Weight Loss Fads - Part 10 - Acai Berry Weight Loss Research

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When reading about acai berries I’m sure you’ve come across the phrase “studies have shown” all too often.

I’m going to try to cut out the middle man, if possible, and actually show you the studies.

Supplement companies claim that acai berries can help you lose weight, but is there any proof of this?

By proof I mean studies done on humans, which test for weight loss.

Let the weight loss study scavenger hunt begin!

Acai Berry Weight Loss Research

After searching around for a while, guess what I found!?

There hasn’t been a single study done on humans to see if acai berries actually do help people lose weight!

It’s pretty surprising, especially with all the acai berry weight loss supplements out there. 

Let’s not be a total skeptic though. We’ll give the antioxidant theory, which we talked about in Part 6 of this series, a fair chance.

I was actually able to find two studies, which used human test subjects, dealing with acai berries and antioxidants.

The purpose of the first study I came across was to find out if our bodies can actually absorb the antioxidants from acai berries. It might seem like a trivial bit of research, but I guess just you can’t assume that your body will absorb the antioxidants from the berries. So it seems like a very logical place to start researching.

The participants in the clinical trial were given both acai pulp and juice OR applesauce and a drink without antioxidants. I really hope that the control group had never tasted acai berries before because it’s pretty easy to tell the difference in taste between applesauce and acai berry pulp.

The difference was that they used half the concentration of antioxidants (anthocyanins) in the acai pulp and juice than they did in the applesauce and placebo beverage.

The participants then had their blood and urine tested 12 hours after they consumed what they were given. They were also retested again a full 24 hours after consumption.

What were the results?

Our bodies really do absorb the antioxidants contained in acai berry products! At the very least, we can get antioxidant benefits from acai berries.

Let’s move onto the other study.

The purpose of this study was to test the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits of a specific acai berry juice: MonaVie Active. The study is a bit more specific, as to what drink the participants consume, but I’m not too sure if we’ll discover anything new from the research. Let’s check it out anyway.

They had pretty strict standards as to who they wanted in the study, here’s what could cause you to be excluded from the study:

• Not in the 18-55 year age range
• Pregnant
• Severely stressed
• Asthma or allergies requiring daily medication
• ANY chronic illness
• Obesity
• If you smoke or use recreational drugs
• Impaired digestive function
• Or if you already drink MonaVie Active or consume a lot of products with antioxidants in them

Alright, I get it; they wanted young and healthy individuals that aren’t already full of antioxidants from what they consume.

Nineteen people were interviewed but only 14 made it through. Seven of those participants were to take part in the pilot study and 12 in the clinical trial. The pilot study was to see which testing method they should use for the clinical trial.

The participants were studied 2 days, which were at least a week apart. They were instructed not to workout, or to eat a heavy meal the night before. More specifically, that meant to avoid meat, fruits or greens and not to consume alcohol, coffee or melatonin. They were also told not to eat anything after they woke up, but they were allowed to drink water as needed.

They would then come in and fill out a questionnaire to ensure that they had actually complied with the guidelines. Then they’d have their blood drawn, drink the juice and have their blood drawn again. Their blood samples were taken at the same time of day for accuracy.

Immediately after they had their blood drawn, they were given 120mL of the juice blend to drink. That’s about half a cup; the most that the manufacturer recommends you consume each day.

At this point you might be wondering what the placebo group got… Well, it was pretty hard to replicate the juice blend so they decided to leave the placebo group in the dark and have them assume that the capsules they were given contained the acai berry product. They got some lovely white potato flakes that were dyed purple, dried, ground up and put inside vegetable based capsules. Mmm!

Each person got to consume the acai berry juice, take a week off and then come back and pop the potato pills. This method seemed to work because there were no signs of a placebo effect.

Back to the study… So an hour after the participants drank their juice or popped their potato pills, they had their blood drawn again. They then had their blood drawn one last time, 2 hours after they had consumed what they were given.

What were the results?

It appears that the antioxidant effects from the drink were better than the placebo group, but not great until 2 hours after consumption. The oxidation levels in 10 out of the 12 participants were lowered 2 hours after they had consumed MonaVie Active.

I think it was smart to have all of the participants take part in both the placebo and the acai juice group. Having set it up this way, they could more clearly see the difference in oxidation when comparing a participant’s blood sample after the juice blend to their blood sample after the placebo pill.

What does that mean?

MonaVie Active is a legit acai berry drink that has beneficial antioxidant properties!

I was a little disappointed that there haven’t been any studies done on humans to prove the weight loss claims. But it does seem like a promising berry if you’re consuming it for antioxidant reasons.

Let’s move on.

>> Continue Reading Part 11 - Colon Cleanse Weight Loss Research >>