Your Acai Obsession Is Completely Healthy

Are Acai Bowls Healthy?

5 reasons to eat this purple superfood

Acai is trending like no other breakfast in the health and fitness world. Pretty colour? Tick. Delicious? Tick. Easy to throw into your smoothie? Tick. Makes for an amazing Instagram post? Tick, tick, tick!  

 

What was once a weekend treat quickly turns into a slight obsession and before you know it you’re downing acai smoothies and bowls like it’s going out of fashion. But can something this good really be healthy?...Yes! 

 

Here are FIT’s top 6 reasons to get this Amazonian purple berry into your smoothies and breakfast bowls, pronto.  

 

1. Acai fights disease

The high vitamin C content of this tiny berry as well as its phenolic compounds has been proven to protect against cardiovascular disease and cancer. A number of pilot studies have shown daily acai consumption to reduce metabolic disease markers in patients and also suggests that its vasodilator effect could be used medicinally in the treatment of cardiovascular disease.

 

2. Acai is a beauty food

Acai is bursting with nutrients that promote a healthy glow, containing vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C and E.  According to Dr. Lindsey Duncan, acai is highly beneficial in its ability to maintain healthy skin, hair, and nails due to the polyphenol antioxidants present in the berry. “They can help to fight free radicals and oxidative stress, and can even slow down the ageing process,” he says.

 

3. Acai helps you detox 

Acai is exceptionally high in antioxidants, which the fresh berry containing twice the amount found in fresh blueberries, which becomes much more concentrated when using a powdered form of acai. Antioxidants are essential to the detoxification process, assisting with clearing undesirable substances from the body and fighting free radicals. In this function, a study on mice has shown that acai has the powder to noticeably reduce DNA damage, which is suggestive that it can have the same positive effect on humans. 

 

4. Acai supports athletic performance

Acai can help support athletic performance as a vasodilator, allowing improved blood flow when exercising. In addition to this, one study examined how taking acai improved blood antioxidant status and lipid profile in junior athletes and found that regular acai consumption led to a noticeable increase in total antioxidant capacity of plasma, attenuation of the exercise induced muscle damage, and a substantial improvement of serum lipid profile. Acai is also useful to athletes as it reduces inflammation and helps improve range of motion. 

 

5. Acai supports a healthy weight

It wasn’t just Oprah saying that the acai berry was a weight loss aid, the science is there to prove it. In a study where overweight women consumed acai pulp over 4 weeks, the result showed a marked reduction in body fat and blood pressure consequently also decreased.  

 

GET YOUR ACAI FIX: 

Visit FIT in store where we stock the high quality 'Passion Projects Acai Powder' or try out our delicious, acai-loaded 'Fuel' smoothie