Enhanced Metabolism Clears Toxins
Acai berry a fruit derived from the acai palm tree has been used widely for its nutritive and medicinal benefits. Widely popular as an antioxidant, acai berry also has additional nutritive benefits. It contains numerous nutrients which enhance the functioning of the body to a great extent.
The improper dietary habits can generally lead to the accumulation of different kinds of toxins within our body. While the body is able to manage to clear the accumulated toxins it cannot do so if the levels of toxins become quite high. Administration of detoxifying agents becomes necessary to take care of the accumulated toxins. Acai berry has been thought to serve that purpose to some extent.
Nutrients for detoxification
Acai berry has been reported to contain a wide variety of nutrients and other compounds which impart beneficial effects on our body. Acai berry is found to have high lipids content and a significant amount of other substances such as proteins, dietary fiber, polyphenols, tannins and anthocyanins. 1
The fiber content is essential for building up bulk in the stools for better clearing of the colon. Dietary fibers present in acai berry can exert this effect thereby aiding in better cleansing of the colon to a certain extent. Additionally, the presence of other nutrients can speed up the metabolic process in order to efficiently clear the toxins present in the body. The fatty acids present in acai can help in this process and so do the antioxidant compounds.
Clearing of other toxins
Antioxidants help to clear the toxic build up of free radicals thereby reducing oxidative stress and negating the effects of the superoxide molecules. Thereby acai helps in clearing up the toxic molecules and reduce the effects of aging. Activation of a detoxification gene transcript was also reported in an animal study although its importance was not clearly demarcated. Nevertheless, it was suggested that it can help in relieving the oxidative stress that generally builds up due to the accumulation of toxins within the body.²,³
References:
- Neida S, Elba S. Characterization of the acai or manaca (Euterpe oleracea Mart.): a fruit of the Amazon. Arch Latinoam Nutr. 2007 Mar;57(1):94-8.
- Schauss AG, Wu X, Prior RL, Ou B, et al. Antioxidant capacity and other bioactivities of the freeze-dried Amazonian palm berry, Euterpe oleraceae mart. (acai). J Agric Food Chem. 2006 Nov 1; 54(22):8604-10.
- Sun X, Seeberger J, Alberico T, Wang C, Wheeler CT, Schauss AG, Zou S. Açai palm fruit (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) pulp improves survival of flies on a high fat diet. Exp Gerontol. 2010 Mar; 45(3):243-51. Epub 2010 Jan 18