At this point most people know that pesticides are bad. Most people understand that if pesticides get into the foods we eat, they can have very negative effects. What people don’t know is that pesticides are having a very negative impact on our food supply, even when they are not in the food we eat!

Hey, What Happened to All the Resveratrol in My Red Wine?

Resveratrol is an incredible popular nutrient found in red grapes and red wine. Click here if you want to read our full Special Report on Resveratrol – its health benefits, the science and the clinical studies. We go over it in detail in the report, but Resveratrol has strong anti-aging benefits and it is believed to at least partly explain the “French Paradox” – the French have a high fat diet and smoke, but they have very low rates of heat disease. The theory is the Resveratrol in the red wine they drink is what keeps them healthy.

About 30 years ago a bottle of red wine had about 30mg of Resveratrol. Today that same bottle has only about 3mg! Why is the Resveratrol content of Red Wine decreasing? Pesticides.

Pesticides Are Making Grapes Lazy!

The antioxidants in red grapes – the resveratrol and the other polyphenols are produced by grapes to fight off infection, bugs and harsh conditions. Well, guess what happens when you start to use Pesticides to fight off the bugs and infection? You guessed it – the grapes decrease the amount of resveratrol and other polyphenols that they produce.

Resveratrol Levels Dropping in Red Grapes and Muscadine Grapes

The problem with pesticides is not just the toxic chemicals getting into our food, the problem is they are changing the actual nutritional content of the food we eat.  Red grapes and Muscadine Grapes that have been sprayed with pesticides produce much less resveratrol – there is no need for resveratrol if the pesticides are doing all the work.

Our Advice – Don’t Buy Any Resveratrol Supplements Unless You Know the Grapes Were Not Treated with Pesticides

When shopping for a  trans-resveratrol supplement, you want to make sure the grapes used in the supplement were not treated with pesticides.  Products such as the Perfect ResGrape Resveratrol have spec sheets to show that NO pesticides were used – this is EXACTLY what you want to see before buying any Resveratrol supplements.

Last month we reported on the settlement between the Arizona Attorney General and CCN (makers of Acai Pure) and today we find out that the Texas Attorney General has resolved its case with Acai Berry Maxx manufacturer – FXSupplements.Com .

What Did Acai Berry Maxx do wrong?

When customers clicked on the FXsupplements.com or acaiberrymaxx.com advertising links, they were informed that they would have four minutes to place their orders before the free trial of the Acai Berry Maxx product expired. Customers who completed orders were asked to pay a $5.95 shipping and handling fee. To make the required payment, purchasers had to provide their credit or debit card numbers.

The Attorney General’s investigation found that this transaction led customers to a “terms and conditions” page that failed to clearly disclose several problematic provisions. By accepting the “free” 15-day supply valued at $65, customers unwittingly entered into a “negative option” plan with the company. Under this scheme, FXsupplements.com would automatically “renew” orders after the 14-day trial period expired without customers’ express authorization to continue. The renewal forced customers to pay $80 for one-month supplies of Acai Berry Maxx, even after customers demanded cancellation.

Were there other problems with Acai Berry Maxx?

Yes! Let’s see there were the illegal health claims, the deceptive marketing, the failure to ship product in a timely manner, the failure to issue refunds and the list goes on and on. If you want all the details check out the lawsuit that was filed by the Texas Attorney General -

Lawsuit – State of Texas vs AcaiBerryMaxx.Com

Of course FXSupplements.Com does not admit to any wrong doing.

So The Texas Attorney General Threw The Book at Them…Right???

Not exactly the book, maybe a small scrap of paper is a better way to describe it. The good news is that Acai Berry Maxx is no longer being sold and consumers who feel they have been scammed can now try to get a refund. In terms of fines Acai Berry Maxx had to pay… about $6,000.

You Mean $6 Million – right??

Nope – they only had to pay the Texas Attorney General a fine of about $6,000. The owner of the company, Austin Hilton, told the Dallas Business Journal on 7/21/09 that they processed about 4,000 orders a day. As orders resulted in a $80 monthly charge, their sales were about $9.6 Million per month! Clearly a $6,000 fine does not seem like much for a company doing close to $10 million a month in sales.

Resources to Learn More about the Acai Berry Maxx Settlement:

If you would like to receive a refund on the Acai Berry Maxx call 1-877-778-9035

Read the Texas Attorney General Press Release Here

Image via Wikipedia

Wanna see a neat magic trick? In this article we will show you how

140 Grams of Acai = 2 Grams of Acai

Let’s start with some quick background on the Acai Berry . The Acai Berry is a funny little fruit in that there is very little edible fruit on the Acai berry. In fact, 90% of the Acai berry is the inedible seed. Only the skin and pulp are edible – and the skin and pulp make up just 10% of the Acai berry (read all about Acai berries here).

When you hear Dr. Perricone, Dr. Oz and others praises the incredible nutritional properties of the Acai berry – they are of course just talking about the edible part – the skin and the pulp. So, what happens with the seeds of the Acai berry? In a legitimate process like freeze dried Acai, the seeds are discarded and only the skin and pulp are used to make the freeze dried acai powder.

Okay, but what about the funky math of 140 = 2?

Right, well first let’s start with the simple math of freeze dried Acai. It takes about 7 grams of acai puree (made from just skin and pulp) to make 1 gram of freeze dried Acai powder (this explains why freeze dried Acai is so expensive). Basically the Acai berry has a good amount of water in it and when you dehydrate it (which is what freeze drying does) you end up with only 1 gram of powder for every 7 grams of wet Acai puree.

This still does not get us to the equation of how 140 grams of Acai = 2 grams of Acai. To get to this point we have to let you in on a dirty little secret in the Acai industry…

Some Acai Juices and Supplements use the Acai Seed!

Yes, you read that right, there are some Acai juice products on the market today that advertise they use the whole Acai berry – skin, pulp and SEED! This means an Acai Juice that uses the Acai Seed has 90% less edible Acai than legitimate Acai products.

Back to our Math Equation…

We now have all the information we need to show how 140 = 2.
Let’s say you have 140 grams of whole Acai berries – skin, pulp, seed – the whole deal. If you smash that all up and put it in a bottle you could now say “Acai Juice X has 140 grams of Acai per bottle”. Sure sounds impressive – doesn’t it?

The fact that Acai Juice X was made with the Acai seeds means we need to multiply the 140 grams of Acai by 10% – this will give us the amount of edible Acai skin and pulp in their juice.

140 Grams of Whole Acai Berry x 10% (the part of the Acai that is edible) = 14 grams of edible Acai berry pulp

Remember if you want to compare Acai Juice X to a legitimate freeze dried Acai supplement you need to divide by 7. Why? Because it takes 7 grams of Acai pulp to make 1 gram of Acai freeze dried powder.

14 grams of edible Acai Berry Pulp / 7 (the drying ratio) = 2 grams of Acai Freeze Dried Powder

So, 140 Grams of Acai from Acai Juice X is equal to the nutrients found in 2 grams of freeze dried Acai.

We promise to keep the math to a minimum in future posts.