All Acai Berry Dietary Supplements Are Not Equal

Considering the health benefits and favor for weight loss that acai berry offers, it is used in numerous dietary supplements. Especially the weight loss dietary supplements always have some doses or other of acai berry in them. Question is where does the problem arise in procurement of acai berry supplements for health or weight loss?

Basic Problem

Actually the basic problem that procurement of acai berry supplements either for health purpose or weight loss creates is because of the fact that all acai berry supplements available in the market are not equal. While acai berry supplements are available in form of liquids, mediations, powders and powders in capsules, it does not mean that the user will just buy the first over the counter product that comes his or her way and benefit.

It is Not That Simple

No, it is not that simple as none of the products are equal or carry equal advantages. True, acai can be freeze dried and converted into powders that will retain all the nutrients and vitamins that were available in the fresh acai. It can even be converted into liquid form for facilitating consumptions. However, processes applied by different providers will vary from each other and the acai berry supplement will have different attributes and effects in result.

Freeze Dried Acai is Preferable Supplement

When all the supplements are not equal or do not generate uniform effects, it is obvious that some needs to be favored in preference to others. Million dollar question for the user is how to know and identify the one that should be more preferable to the others.

Let us have a look at some of the factors that would determine the supplement that is the best.

  • First category that comes into mind and probably the best among the lot is the freeze dried acai. Though there are multiple other cheaper and convenient methods fro creating acai powders, this one is the best of all. Reasons are that –
    • Freeze dried process uses low heat;
    • It would introduce no carry agents; and
    • Retain all vitamins and nutrients in original acai.
  • A gram of freeze dried powder is equivalent to around 7 grams of the fresh acai berry. Moreover, fresh acai berry has ORAC score or antioxidant score of 55 per gram or 5500 for 100 grams. Amazing fact is that the same 100 grams of freeze dried acai berry powder has scored over 70,000 points o ORAC score.
  • Another form is the spray dried acai supplements which is a much cheaper method of making them. In this process the acai is heated at very high temperature to remove the water and spray the fruits with some carries like the maltodextrin or others.
  • However, spray dried supplements may not be good idea for health and well being of the user. Heating at high temperature destroys many nutrients that are available in the fruit. Using the career agent in spray drying can make the powder chemically effective and could be harmful. In addition; spray drying also reduces the quantum of actual acai powder replacing them by maltodextrin or such other components and the benefits of real acai powder may not be available with them.
  • In terms of quality and efficiency also the spray dried acai powder is far too inferior in comparison to the freeze dried acai products. Most dangerous part of it is that the label does not disclose the amount of maltodextrin used in spray dried acai supplements as under the FDA guidelines, it need not be listed in the labels. This is a loophole in the laws and can end in harm for the users.

Bottom line of all these is that unless the label of an acai product does not indicate that it has components from only freeze dried acai, it may not be recommendable for use by all concerned.

Acai Extracts

Extracts basically mean that one component or element in some plant or object is isolated by extraction. An example is the caffeine extracted from the coffee bean plant. In essence, extracts do not make much sense when it comes to acai berry. Most of the health values rendered by Acai are lost when its elements are separated since it gives best result as the whole fruit. Many positive nutrients and vitamins present in the berry may not be available in the extract as the concerned elements might have been separated during extraction process. Moreover, the extracts are usually made out of the spray dried and not the freeze dried acai and the benefits of using acai berry for health or weight loss would be considerably cut down as a result.

User should not be carried away by terminologies like the 4-in-1 and super concentrated extracts etc that are nothing but publicity gimmicks for business promotion purposes. Moreover; extracts and concentrates are two different things but mistakenly used to refer to the same item, acai extracts that are no way helpful for the purpose of the end user.