We spend a great deal of time hear talking about all the ugly things that go on in the supplement industry.  We have spent years trying  to expose all the acai berry scams and resveratrol scams.   We have exposed supplement companies for making supplements with unsafe fillers and flow agents.   After reading this blog for a while you could easily come away with the feeling that all supplement companies are evil!  Well, we finally have a story to report that will restore your faith in the supplement industry.

Perfect Aquatic Greens Gets, Well, More Perfect!

We have always been impressed by Perfect Aquatic Greens, a 100% Organic and Fair Trade Certified Spirulina and Chlorella supplement.  As far as we know this is the only supplement on the market that combines 100% Organic and Fair Trade Certified Spirulina and Chlorella in one supplement and uses absolutely no fillers, flow agents or other ingredients.  However, after noticing their listing on Filanthropists.Com we are no longer impressed by Perfect Aquatic Greens – WE ARE IN LOVE WITH PERFECT AQUATIC GREENS

Wait, What in the World is Filanthropists.Com ?

Filanthropists.Com is an incredible online mall where you buy things and a percentage of the money goes to support great causes.  If you have not already done so, you should check out the site.  A quick scan under health shows that the Perfect Aquatic Greens is giving 25% of the purchase price to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).   The EDF does some incredible and absolutely essential things – like making sure people have access to clear air and drinking water.

Yes, You Read That Right – 25% of The Purchase Price

I am about as cynical as you can get, so when I see supplement companies do things like “10% of the profits go to save the environment” I just roll my eyes.   Profits is very hard to define, they can claim their profit on a sale is only $5 and so then they just give 50 cents to the charity!

The way Perfect Aquatic Greens is giving money to the EDF is very real.  25% of the purchase price means if you buy 3 bottles (each bottle is $35.95 so total price on three is $107.85) they give $26.96 to the EDF on your purchase! Combine this with the fact that they already use Fair Trade Certified Spirulina and Chlorella and you see that Perfect Supplements is finally showing that supplement companies really can be incredibly positive!

Learn More:

Purchase the Perfect Aquatic Greens via Filanthropists.Com And Help a Great Charity

Well, it finally happened.  The FTC has finally taken action against Acai Berry companies that make bogus claims such as: endorsed by Oprah, lose 30 pounds in a month and receive a free trial!  In other news, pigs have started to fly!

FTC We Say Thank You and What Took You So Long?

For over 2 years we have been writing about Acai Berry Scams and begging the FTC to take action.  Everyday we hear from countless consumers who have fallen victim to these scams (take a look at all the comments on our Julia Milller Acai Berry Scam post).  Well, it took a while but the FTC has taken action.

“Too many ‘free’ offers come with strings attached,” said David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “In this case, the defendants promised buyers a ‘risk free’ trial and then illegally billed their credit cards again and again – and again. We estimate that about a million people have fallen victim to this scam. As if that weren’t enough, there were fake endorsements from celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Rachael Ray for a product that didn’t work in the first place.”

- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Press Release 8/16/2010

AcaiPure – We Couldn’t Be Happier to See You Go

The FTC named Central Coast Nutraceuticals, Inc. (CCN) and their products AcaiPure and ColoPure in the complaint.  The FTC has frozen the assets of CCN and basically put the company into receivership as the court actions move forward.  This is great news as we have received numerous complaints about the AcaiPure brand and the FTC believes they scammed consumers out of $30 million in 2009 alone.

Consumers Still Need to Be Aware, Other Sharks Are in the Water

Clearly removing AcaiPure and CCN from the marketplace is a major step in the right direction, but consumers still need to be careful.  There are still plenty of companies out there that are pulling various acai berry scams and resveratrol scams.   Our advice remains the same, avoid any “free trial” supplement deals – as they are never free.  If you want to try Acai, go with a 100% Organic and Freeze Dried Acai berry product like the Perfect Acai.

For the last 2 years we have written about various Acai Berry Scams. Look in our Acai Scams category and we have over 25 posts on the various acai scams on the market.  Free Trial Offers, magic acai pills that let a 300 pound person lose 310 pounds overnight, fake news journalist like Julia Miller – we have covered it all.

What is the Point of Taking Acai Anyway?

At times it can seem like Acai is just an over hyped supplement that should be avoided.  However, if you get beyond the ridiculous weight loss claims and free trial offers you start to get to the real benefits of the Acai Berry – it is one of the highest antioxidant fruits in the world. Great you say, but who are we to say what fruits have the highest antioxidants?  Well, it is not us saying it – it is the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)!

The USDA List of ORAC Values – New and Improved!

In May 2010 the USDA released the “USDA Database for the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods, Release 2″.  Pretty sexy title huh?  Here is link to the whole report -

USDA 2010 ORAC List

ORAC is a way to measure the antioxidant capacity of foods.  If you want to learn more, you can read our ORAC Article, but what you really need to know is the higher the ORAC value the more antioxidants in the food.  When the USDA first released this report in November of 2007 they did not test Acai, but now with Release 2 – Acai is finally included.

No, that Acai ORAC Value is Not a Typo…

Let’s take a look at some well known fruits and their ORAC value…

• A nice Golden Delicious Apple comes in at 2,670 ORAC/100 grams
• Blueberries – a summertime favorite is at 4,669 ORAC/100 grams
• Cranberries, that healthy treat tests out at an impressive 9,090 ORAC/100 grams
• Wild Blueberries get a wildly high score of 9,621 ORAC/100 grams
• Acai Berry Freeze Dried Powder – Astronomical score of 102,700 ORAC/100 grams

There is no typo or misplaced decimal point – Acai Berry Freeze Dried Powder really has over 10x more antioxidants that wild blueberries (previous considered one of the highest antioxidant fruits in the world)!

Shop Carefully and Acai Berry Really Can Be a Tremendous Addition to Your Diet

The acai that is shown in the USDA report is freeze dried Acai made from the skin and pulp of Acai Berries.  If you want to enjoy the antioxidant benefits of Acai, you need to go with a supplement that only uses freeze dried Acai powder.  Forget the “free trial” deals and “magic weight loss acai pills” – they all use spray dried Acai which has less antioxidants than an apple.  You want to go with brands like the Perfect Acai, Sambazon and Amazon Thunder – all which state that they only use Organic Freeze Dried Acai Berry Powder.

Note: There is an email link embedded within this post, please visit this post to email it.

Sometimes I wonder if Acai scammers hang out together around a witches cauldron, torture kittens and try to dream up the most disgusting acai scams they can think of.  We thought the Julia  Miller Acai Health News Scam was about as low as they could go – but guess what – they went lower!

How To Turn Ann Curry into Denise Randall and Create a New Acai Scam

You know Ann Curry – the well respected anchor of the NBC Today Show – she has now been transformed into Denise Randall, nutritionist and weight loss consultant for US Medical Journal.  Amazingly, she used an Acai product and a colon cleanse and lost 17 pounds in 4 weeks!

Confused?  No Idea How Ann Curry Becomes Denise Randall and Works for US Medical Journal?  It is Bizarre…

The scammers have come up with a new dirty trick in their bag – create fake Medical Journals!  But wait, that is not low enough for them – so they also slapped Ann Curry’s picture up there, gave her a new name and claim she has lost a ton of weight.

Simply put, this is just one of those acai scams you really need to see to believe…

Video of the Denise Randal, US Medical Journal Acai Scam Exposed

Help Us Spread the Word Before Anyone Else Loses Their Money

Tweet this article, post to facebook, email your friends, yell it out the window… you get the idea.  Let’s make sure everyone knows about this acai scam so they do not waste their money.

Video of the Denise Randal, US Medical Journal Acai Scam Exposed

FTC, FDA, Ann Curry, The Today Show… Somebody Do Something!

These scam sites need to be shut down.  The FTC has clear policy against deceptive advertising – how can this not be seen as deceptive advertising?  By not taking action, this scammers are getting more bold because there are no consequences to their actions.  Maybe when they decide to slap the picture of the FTC Commissioner on one of their fake news site and talk about how he lost 20 pounds in a night, that will draw the FTC’s attention???

Additional Resources:

Julia Miller Health News 6 (7) Acai Berry Scam Exposed

Oprah and Illinois Attorney General File Suit Against Acai Scam Companies

Oprah Writes, then Throws Book At Acai Scammers

How I Lost $90 in 30 Days Using the Acai Berry

What Did Oprah and Dr Oz Really Say About Acai

Acai Berry Scams – How to Avoid Them

Acai Berry Maxx named Texas Lawsuit

Free Black Belt Course in Spotting Acai Berry Scams

How Do You Stop An Acai Berry Scammer From Scamming?

I wonder if Attorney Generals from all the different states ever get together and swap stories?  If so, they could have a great time debating who has the biggest acai berry scams going on in their state.  We have already reported on the Attorney Generals in Florida, Texas, Illinois and Arizona taking action against acai companies that were deceiving the public – well you can now add Colorado to that list.

Same Acai Scam – Different State

I think we all know the game by now – consumer signs up for “free trial of Acai”, but then finds out they will be sent products each month and billed $80 a month.  Consumer tries to cancel, but gets the run around.  Here is the quote from the Colorado Attorney General John Suthers…

“The Office of the Attorney General learned through its investigation that Bezoni’s Arvada-based company, which has operated under the names Golf Nutrition Sciences and GNS, used so-called “free-to-pay conversion” marketing since 2005, which resulted in consumers unknowingly incurring ongoing payments for products that they initially believed were free. Consumers, according to court filings, signed up for free trials of products, such as Acai Berry Edge, Acai Berry Elite and Slim Seduction, and believed at the time they placed their order that they were authorizing only the shipping and handling charges for the free trial. When the free trial arrived, however, consumers also received a two-month supply of the product and were given a limited amount of time to return the product or face a nearly $80 charge within 30 days.”

- Attorney General announces Settlement with Arvada-based Nutra Pills, Inc.

Who Knew Giving Away Free Acai Could be Worth $40 Million a Year?

We are not surprised that companies will try to deceive consumers, what did surprise us was how successful they were!

The company generated $40 million in sales in 2009, nearly all of that was a direct result of its free-to-pay conversion sales.

This is just one company – doing over $40 Million a year in Acai sales with a “free trial” product.  There are many more companies, operating in different states (and outside the USA) who are bringing in much more per year.    Anyone who thinks this is not a major problem just needs to follow the money.

What is The Penalty for Deception?

First, Nutra Pills claims they did nothing wrong as part of the settlement.  Still, they have agreed to refund money to consumers who have filed a complaint since December 2006.  In addition, they have to pay a $100,000 fine – but half of that is suspended if they do not deceive anyone in the next 5 years.  To date the company has refunded $9 million dollars and ceased doing business.

So There You Have it – Crime Does Pay!

Let us first legally state something – Nutra Pills does not admit to any wrong doing as part of the settlement.  Nutra Pills reached a settlement with Colorado before a legal proceeding could determine if laws were broken.

So, you can draw your own conclusions if you think that Nutra Pills did anything wrong.   We would ask – why shut down a business that is doing $40 Million a year in sales if you did nothing wrong?  If you do believe they did something wrong, you have to ask if the punishment fits.  We say NO!

The company made $40 Million in 2009 alone.  So far, they have refunded $9 million and paid a $50,000 fine.  The penalty is just not strong enough to stop others from doing this same form of deception.  In fact, we would argue that this just gives acai scam companies a blue print of how to operate.  Make as much as you can – then settle and close shop when the Attorney General comes knocking.

Let us know what you think?

Additional Resources:

The Julia Miller Health News 5, News 6 or News 7 Acai Berry Scam Exposed

Click Here to Watch A Screen Capture Video Exposing These Julia Miller Acai Scam Health Sites.

Oprah and Illinois Attorney General File Suit Against Acai Scam Companies

Oprah Writes, then Throws Book At Acai Scammers

How I Lost $90 in 30 Days Using the Acai Berry

What Did Oprah and Dr Oz Really Say About Acai

Acai Berry Scams – How to Avoid Them

Acai Berry Maxx named Texas Lawsuit

Free Black Belt Course in Spotting Acai Berry Scams

How Do You Stop An Acai Berry Scammer From Scamming?

We tried to come up with a clever, funny headline for this post – but we were too depressed to be funny.  We have reported for so long about acai berry scams that it takes a lot to surprise us – but this latest acai scam surprised us!  We have seen the fake acai review sites, been through the fake diet blog sites and of course all the free trial scams.  But creating not one – but at least two fake news networks – that is incredibly disgusting.

Health News 7 – Bringing You The Best in Fake News

We recently got an email that linked to a “new report on the Acai Berry”.  The news network is Health News 7 and here is a screen shot on their “story” -

Click The Image To See The Enlarged View

You really need to click the above image to see it full size.  Here are a couple of things we want to point out -

• Site is News7Health.Com and clearly looks like a real news site.
• The reporter is shown in the photo and identified as “Health and Diet writer, Julia Miller”
• The story goes on about how the reporter was skeptical, but some free trial Acai Berry helped her lose 25 pounds in 4 weeks.

This looks like a very impressive piece.  We have a news reporter who tried Acai and saw amazing weight loss.  There is just one little problem – IT IS ALL MADE UP!

Exposing News7Health.Com for the Scam It Is

The site looked strange to us and we had never heard of News 7 Health – so we decided to read more news stories from the site.  We started clicking on the links on the top of the page – things like US, World, Business, Politics, etc – they are all dead links! This is a completely made up news site that uses affiliate links to try to trick people into buying a “free trial acai product” that will actually cost you $90 a month!

Don’t Be Disgusted Yet – It Only Gets Worse

I hope you have more disgust and outrage inside you – because it only gets worse!  We did a little digging on the internet and we found this site -

Click Above Image to See Full Size

Again, click the above image to get the full disgusting view.  Wow, looks like there is another “news network” called Health News 6.  Guess what, they also did a story where their reporter took Acai and lost tons of weight.  Let’s get a close up of these competing Health Reporters from New 6 Health and News 7 Health -

Julia Miller

Julia Miller ???

Wow – not only did Julia Miller lose weight by taking Acai – she also completely changed her appearance!  Acai really is Amazing!

Stock Photos Allow Anyone To Create Their Own News Network!

These scammers are so lazy that they don’t even make an effort to cover their tracks anymore.  Why bother changing the fake reporters name – just throw in a different stock photo.  If one fake news site makes you money, then 10 fake news sites will make you more money.

The Evolution of Acai Scam – Making the Jump From Deception to Flat Out Fabrication

Unfortunately, Acai scams are not new – we have been exposing them for over 2 years.   What is so disturbing with this one is the jump from deception to fabrication.  The “old” acai scam was to mislead people into thinking they were getting a free trial of Acai.  Buried at the bottom of the Terms of Service, in font too small to read, was the fact that you will be autobilled $90 every month.  This is completely deceptive, but the scammers try to walk the line claiming everything is there if people just read the Terms of Service.

This new scam does not walk any lines – it flat out lies and fabricates.  Julia Miller is not a health reporter, in fact she is not even real! She is whatever stock photo they can find for their site.  The News 7 Health or News 6 Health sites – also not real.  Just fake facades for someone selling Acai.  Of course the comments, testimonials and before and after pictures – all made up.  I guess the scammers were not stealing enough money by deceiving, so they had to evolve into full out fabrication mode.

FTC – You Need to Take Action – NOW!

We uncovered this scam in about 5 minutes.  To our fine hard working friends at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) – how about you spend a few hours building a case against these guys?  These scams are costing Americans millions of dollars a year.  Could there be more deceptive advertising than this?

Drop us a comment, let us know what you think.  Are you as outraged as us?

View The Scam In Action With This Video

Click Here to Watch A Screen Capture Video Exposing These Acai Scam Health Sites.

Help Us Get The Word Out on This Acai Scam

The more people who know the truth about Health News 6 and Julia Miller – the less people who will fall victim to the scam.  Let’s get the word out and let everyone know about this.  Please link to this article, put it on your FaceBook page, Tweet about it – do whatever you can to make sure people know that this is scam.  We really appreciate your help!

Update on Julia Miller Scams and The Quest for Real Acai (3/31/10)

Since we published this article on 3/12 we have had an incredible response.   Thank you to everyone who has linked to this article, together we have helped thousands of people find out about the Julia Miller scam before they wasted their money.  There is still more work to be done, we have seen the scammers start to change Julia Miller’s name – but we will keep after them.

As our regular readers know, we try to keep this blog as non-commercial as possible.  However, we have had so many readers ask us if there are any real Acai supplements available, we felt it would be wrong not the mention the brand of Acai we love and trust.  Perfect Acai is a 100% Pure Organic Acai supplement that involves no free trials, memberships or other games.  It is simply real acai, available for purchase without any tricks or scams.

Update on Even More Disgusting Acai Berry Scam (4/29/10)

Just when you think these Acai scammers can not get any lower… they do!  Take a look at our post on the Denise Randall US Medical Journal Acai Scam – it is so bad you really need to see it to believe it!

Update The Fake News Acai Scams Keep on Going (12/3/10)

Thank you for all the incredible comments!  We have had hundreds of comments on this post and appreciate everybody spreading the word so we can stop people for falling for these scams.  Over the last few months, we have seen the scammers use a number of different fake news sites and fake health reporters – here is a partial list:

Other Fake Health Reporters and News Sites:

• News 6 Reports and Jane Clark Health Reporter

• Sharon Smith at Weekly Consumer Digest (WCD)
• Cindy Anderson USHealthNews or USA Health News
• Health and Diet writer, Alice Carlson of C1 Health News
• Helen Cohen, Weekly Health News and WeeklyHealth News Health and Diet Reporter
• Julie Ayers Channel 5 Health News
• News 10 Reporter

Go ahead and read the fine print at the bottom of those sites, you will see the stories are fictional, they are not affiliated with any news network and the “free trial” will cost you hundreds of dollars a month!

If you have seen other names used for this Acai scam, please let us know by leaving a comment.  The more we can let people know about all these fake health news reporters, the better the chances of stopping innocent people from falling for these scams.

Additional Resources:

Oprah and Illinois Attorney General File Suit Against Acai Scam Companies

Oprah Writes, then Throws Book At Acai Scammers

How I Lost $90 in 30 Days Using the Acai Berry

What Did Oprah and Dr Oz Really Say About Acai

Acai Berry Scams – How to Avoid Them

Acai Berry Maxx named Texas Lawsuit

Free Black Belt Course in Spotting Acai Berry Scams

How Do You Stop An Acai Berry Scammer From Scamming?

You have no doubt seen the ads….

Take Acai Berry to magical melt the pounds away. But wait, don’t order yet – you also need to take a Colon Cleanse – to flush 30 pounds of waste out of your system. Yes, take Acai and a Colon Cleanse and in 30 days you will be the next Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model!

Are Acai and a Colon Cleanse Really Like Peanut Butter and Jelly?

No! We get a large number of questions regarding the use of a colon cleanse with an acai berry supplement. As numerous other web sites are claiming that you need to take Acai and a Colon Cleanse together, we are often asked why we don’t recommend a colon cleanse along with the Perfect Acai.

Well, there is a very simple answer – we don’t feel like misleading you today! Go ahead and do a search online to try to find one clinical study showing a positive effect from combining Acai with a Colon Cleanse. Go ahead, we will wait…

Back so soon? You probably found a million websites trying to sell you Acai and a Colon Cleanse – but did you find one clinical study to support their claims? No. We don’t mean to be cynical, but the real reason everyone else is pushing a Colon Cleanse with Acai is that they make more money if you buy two supplements instead of one.

Is a Colon Cleanse Useless?

Maybe. We do not claim to be experts on all the various colon cleanse products on the market. What we do know is that the body absorbs the calories from food before it reaches the colon. So, claims that you will lose lots of weight from a colon cleanse are not valid.

Can a colon cleanse help some people? Maybe. You can do your own research. All we are saying is that this connection between the Acai Berry and a Colon Cleanse is a marketing creation. We guarantee you that the people of the Amazon Rain Forest are not washing down their Acai bowls with a colon cleanse chaser!

Quality Acai Products Can Stand on Their Own

Pure Organic Acai Berry products such as the Perfect Acai, can stand on their own as an incredibly nutritious supplement. If a company is telling you that you need a Colon Cleanse to make their Acai product work – that would be a company we would avoid.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejimmer/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

The Acai Berry is a beautiful little purple berry that grows in the Amazon Rain Forest. Resveratrol is a natural component of grapes that may help you live longer and healthier. Many people choose to use Acai and Resveratrol because they believe in natural foods over man made prescription medicines. This is why it is so sad to report that over 90% of the Acai and Resveratrol supplements on the market are probably made with genetically modified material!

One of the Darkest Supplement Industry Secrets – Magnesium Stearate!

As this blog is called Supplement Secrets Exposed, it seems only right that we are the ones to expose one the best kept secrets in the industry – the magnesium stearate secret! Go ahead and grab a bottle of any supplement you have in the house… don’t worry, we will wait….

Got it? Now take a look at the “Other Ingredients” listed toward the bottom of the label in tiny print. There is a 95% chance you are holding a supplement that uses magnesium stearate as a other ingredient.

What is Magnesium Stearate?

So what is this funny ingredient in almost every supplement on the market?

“Magnesium Stearate is the magnesium salt or stearic acid from plant or animal sources, which is a saturated fatty acid used as an anti-caking agent and as an emulsifier.”

-Don’t Eat Database

Wow, there are a few disturbing words in there – animal sources and saturated fatty acids. If you are a vegetarian and/or trying to limit saturated fatty acids – pretty disturbing to find out the magnesium stearate in your supplement may be made from animal fat! But it only gets worse…

Why Would Magnesium Stearate be Genetically Modified?

“This substance (magnesium stearate) is most likely made from genetically modified soy or corn. In the US over 80% of the soy and corn crops have been genetically modified.”

-Don’t Eat Database

Yikes! What this means is that while the Acai or Resveratrol in a supplement may be Non-GMO – the magnesium stearate can be genetically modified and therefore the whole supplement contains GMO.
Of course this is not limited to just Acai and Resveratrol supplements – any supplement that has magnesium stearate is going to have these same issues.

Avoid Magnesium Stearate – You Do Have a Choice!

The take away from all this – avoid supplements that have magnesium stearate. The only reason that supplement companies use magnesium stearate is that it makes it cheaper to encapsule the ingredients – there is absolutely no advantage for the consumer.

The good news is, if you look around you can find supplements that do NOT use magnesium stearate. One of the reasons we love the Perfect Acai and the Perfect ResGrape Resveratrol is that they have NO magnesium stearate.

Well, now you know the dirty little secret about Magnesium Stearate – let’s pass this along, let everyone know and let’s all say NO to Magnesium Stearate!

We can see the job listing now for the next SuperFruit…

Why The Industry Loves Fruits From Exotic Places

Here is an industry secret – they love anything from a place that very few people have ever been to! The more exotic and mysterious, the more powerful their fruits must be. Here are just some of the new SuperFruits that the industry is promoting for 2010 – Caja Fruit (Brazil), Marula Fruit (Southern Africa) UmBu fruit (Brazil) and the list goes on.

So why is it that SuperFruits can only grow in exotic lands? They don’t! The supplement industry likes to tell emotional stories, stories about a culture in a far away land that eat fruit and live to be 120 years old has a lot of appeal. The stories may not have a lot of truth or science, but they do sound nice.

So SuperFruits from Exotic Lands Are All Bogus?

Of course not. We think the Acai Berry from Brazil is a true superfruit. The Noni comes from a far away land and has many strong health benefits. So, yes, fruits that come from exotic lands can be wonderful superfruits. What we are saying is that many fruits that come from far away places are… well, just plain old fruits that come from far away places! You don’t become a SuperFruit just because you are not grown in the USA.

How Popular Would Muscadine Grapes Be If They Came from a Rainforest in Brazil?

The lovely muscadine grape may be the best example of the industry bias against local fruits. Muscadine Grapes grow in places like Georgia, Texas and North Carolina – no offense to our southern friends, but not the most exotic lands. However, on a nutritional level, it is hard to argue that the Muscadine Grape is NOT a SuperFruit:

• 40 Times the Antioxidants as Red Grapes
• 6 Times the Resveratrol as Red Grapes
• The Only Grape to Contain Ellagic Acid – an incredibly healthy antioxidant
• Published Studies by NIH on Muscadine Grapes

Clearly, from a pure nutrition and health stand point, the muscadine grape should be a Superfruit.

We Call for Equal Rights for Local SuperFruits

Let’s be fair to all fruits – regardless of where they come from. If a fruit from some tiny island off the coast of an even smaller island in the South Pacific has incredible health properties, we will be right there singing its praises. On the other hand, if a fruit that grows like a weed in New Jersey also has incredible health properties (we know – not very likely) – let’s be fair and call that a SuperFruit too!

By now we all know that a diet very high in fatty foods is bad for us, but we also know that some of those fatty foods taste really good! Well, it looks like taking Acai may actually help counteract some of the negatives associated with fatty food!

New Study Shows Acai Helps Make a High Fat Diet… Not So Terrible

A study just published in the December 2009 Journal of Nutrition found that rats feed a high fat diet AND acai pulp, had lower levels of total Cholesterol and LDL Cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) then rats who just ate a high fat diet.

“This is the first study, to our knowledge, addressing the potential benefits of açai 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 açai 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.

How Does Acai Help Reduce Cholesterol Levels?

The study just looked at end results – it did not try to answer how Acai might have achieved its positive results. To be honest the results do not surprise us, we have been talking about the health benefits of Acai for a few years now. Our theory is that Acai is a powerful antioxidant and thus it can stop cholesterol from oxidizing and becoming the very dangerous oxidized LDL Cholesterol. We wrote a whole article on fruits and oxidized LDL cholesterol, that you can read here.

But What If I Am Not a Rat?

Our most recent survey indicates that, surprisingly, the vast majority of our readers are actually not rats. So, since the study was done with rats – what can we humans take from it? Rat studies are a good first step in understanding how something like Acai may work in our body. Often what we find true in rats is also true in humans – but not always.

The only way to confirm the findings of this study are to do human clinical trials with Acai and a high fat diet. Until those studies are done, there will be debate on whether Acai can really reduce LDL cholesterol in humans with a high fat diet.

So, if you are taking Acai now, we would not recommend loading up on fatty foods and hoping the Acai balances things out. However, if you are not taking Acai now, but are eating a high fat diet, and just can’t stop – now might be a good time to look into some high quality Acai Supplements.

Additional Resources:

Diet supplementation with acai (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) pulp improves biomarkers of oxidative stress and the serum lipid profile in rats. Journal of Nutrition, Published online 21 December 2009.