The city of Belem in northern Brazil has a population of about 2,000,000. It would be very interesting to find out if its inhabitants have an unusually low incidence of illnesses such as cancer, arteriosclerosis or Alzheimer’s disease. Why? Because the city is dotted with some 3000 “acai points” where people line up to purchase a slurry made from the pulp of the fruit of the acai (a-sigh-yee) palm tree. Over 200,000 liters of the thick purple sludge are consumed every day, which is more than the amount of milk that is drunk in the city. And, at least if you listen to some of the North American advertisers who have begun to import the juice of the acai berry, it has fantastic anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-mutagenic and, above all, antioxidant properties! “Nature’s perfect fruit,” boasts one distributor. “The Amazon’s Viagra,” brags another. Little surprise then that North Americans, in constant search for the next miracle that will help them beat the clock, are shelling out in excess of $40 for a bottle of juice made from the acai berry which has “more antioxidants than any other edible berry on the planet.”One thing we can say for sure about antioxidants is that they help sell products. Just festoon a label with “source of antioxidants” and the food, beverage, or dietary supplement flies off the shelves. That’s because researchers have shown that antioxidants can neutralize those nasty free radicals that form in our bodies as a result of breathing oxygen. And those free radicals have been linked with a number of human illnesses. So, it stands to reason that if we can curtail their activity, we’ll be better off.
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