What Are The Health Benefits of Acai?
Not just another Acai Shop… we promise.
OKAY, so I figured its time that we should all address the big elephant in the room. WHY are there so many acai shops popping up everywhere? WHY should I care? HOW can I choose a good versus bad acai shop? And when will it stop… hopefully never in our opinion.
With all of that off the table, we’ll begin by addressing: what actually is acai anyways?
Acai isn’t just some fad that came up out of anywhere, and anyone with a passion for healthy living, and a passion for eating wholesome foods will tell you that. That’s why I’m here. It’s my life’s mission and, truthfully believe is my purpose to spread the importance of eating such nutrient dense foods such as acai. Though there are over 80 thousand edible plants, some are 100% more beneficial than others—yup, like acai. Acai has been grown in the amazon since the pre Colombian times (think 1800’s & beyond) and used as ancient healing and medicinal purposes for centuries! Yup. That’s a long time. Meanwhile it’s only been brought around to modern civilization in the last 50 or so years {where have we been? Lol}. That’s the power of evolution I’d say. Neat. So back to what acai is… acai is a berry that is grown on a palm found in the Amazon rain forest in Brazil, and now also grown in climates that withhold similar properties of that {Puerto Rico, South America} solely to keep up with the widespread demand for this fruit. The acai berry was founded and distinguished as a euterpe oleracea by an early, early botanist and is simply put: a species of palm cultivated for its fruit (acai berries or simply acai), hearts of palm (a vegetable), leaves and trunk wood. What really makes acai unique are the health benefits of this tiny plant. No it doesn’t cure diabetes or battle illnesses. This “fad” has completely flattened the truth and beauty behind the acai berry. First: ask yourself if the shop of your choosing is using premade acai, or acai they’ve bought from a manufacturer. There is no such thing as pure acai, rather the pulp from the berry blended into a thick sorbet like consistency, often with banana. The acai berry itself is not incredibly rich in flavor. The fruit founded on these palms is processed into pulp for supply to food product manufacturers or retailers and sold as frozen pulp, yup just pulp, but like many fruits, that’s where all the benefits come from! An acai blend is usually what makes it flavorful. If it claims to be pure acai, it’s likely it’s filled with sweeteners, soy lecithin, and other things that are quite the contrary of super for you.
Acai in fact has created more lawsuits over false advertising than I even care to look into and truthfully I could go on about this forever, if you couldn’t tell….so, we’ll skip that fun bit of information and dive right into its actual health benefits, some of the various different cultivations of the fruit, and let you make up your mind if these places should continue to be a part of our culture.
What are the health benefits of Acai?
The health benefits of acai are truthfully rather simple: they contain strong antioxidants, age defying rumors, contain and are high in healthy fats, and the pulp found in acai aids in helpful digestion and reaps benefits of fiber. Truth? There is no actual scientific proof that acai will make you lose weight just from eating it. All of the aspects that compose the acai berry can surely and absolutely will aid in weight loss but will not do the work for you. Like anything in life, there is no magic pill. We tell you this, because here at Shaka we have a 100% transparent window with you. We stand by our product. We believe that practicing a healthy lifestyle, and believing in the simplicity of eating clean, eating well, eating raw, keeping an active lifestyle, will make you live your ultimate healthy life. With all that being said, we definitely think you should care! And you should eat acai, because it does hold a ton vital nutrients that are hard to get from many other foods.
What different kinds of acai bowls are there?
This is a topic that we here at Shaka take very seriously, and more importantly, very personal. I bet you’re thinking, “They’re all pretty much the same”. When that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The Brazillians eat acai pretty simply and the traditional way it was meant to be ate: quite literally called acai na tigela (“acai in the bowl”)– made of frozen and of the mashed acai palm fruit. It is served as a smoothie in a bowl, and is commonly topped with granola and banana, and then mixed with other fruits and guaraná syrup. Yup there’s that a natural sweetener, and that’s totally fine. But mind you- this does not contain any pre-making and most certainly no fillers. This is the way acai is supposed to be served, and the way we believe it to be. A simple blend, naturally sweetened. Honest.
Then there are, what we like to call, the Americanized acai bowls—the ones that main focus are a plethora of unhealthy toppings that completely strip this food culture of it’s dignity. Filled with soy, sweetners, and artificial flavoring. Watch out for these bowls. They come in all sorts of shops, and are advertised as the opposite. ^ Note what we said about the lawsuits… Yup! Bad! We like to think of our base and our bowls as traditional Hawaiian acai bowls, whom also have their own sort of twist to this healthy cuisine (pretty on par with the Brazilian ones not to mention).
The Hawaiian way is simple as well, low in sugar, and allows you to indulge in the benefits as well as the flavor. The Hawaiian way is a lot of acai, some fruit, a dash of granola, some super food toppings: bee pollen, goji berries, etc. topped with honey, or simple raw coconut flakes! That’s it! Nothing else to it. And that’s the way we stumbled upon this tiny yet delicious food!
Our Pledge:
Here at Shaka we pride ourselves on selling you PURE Brazillian acai full of pulp and all of it’s medicinal properties. It contains no soy, sweeteners, fillers, and is naturally unsweetened. We hope you choose healthy, always. We hope you choose simple, always. We hope your life is simple, wholesome, and deliciously happy. That’s our pledge to you.