Healthy Fiber – “Eat more fiber”. Easy to say but hard to do? You have probably heard that before, but why is fiber so good for us?  A high fiber diet (approximately 30-40g per day) reduces the risk of some chronic conditions. It is also a great way to help you feel full quickly and lose weight. Fiber comes from plant foods: whole grain cereals, vegetables, legumes, fruit, nuts and seeds, and is necessary for your gut to function properly. However, it is important to drink plenty of fluids in order for the fiber to swell and act as a sponge and regulate your gut movement.

Fiber acts like a sponge and soaks up sugar in the foods you eat, and releases it slowly, helping control blood sugar levels. It also reduces cholesterol absorption and excretion, therefore reducing blood cholesterol. But that's not all. Foods that are high in fiber expand in the stomach and intestine like a sponge, to help you feel full, and these foods tend to be those low in energy. These foods are said to have low energy density. If you compare to a bag of candy, there is no fiber in it and they are very high in energy, and candy does not act like a sponge and expand in your stomach to help you feel full and stop eating!

CAOH® Acai berries can help you bulk up your diet with fiber, and therefore decrease its energy density. This way you!ll be eating less energy for the same weight of food and therefore help in weight management. CAOH® organic freeze dried Acai has a fiber content of 1.35g (per 5g serve) compared with an apple (1.8g) or a weetbix (1.8g). In an Acai berry smoothie with 3 scoops of organic freeze dried All the information on acai berries. powder, you get around 4g of dietary fiber! The recommended intake is  suggested to be 30g of fiber per day.

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Acai Berry Heart Friendly Nutrients!  It is known that certain diets promote heart disease. And we also know that the proper diet can help reduce heart risk, even if you have risk factors which cannot change (such as age, genetics and family history of the disease). However, we also know that the lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise and smoking are modifiable! That's great news.

A heart friendly diet not only protects us from dangerous health related conditions. One of the key aspects of a heart friendly diet is the inclusion of fruits and vegetables and the replacement of saturated fat in the diet by unsaturated fats. One way that antioxidants guard against health conditions is by protecting the LDL, or bad cholesterol from oxidizing – which is what forms plaque in our arteries and hence cause atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.

CAOH® Acai is cholesterol-free. It is naturally cholesterol-free since cholesterol only comes from animal products! Why do we want to lower our cholesterol? This is because it is linked to heart disease. CAOH® Acaí berries are not only cholesterol-free, but low in the heart-clogging saturated fat and high in the heart-friendly unsaturated fats and fiber. Together, these nutrients help reduce cholesterol.

Let!s take a look at the types of fat in CAOH® Acaí. There are three types of fats found in our foods. Saturated fat, polyunsaturated fay, and monounsaturated fat. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats tend to be liquid at room temperature (your vegetable oils, with the exception of coconut and palm which are mainly saturated). Acai berries are low in saturated fats. These are the fats that increase your cholesterol and clog up your arteries. The Acai berry contains the unsaturated fats omega-6 and omega-9 (a classification of the type of unsaturated fats), which reduce LDL-cholesterol levels (think L = Low, so we want them to be low in our blood) when they replace saturated fats in our diet.

Acai is richer in monounsaturated fats than polyunsaturated fats. Monounsaturated fats maintain the good HDL-cholesterol levels (think H = healthy, or you want it to be high) in our blood. Monounsaturated fats are less susceptible to oxidation than polyunsaturated oils. This makes monounsaturated fats a heart-healthy choice.

Recall that CAOH® Acai is a good source of dietary fiber. Dietary fiber helps lower cholesterol and maintains sugar levels in our body.

CAOH® Acai is a true heart-friendly fruit!

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Acai Berry is a rich source of Vitamins and Minerals. Vitamins and minerals are substances found in our foods that are needed in small quantities to support your body's growth and good health. We need these compounds everyday, for several processes in our bodies. In order to get them, we need to eat a variety of foods including fruits and vegetables, which are high in vitamins and minerals.

CAOH® Acai is a unique fruit, because it contains a wide variety of these essential vitamins and minerals. Acai is packed with vitamin E, iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium!

Let's take a look at what CAOH® Acai offers:

Vitamin E

Acai is rich in vitamin E. Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin which has antioxidant properties. Vitamin E protects our cells, especially their membranes from oxidation, or “destruction”. It also helps prevent the healthy unsaturated fats from being oxidized.

Iron

Iron is needed by our body!s red blood cells to carry oxygen and so it literally helps our cells to make energy. This is one of the reasons why Acai is so energetic! Like other plant derived iron, the iron in Acai berries is not absorbed very well in our bodies. One way to change this is to ensure you have Vitamin C with it. Vitamin C is found in citrus foods and juices. So by mixing CAOH® Acai berries with juice, it helps boost your iron intake!

Calcium

We need calcium for our bones and teeth to develop properly, for their maintenance, and for our muscles and heart to function. Calcium is deposited in our bones and teeth, making them strong. If we do not consume enough calcium in our diet, our bones become more and more porous, which means that a slight fall may break your bones! That is why it is so important to maintain an adequate calcium intake throughout our lives. The new Australian and New Zealand recommended Dietary Intake (RDI) states that we need 1000mg of Calcium per day. CAOH® organic freeze dried Acai provides you with 51.9mg with every 3 scoops.

Magnesium

Magnesium is a mineral needed for our bodies to produce energy. It also helps our bodies in regulating potassium and calcium. It is important in bone formation and muscles.

Phosphorus

Phosphorus is another important mineral. It is part of our DNA, cell membranes and enzymes, is needed to maintain our bones and teeth strong, and in our body's energy metabolism.

Potassium

Potassium is also a mineral. it is invovled in muscle contraction, maintaining a proper fluid balance in our cells, and blood pressure control.

Next time you reach for your CAOH® Acai, keep in mind the guilt-free goodness inside that packet of fruit!

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Whether you are competing or just training for personal health and satisfaction, it is important to have a well-balanced diet. A good training diet allows you to feel confidant in all levels of competition and maximizes your body!s ability to adapt to your training,therefore maximizing performance.

Any person or individual who engages in physical activity needs to maintain a fuel and nutrient-rich diet. Certain foods provide our bodies with “fuel” to perform exercise. These foods are those rich in carbohydrates, as carbs fuel your work out. If you train when you are low on carbs, then the depleted stores will make you feel tired and your workout will be ineffective.

CAOH® Acai berries are the perfect example of a nutritious carbohydrate rich food. They provides an athlete with energy from carbohydrates, calcium for your bones and muscle contraction, and iron to help your body circulate oxygen to your muscles during exercise!  With exercise, our bodies sweat and lose essential salts and minerals. By having CAOH® Acai after a workout, it will provide your body with a good combination of carbohydrate, protein, fats and minerals. Another benefit of Acai for the athlete is its high antioxidant content. Exercise equals stress in our bodies, which translates to an increase in free radicals. CAOH® Acai’s antioxidants may help our bodies with the high stress our tissues experience with exercise.

Not only is CAOH® Acaí great for fueling your workout, but it is easy and convenient to consume.

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WARNING ON ACAI SCAMS: CAOH® has had an increase in inquiries relating to "victims" of Acai SCAMS who signed up for "free trials" and are still being charged monthly un-authorized transactions. All Acai Scams so far have originated from the US.

CAOH® does not conduct free trials that require YOUR credit card information AND we use a third party SSL merchant facility (eway.com.au) for all credit card transactions. CAOH® encourages ALL Acai Lovers to exercise extreme caution insigning up for US based Acai purchases.

We sell Acai Berry because we love it and we know you will also!

The pulp of acai berries may counter the effects of a high-fat diet and reduce the risk of developing high blood cholesterol levels, says a new study with rats from Brazil.  Animals fed a high-fat diet and supplemented with acai pulp had lower levels of total and non-HDL cholesterol, compared to animals just eating a high-fat diet, according to findings published in Nutrition.

“This is the first study, to our knowledge, addressing the potential benefits of acai intake in the cholesterol profile,” wrote the researchers, led by Maria Lucia Pedrosa from the Federal University of Ouro Preto. “We observed that the addition of acai pulp in the hypercholesterolemic diet had a hypocholesterolemic effect by reducing cholesterol levels (total and non-HDL), which could be explained by a lower food intake and higher faecal excretion,” they added.  High cholesterol levels, hypercholesterolaemia, have a long association with many diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease (CVD), the cause of almost 50 per cent of deaths in Europe, and reported to cost the EU economy an estimated $202 bn per year.

Super fruits from Central and South America

Acai berries (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) have long formed part of the staple diet of Indian tribes. With the appearance of a purple grape and taste of a tropical berry, it has been shown to have powerful antioxidant properties thanks to a high level of anthocyanins, pigments that are also present in red wine.

It is presently being sold in a number of countries, including New Zealand, Australia, South America, Japan, USA, and the Middle East

Commenting independently on the study, acai expert Dr Alex Schauss from US-based contract research organization AIBMR told NutraIngredients that the study does provide in vivo experimental evidence that acai pulp can improve mammalian lipid profiles in response to a high fat diet.  Regarding the safety data, Dr Schauss added that “acai does not appear to cause liver damage as evidenced by the fact that acai does not alter activities of several liver enzymes. This is important since liver damage is a common phenomenon when a drug is taken for a long period of time.”

Study details

Pedrosa and her co-workers used female Fischer rats and divided them into four groups: Two groups consumed a standard diet, and two groups consumed a high fat diet containing 25 per cent soy oil and 1 per cent cholesterol. One standard diet group and one high fat diet group received additional acai pulp at a level of 2 per cent.  After six weeks, the researchers noted an increase in blood levels of total and non-HDL cholesterol and a decrease in levels of HDL cholesterol in the high-fat diet only animals. Such changes were attenuated in the acai-supplemented high-fat diet animals.  The researchers did not directly examine the mechanism behind the effects but noted that the benefits may not be solely due to the polyphenol content of the fruit.

“These results suggest that the consumption of acai improves antioxidant status and has a hypocholesterolemic effect in an animal model of dietary-induced hypercholesterolemia,” concluded the researchers.

Future study

• AIBMR’s Dr Schauss noted that future studies should focus on using a better high fat mouse model. “There is a published rodent diet that is close to a typical high fat American diet or McDonald diet that could be used,” he said. He also said that the length of intervention should be increased to six months, while the effects of acai pulp on lipids can be further investigated by looking at both liver and blood vessel morphology, signalling pathways, LDL levels and cardiovascular functions.

• Source: Nutrition – Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2009.09.007: “Diet supplementation with acai (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) pulp improves biomarkers of oxidative stress and the serum lipid profile in rats” – Authors: M. Oliveira de Souza, M. Silva, M. Eustaquio Silva, R. de Paula Oliveira, M.L. Pedrosa

Nutra Pills barred from making 'free' offers unless they really are!

By: James Limbach, ConsumerAffairs.com

Attorneys for the state of Colorado have reached a settlement agreement with Nutra Pills, Inc., and its owner, Joshua D. Bezoni, to bring the internet marketer and seller of nutritional supplements, including acai berry supplements, into compliance with state's consumer protection laws.

In addition, consumers who did business with the company over the last year will be reimbursed.

The Office of Attorney General John Suthers says it learned through its investigation that Bezoni's Arvada-Colorado-based company, which has operated under the names Golf Nutrition Sciences and GNS, used so-called "free-to-pay conversion" marketing since 2005, which resulted in consumers unknowingly incurring continuing payments for products that they initially believed were free.

According to court filings, consumers signed up for free trials of products, such as Acai Berry Edge, Acai Berry Elite and Slim Seduction, and believed at the time they placed their order that they were authorizing only the shipping and handling charges for the free trial. When the free trial arrived, however, consumers also received a two-month supply of the product and were given a limited amount of time to return the product or face a nearly $80 charge within 30 days.

That's what happened to Cathy of Locust Grove, OK. She tells ConsumerAffairs.com that she ordered Slim Seduction, which was offered for a free trial period, after which she would be billed $39.90 for each of 2 bottles and pay only $3.97 shipping at time of order.

"After trying the product for about a week and a half, decided it wasn't for me," she says. "Called and received a return authorization and confirmation numbers. Sent product back via USPS with delivery confirmation tracking service. Product was received back at GNS on 3/20/09. My account was billed $79.90 on 3/22/09. I am now in the process of trying to get a hold of someone there to get my account credited."

Additionally, if consumers failed to take any action to cancel their order and send back the two-month supply of product, they were enrolled into the company's "continuity" plan, which meant the company continued to send products to the consumer and charge the consumer nearly $80 for each shipment.

More than one thousand consumers complained that they had no idea they were agreeing to the additional charges associated with the free trial offer and that once they did realize it, it was often too difficult or too late to get a refund from the company.

Sandra of Tucker, GA, found out about that the hard way. She tells us that after receiving a sample product, for which she would be charged shipping only, she called and cancelled any future orders. "The girl told me it was cancelled and assured me I would receive no more product or charges. The next month I received a $79.90 charge on my card and was assured it would be credited (it wasn't). This month I have a $69.90 charge again. They are now $150 ahead and I still don't have any proof that they won't steal another amount next month."

The company generated $40 million in sales in 2009 — nearly all of it a direct result of its free-to-pay conversion sales. Since the attorney general launched the investigation into Nutra Pills one year ago, the company has refunded nearly $9 million dollars to consumers and has ceased doing business.

Under the terms of the settlement, approved by a Jefferson County District Court judge, Bezoni and his businesses will be prohibited from marketing "free" products unless they are, in fact, free and not part of a free-to-pay conversion plan. Bezoni and his businesses also will be barred from enrolling consumers into continuity plans unless the terms of the plan, including the cancellation policy, are clearly and conspicuously disclosed to consumers before they sign up to receive a product and again after the transaction has been completed.

In addition, Bezoni and his businesses must obtain express authorization from consumers for all charges associated with the initial transaction, including future charges, and they must disclose when those charges will be levied. The agreement requires Bezoni and his businesses to allow consumers to cancel in the same manner that they signed up to receive a sample. It also requires Bezoni and his companies to obtain the express authorization every 12 months from consumers already enrolled in a continuity plan to remain enrolled.

Bezoni and Nutra Pills also must pay a $100,000 fine, half of which the Attorney General agreed to suspend for a period of five years barring any violation of the settlement. In addition, Nutra Pills must reimburse all consumer complainants who filed complaints since December 2006 as well as all consumers who requested but were denied refunds since December 2008.

Makers and marketers of acai berry supplements have been under increasing attack, including a salvo launched by Oprah Winfrey .

A full series of pictures showing how acai berries are processed in the Amazon.

The sources below are great educational tools aiding the reader to better understand the amazing health benefits of dark (red-blue) pigmented fruits and vegetables. These five are my personal favorites.” (Dr. E)

Acai is a great product and has many important health benefits, but companies with absolutely no credibility or ethics are filling the internet with false statements and promises!  Caveat emptor – “LET THE BUYER BEWARE.”