Anti-aging Properties of Acai Berry Juice

Juices and tonics made from the anti-aging acai berry have lately been touted to do just about everything imaginable; from promoting weight loss to preventing serious illness to keeping the people who drink these concoctions young forever. But how much of the hype surrounding anti-aging juices made with acai is real and how much of it is just the same old hype and hoopla?

Acai berries are small red fruits that grow on the Acai palm tree in the Amazon rain forest. Since acai berries are not the easiest fruit to harvest and transport, they tend to be expensive. In the past, anti-aging acai berry juice was mostly consumed in Brazil and other South American locations that have easy access to the fruit.

Acai contains very high levels of antioxidant comounds called polyphenols. While many other bright red, blue, and dark purple fruits (like blueberries, pomegranates, cherries, and cranberries) also contain polyphenols, acai berries contain these compounds in such intense concentrations that they are now being studied for medicinal use.

Polphenols are known to prevent age-related neurological illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and dementia by minimizing oxidation within cells. Oxidation occurs when environmental poisons called ‘free radicals’ enter the bloodstream and begin to interfere with proper cellular function. Antioxidants bind with these ‘free radical’ poisons and carry them safely out of the body as harmless waste material.

A study conducted at the Universidade de Caxias do Sul, in Caxias do Sul, Brazil in 2009 found that when rats were fed acai berry pulp they developed fewer neurological illnesses than rats that did not get the anti-aging acai berry in their daily diet. Other recent studies have shown that adding anti-aging acai berry juice or pulp to a daily human diet prevents DNA damage associated with aging, and also promotes better kidney and liver function.

Anti-aging juices that include acai berries in the list of ingredients may or may not have enough acai juice to actually provide any anti-aging effects. To be effective, acai should appear as one of the first five ingredients listed on the product. If acai berries are listed toward the end of the ingredients (after grape juice and corn syrup and many other ordinary ingredients,) the product may be less expensive but it will not provide the anti-aging benefits of the acai berry.

Anti-aging acai berry juices and products may not be the kind of cure all some manufacturers claim them to be, and they probably won’t make anyone lose weight without also cutting calories and increasing activity. But preliminary scientific evidence does suggest that including acai berries in a daily anti-aging juice drink can counteract some of the major cellular causes of aging in humans, and can also provide protection from a host of common diseases associated with age.

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