Acai Berry – Snake Oil or Superfood

Yesterday as I was surfing the net, I decided to pop Acai Berry into the search box. I thought I would see what the cost was for this little berry that has everyone in an uproar to determine whether it would be something to try to get me through the holidays without gaining a few more unwanted pounds. I’ve decided that this search is not for the feint of heart.

The first thing that I learned is that the pronunciation of the Acai berry is (ah-sigh-ee) because every page visited gave that information. The other information readily available is that it is recommended by Oprah and Dr. Oz. Great! But I’m not looking for celebrity endorsements, I’m looking for genuine statistical data and studies conducted to back the claims as well as any side effects that have been experienced. As my doctor will tell you, I react very strangely to things and have to proceed with caution before jumping on anyone’s band wagon.

Side effects? Yes, several of the sites provide the description that they offer information on side effects and offer warnings to read their information before purchasing the product. Well, once you go to the site, they all seem to mention that you have to be careful in the selection of the product because not all are created equally. All, funnily enough, seem to offer their top 3 candidates and the reasons why they were the top pick(s). All relate the findings of top 3 to be based on “personal” experience. The impression that they are trying to make is that they have a group of people that have personally tried all of the different brands available and that they found the biggest bang for the buck with the 3 that they are promoting on the site. Not one provides any comments of those that did not come up to scratch. One site even is posted under the guise of “a group of girls in the office decided to try. . .” and lists the names and the amount of weight lost in the time frame, along with the points of cholesterol that were lowered. They also gave the top 3 and didn’t mention those that didn’t make the cut.

Need I add that everyone’s top 3 are different? Also, when you click the link to go to the site offering the product, there are certain similarities. All offer a free trial. All offer the trial opportunity as long as you proceed within 5 minutes of having reached the site. Not one provided the cost of the product should you decide after the free trial to continue its use. Smack of MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) anyone? It’s not that I am completely against the MLM sellers, but would like to find some objective information and not be under the gun to make a decision to purchase until I’ve had a chance to read through the site.

In all my searching, I did find a couple of sites that come closer to the “unbiased” information that I was seeking on the topic. Acai Berry Products does provide a comparison of products and does not have links to any other sites. However, it does not provide information on the products offered by the MLM sellers. They do provide a link to another site as a good information source, but the site has several pages with “coming soon” messages on them, so I’m not sure how they can be considered and “expert” source when they don’t say much on the topic.

One other little tidbit, apparently the Acai berry has the flavor of chocolate, but needs to have fruit or sweetners added because otherwise it would taste like muddy oil. A chocolate flavor that doesn’t taste good, just can’t be chocolate. So, after all of my searching, I am still confused about the effectiveness, side effects, and pretty much everything else to do with the Acai berry, so I’ll just return to the land of fiction and continue working on the Where in the World is Misfit McCabe? promotion and writing the sequel to Misfit McCabe.

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