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Are Exotic Acai Drinks Worth the Price?
Riding the wave of exploding interest in nutrition and alternative medicine, marketing of the acai berry from the Amazon has now hit the streets. I have seen estimates that by the end of 2007, more than half the population of the US investigated alternative medicine or visited an alternative health provider. Figures like these point to a strong market for new products that may have healthful benefits.
However, in a questionable economy or recession, people may not be willing or able to pay high prices for those products.
I recently received an email asking about acai juice: “I’ve been hearing a lot about acai juice offered by a multi-level marketing company. What do you think about it?”
To answer this question, I gathered about 20 research reports on the benefits of dark berry juices in general and acai in specific. Here is what I found.
Pros:
Dark fruits and berries are excellent sources of antioxidants and phytonutrients. Antioxidants act as scavengers in the body, reducing the activity of free radicals (the bad stuff).
Acai berries score high on antioxidant capability against peroxyl radicals, compounds formed from free radicals that attack and may eventually destroy cell membranes. There is solid laboratory evidence that dark berry fruits are high in phytonutrients and may offer many health-giving benefits. Research into the benefits of phytonutrients is still in its infancy, so we’ll be hearing more about these benefits in the months ahead.
Cons:
Acai juice is sometimes marketed through a multilevel marketing system. Companies following these multilevel marketing systems appear to focus more on their system than on the products. They may fail to disclose the amount of acai juice in its products.
The company you ask about suggests that people drink 2-4 ounces of their juice daily, an amount that seems surprising low. They offer no rationale for this suggestion.
Their juice (acai mixed with other juices) is extremely expensive, a single bottle (25 ounces) priced at as much as $45.00, will last about one week. By contrast, a 16-oz bottle of acai juice is about $6.50 at my local health food store. Other dark berry juices are even less expensive.
The company offers a single clinical study to customers. Only 12 people took part in this study, a sample size too small to yield reliable results. Moreover, the study report fails to include all results, providing individual but not group results. For this reason, I question the validity of the report itself. No replications of this study are reported, so I assume they have not been done.
My conclusion:
While I believe that this product is probably healthful and may contribute to a healthy lifestyle, I do not see benefits that justify the extreme cost of the product. 
The phytonutrients and antioxidant properties contained in the acai berry are not unique. Locally produced berries such as pomegranates, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries, while not exotic, also contain high levels of many phytonutrients, and have, in laboratory settings, been found effective against certain types of cancers.
From the research studies I have read, I believe that combining the juices from locally grown berries, including pomegranate and blueberry, would produce results similar to those claimed by company customers at a much more reasonable cost.
I am also concerned that the placebo effect may be in full operation here. Customers may feel that if they paid so much for the product, it should be miraculous in some way or another. After all, if I paid nearly $200 for a month’s supply, I would expect (and probably get) some snappy results.
Finally, I find the taste of acai juice somewhere between bitter and sour. I prefer adding other sweeter juices to counteract the unpleasant taste, so I could mix my own blend without spending so much.
Bottom Line
There is no magic pill, no magic super food that will cure all the ills of the body. However, if you want to try out Acai juice, Amazon.com offers a freeze-dried, organic bottle of acai berries that you can use to reconstitute the juice for yourself. To me, this appears to be an effective, price-conscious alternative.