Rainforest Destruction: Not All Acai Products Are Created Equal
The Amazon covers 1.2 billion hectares on the northern side of the South American continent, a part of which is in Brazil and covers almost half of that vast country. In fact, the Amazon and its fertile ground for various plants and animals that thrive in its exotic climate, that Amazon products are better than what we call organic: they are wild. As a result, things that grow in nature are strong in their own defense mechanisms to fight off insects and all sorts of combatants. Amazonian products such as the Brazil nut, Guarana, and Acai berry are renowned for their complex composition and concentrated nutritional values.
Destruction of the rain forest!
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest reached its highest level in the years 2004 and 2005. Satellite photographs show that loggers burned and cleared nearly a record more than 10,000 square miles of rainforest in 2004 alone.
One of the main reasons is the worldwide demand for hearts of palm, which is a garnish for salads. Poachers were known to illegally cut down between 5,000 and 10,000 palm trees a week. This was just to get the 12- to 16-inch (30-40 cm) section that is near the crown of a 65-foot (20-meter) palm tree.
For this delicacy alone, a poacher would have cut down an average of 50 trees per day just to earn about $1 for each tree from which the heart of palm was removed. Once the core is removed, the tree dies and rots.
The crop from a palm tree that has grown for over 100 years has enough of this delicacy to fill two 14-ounce cans of hearts of palm. This would retail in a supermarket for less than $5.00 per can. To feed salad bars and salad connoisseurs the world over, is such palm and rainforest destruction worth it? It is particularly wasteful because hearts of palm have no particular nutritional value beyond its fiber.
This is not the case with the Acai berry, which has significant nutritional density and harvesting it is a completely different approach.
Harvesting Acai in this way can save the jungle!
Due to the great interest and demand for the Acai berry, this has begun to help locals realize that cutting down these precious palms for just a few inches from the top core of the tree was no longer a solution, and he discovered that there were better ones. Available options. Each palm tree produces a bumper crop of Acai fruit twice a year. Within a few years, the value of the palm fruit itself far exceeded the value of removing the top core of the palm just to use it as a salad garnish.
Thus, a legitimate reason was found not to cut down those trees by harvesting the Acai berry in another way.
Workers now climb to the top of the 90-foot palm to collect what is known as the Black Pearl of the Amazon.
As these workers soon realized this type of reputed harvest every year or in some cases twice a year is a better way to secure their jobs and increase their profits.
Harvesting the fruits of the palms is better for the environment because the palm will continue to grow for years. This was the way to stop unscrupulous loggers destroying Acai palms for quick profits.
This is opening another window of opportunity for the indigenous people and showing them how to protect one of the best treasures they have, by saving the palm tree that contributes so much to people’s health.
Preparations after harvesting the Acai berry!
The Amazon River is long and wide and a ship can sail inland from the sea for more than 3,218 km (2,000 miles).
The river provides the best opportunity to navigate barges for transport and quick preparations immediately after the fruit is harvested. The timing is crucial; if not cared for properly, the oxidation process begins and quickly spoils the delicate fruit.
Without a way to keep the fruit refrigerated or to be processed quickly, it would deteriorate rapidly as almost all food in the tropics does. In the last decade or so, a reliable and cost-effective transportation infrastructure has been established including large refrigeration facilities. Well-equipped barges can navigate the river deep into the jungle collecting the harvest.
Barges equipped with this type of facilities where certain stages of processing have been carried out and transported to cities near the Amazon River. One of the most effective ways is to freeze the fruit in large blocks and send it to different destinations. Why freeze flash? This is the only and most effective way for the fruit to maintain all its benefits and nutritional values.
The power of Acai
As reported in the Journal of Agriculture and food chemistry, a study showing that extracts from Acai berries triggered a self-destruct response in more than 86 percent of leukemia cells tested.
This study was one of the first of its kind conducted by the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences to show what people can gain from using beverages, dietary supplements made from the berries. There are many reports of these types of different health benefits. Therefore, there is no better reason for distributors and companies to be eager to use the advantage of the Acai name.
Not all Acai products are the same
The label doesn’t say it all. On the label it may say that it includes Acai, but how much does it contain? Also, was it preserved as it should have been? Therefore, not all Acai products shown on the labels are the same, nor do they contain the right amount to have the effect it is meant to. The way this berry is preserved and processed can have a dramatic effect on its overall quality.
Many product labels list that they include Acai, but most have only a fraction of the amount of Acai and its antioxidant activity that they should. Some companies don’t understand how important all the post-harvest processing actions are, or are simply trying to save money by cutting corners in the process.
Around the late 1990s, university laboratories became more advanced in accurately measuring the amounts of specific nutrients in Acai fruits and other foods. Only that preservation methods caught on and became available, such as freeze-drying that would curb its nutritional quality.
Not many leading companies have researched and follow strict rules and guidelines to preserve and transport this high-quality product without losing any of its nutritional value.
Acai berry processing and preservation
The key is that the benefits of the Acai berry are delivered in the most effective and concentrated form. A process of freezing fresh harvested fruit to preserve the nutrients in the fruit that is done at a very low heat temperature; this process removes moisture from the berry, leaving behind the pure Acai powder.
Freeze-dried Acai powder, gram for gram, has an ORAC of 1,027, which I talked about in the previous article. That makes it one of the highest of any type of fruit or vegetable.
A product with one of the best health benefits has been found and developed for anyone who wants to take advantage of it. Now, more than ever, people are stepping up to accept responsibility for their own health and the food they eat. Scientific evidence shows that the most powerful health benefits come from Mother Nature, and using natural foods as medicine is the most logical step.
Public health officials are urging consumers to eat several servings of fruits and vegetables every day to get all the important antioxidants. Unfortunately, most people have very little knowledge about what antioxidants are and why they are important.
The other positive step is to change the harvest process, save the palm trees and protect the Amazon rainforest. It’s not just for taking, it’s also for giving back.