Aca-who-ey?

Pronounced Ah-Sa-E, Acai is a fruit we are hearing more about in the media these days. So what’s the big deal?

Well acai comes from a palm tree grown in Central and South America, with commercial sources mostly found in Brazil. It contains a very high concentration of polyphenol anti-oxidants such as anthocyanins (OPC’s) which are the things that make red wine a ‘healthfood’ (that is not an endorsement for a bottle a night), and which colour foods the deep red/purple that we see in pomegranate, beetroot, grapes, bludeberries, etc.

The importance of these anti-oxidants is in their ability to prevent damage to our circulatory systems – something we all should be concerned with as stressful modern lifestyles, environmental toxins, poor dietary habits, et al have been shown to cause just this sort of damage.

Acai, being an exotic fruit travelling half way around the world to reach our mouths, ain’t cheap. So The Hopsack recommends supplementing for a month or two at a time (with juice or capsules) to accelerate the mending process that acai affords, and making sure to include more local blue/purple/deep red coloured fruits and vegetables in the meantime to bolster the diet. If you’ve never heard of ‘Eating the Rainbow’ this is one of the best and simplest dietary principles to implement. Simply make sure your plate contains some of each of the folowing colours throughout your day (yellow, red, green, purple) and you can rest assured your body will thank you for the variety of anti-oxidants your food provides. More on ‘Eating the Rainbow’ soon…