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Acai (pronounced ai-sigh-ee) are the fruits of a particular palm tree, which grows in the Brazilian rainforest. They look like blue berries. Recently acai berries have been hailed as a super-food, high in anti-oxidants and fibre. But acai berries spoil soon after picking and are not grown in the UK and few in the US, hence the proliferation of capsules and powders and pasteurised smoothies.
Eating acai berries as part of a balanced diet may well have some health benefits. But, sadly for those of us battling with our weight, they will not help us shed miraculous amounts of weight in record time without diet and exercise.
That you can lose weight for little money – a dream combination. But it’s not true. Many of the supplements claim celebrity endorsements like Oprah Winfrey (refuted by her legal team) or carry hazy photographs of slim celebrities with the implication that they use the supplements.
Because they’re the perfect scam. Adverts for acai berry weight loss supplements are rife, even on social networking sites. If you google ‘acai berry’, you’ll find over 6 million entries. If you google ‘acai berry scam’, you’ll still get nearly one million entries. That’s because the sellers of these supplements have got wise to the fact that so many Internet buyers feel conned and are complaining, so now they are cunningly creating sites that pretend to give objective reviews with more bogus weight loss blogs from ‘real women’. Don’t be surprised if ‘Jenny’, ‘Melissa’ and ‘Nicole’ all look remarkably similar. On these ‘acai berry scam’ sites women claim they tried three different supplements but only this one worked (surprise, surprise, it links to another scam). Even complaint forums have been infiltrated by people making claims for supposedly honest sites.
The short answer is: don’t try to buy on the Net. There are some reputable sellers, but they won’t be the ones making any weight loss claims, and trying to find them is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
If you do want to try acai berry supplements (knowing that they won’t aid weight loss), then pay the right price and buy from a reputable health food store.
