 86 percent of leukemia cells when applied for 24 hours.

“Açai berries are already considered one of the richest fruit sources of antioxidants,” said Stephen Talcott, an assistant professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. “This study was an important step toward learning what people may gain from using beverages, dietary supplements, or other products made with the berries.”

Talcott continued, “This was only a cell-culture model, and we don’t want to give anyone false hope. We are encouraged by the findings. Compounds that show good activity against cancer cells in a model system are most likely to have beneficial effects in our bodies.”

Nationally renowned surgeon and award-winning author, Dr. Oz, says people should eat about five servings of antioxidant-rich foods a day. Dr. Oz appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in February 2008 to discuss some of these foods and to reveal his Ultimate Anti-Aging Checklist.

“All foods with dark colors in them have some of these really protecting antioxidant chemicals in them,” he said.

Dr. Oz recommended sweet potatoes, broccoli, and tomatoes as good anti-aging foods. He also introduced a new entry to his hall of fame—the açai berry!

“It has twice the antioxidant content as a blueberry,” Dr. Oz said. “It’s just breaking through.”