Acai Berry

Eating Mangoes Thinking Acai Berries

October 24th, 2008

I am sitting here in Spain working on my computer and wondering, as I often do, if the World hasn’t gone a little mad. You see I had mangoes for breakfast this morning as they are grown all around here and this is the season for them. I was feeling smug at how health conscious I was when I read on the Internet that acai (pronounced ah-sigh-ee a very unfortunate name) berries from Brazil have fifty times the antioxidant power of the mango. So now I’m having an attack of acai envy.

Then I began to worry about all the resources and carbon tire tracks around the globe if I were to get hold of some acai berries for my breakfast instead of mango. You see here is the process: The acai berries are harvested daily during their season, in the Amazon basin. They are then freeze dried within a day of picking. The acai berry, like the mango has a huge stone or nut so ninety percent of it is inedible and thrown away. The pulp has to be separated from the nut to give a thick acai fruit pulp substance.

Now everybody raves about how tasty the acai is and how it is a true ’super food’ in nutrition terms and I suppose it does give employment and a good living to lots of Brazilian growers and workers. I’m intrigued by the idea of a pulp that is supposed to have the flavor of chocolate blueberries. The people of Northern Brazil have eaten acai berries for generations, and swear by its’ therapeutic and nourishing powers. It is the stuff of myth. But I can’t help wonder if they live any longer than me on average?

Then there is still the question of the carbon tire prints. Because the acai fruit doesn’t keep, so If we didn’t have power hungry freezing techniques and long-distance travel the rest of the World would still have to be content with eating their own locally grown super foods.

Still when you hear the figures on the antioxidant content in the acai berries I still get acai envy. You see apart from my humble mango it has twice the antioxidants of pomegranate, thrice that of blueberries and thirty times that of red grapes.

Entry Filed under: About Acai Berry