TRUTH OF UCLA ACAI STUDY REVEALED

Dr. Tim Hollingshead, physician, surgeon and CEO of Dr. Tim's Juices clarifies a study released in 2008 in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry January 2008 comparing the antioxidant potency of commonly consumed polyphenol-rich beverages or "ready-to-drink beverages "in the United States. This study was performed at the Center for Human Nutrition, David Geffen School of Medicine UCLA.

A study released in 2008 in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry January 2008 compared the antioxidant potency of commonly consumed polyphenol-rich beverages or "ready-to-drink beverages"in the United States. "Ready-to-drink" category of drinks simply means that it is a single serve format and is not a concentrate. The study tested a wide range of this category of drinks including pomegranate juice, red wine, grape juice, blueberry juice, black cherry juice, acai juice, cranberry juice, orange juice, apple juice, iced green tea, iced black tea and iced white tea. The study rated the antioxidant capacity of these drinks.

The study compared some single serve acai products that are blends and not pure or 100% acai. Where as all other juices measured were not blends but pure 100% juices. The acai juices measured contained less than 20% acai as compared to other juices in the study which containied 100% of their respective juices. An interesting side note in the study was found regarding the Mona Vie brand of acai. "The acai juices in the study did not include Mona Vie brand, because it is a blend of acai and 18 other fruit juices. The Mona Vie data shows the polyphenols and antioxidant index to be in the same range as for the acai juice reported or in the mid range for all beverages in the study (unpublished data). " Based on this reasoning the Mona Vie brand could have been included because it is a blend and not 100% acai juice.

What all this means is that the single serve acai products on the market including Bom Dia, Bossa Nova, and Sambazon Mango Uprising are less than 10% acai juice so of course they will not compare to the other juices in the study. Another interesting finding is that the Mona Vie was considered as weak as the single serve acai beverages in the study. This study should have used an acai product with a higher concentration of acai such as Dr. Tim's Brazilian Acai which claims to have at least 85% acai.

The conclusion is that the antioxidant capacity of acai juice is higher in a dietary supplement form such as Dr. Tim's Brazilian Acai because of the higher concentration of acai juice. All of the other acai juices measured and mentioned above cannot perform as well as Dr. Tim's because their respective acai content is so low or diluted. So, if you are looking for the most antioxidant rich juice it would indeed be an acai juice such as Dr. Tim's Brazilian Acai.