Left Behind

The acai berry has absolutely stormed into popular dieting culture over the past few years. And rightly it should, too: this is truly a wonder food of the highest order. People with huge influence like Oprah Winfrey are recommending acai juice to her watchers and listeners; Dr. Nicholas Perricone has put the acai fruit at the top of his highly respected list of super foods. Even the New York Times has run articles extolling the virtues of acai juice.

You might think that there must be something in these stories if they are so frequently seen and heard. And you would be right. Its powerful mix of anti-oxidants and amino acids help the body combat again and even improve defenses against critical diseases like cancer and diabetes.

Acai appears most commonly as acai juice: this is the most convenient to the end consumer and it helps the distributors retain much of the natural feeling about acai berry whilst allowing it to travel much better. Certainly when you compare acai juice to its distant relatives like acai powder and acai pills, you can see why so many people plump for the acai juice version.

If you’ve not tried acai juice before then now is a great chance. You won’t regret it!

Terry Goddard – Arizona Attorney General – as a victory on behalf of the people. The victory was against shady Acai dealers Central Coast Nutraceuticals, and should hopefully put a stop to the business practices that threatened to bring down the entire Acai industry.

CCN’s business model appeared to rely on scamming potential customers by offering them ‘free trials’ of Acai berry and other health products. This free trial quickly turned into a paid subscription, and customers were unable to cancel the charges. In addition, CCN were sending out products not ordered by customers and charging for these too.

All in all, CCN’s conduct towards customers was actively deceptive. Part of the settlement requires that CCN does not continue with these deceptive sales and advertising practices. The financial part of the settlement – a fine of $1,375,000 – hits CCN where it hurts. Whether the fine is large enough or not is a matter for further discussion, but at least it is several steps in the right direction. Hopefully this will instill some fear into those carrying on with similar business models. Rogue practices like this bring problems to the entire industry, and do a lot to harm legitimate Acai Juice and Acai health and diet food distributors.

If you want to be considered for a proportion of the $350,000 that has been set aside customer restitution, then you should file a complaint to the Arizona attorney general’s office by August 17, 2009. Customers are unlikely to receive all monies lost, but of course every little helps.

I have a story with, thankfully, a happy ending. It’s doesn’t start happy though, as you find me swearing and cursing my computer which will not connect to the Ares network.

Try as I might I cannot make Ares connect.

I try reinstalling Ares Galaxy. Nothing.

I try installing a new version of Ares – Ares Vista – from the Official Ares website. Better software, but still nothing on the connection front.

I even get a computer technician in to my house to check my connections and my computer. Everything, says he, is fine.

You can imagine the situation, I’m sure, and it’s not a pretty one.

So where is the ending? Well it starts here: I did a Google search for the particular problem I was facing. This was one of the first things I should have done, but my pigheadedness told me that I could fix it on my own. Hmmm.

The Google search revealed that I was among many people who were having the same problems getting Ares connected to the network. Many of these reports also have happy endings, which is always nice to see. In this case the ending was brought about through the use of application called Ares Connect. Ares Connect is a new piece of software that bolts onto the side of whatever Ares client you are using; no changing Ares software necessary, as it all plays nicely together.

So tried it, and it worked. Simple as that. I can now get connected straight away each and every time I try. The moral of the story? Seek help first!

Have you ever seen beautiful purple flowers? How about a deep red grape or a bright red Fuji apple? If you answered yes (and if you said no – stop reading this article and go out and enjoy nature more!) then you have seen anthocyanins. Anthocyanins are flavonoid pigments that plants and fruits synthesize. Anthocyanins give plants and fruits their beautiful pigmentation – but it is not all about looks. Anthocyanins can acts as a sunscreen for plants and in fruits the bright color attracts animals which feast on the fruits and in the process disperse the seeds. However, the aspect of Anthocyanins that is of most interest in regard to the acai fruit is their antioxidant properties.

Fruits (like the Acai Berry Fruit) that are exposed to strong sunlight face a tremendous amount of ultra violet light stress. This UV light triggers free radicals to form in the fruit. Fruits, such as the Acai berry, develop high levels of anthocyanins because they have very strong antioxidants properties and can quench the free radicals. Here is the interesting part – the antioxidant properties of anthocyanins are maintained even after they are eaten by another organism. This is why fruits with bright pigmentation tend to have the great ORAC values – they are loaded with anthocyanins! Yes, you guessed it – Acai berries have a tremendous concentration of anthocyanins.

The French have a diet very rich in cheese, sugar, coffee, nicotine, sugar and white flour. With this type of diet you would expect the French to have a very high rate of heart disease, however, the exact opposite is true. The ability of the French to consume a heart clogging diet and yet have a very low rate of heart disease has been labeled the French Paradox.

Researchers now believe they have the reason for the “French Paradox” – anthocyanins! The French drink a significant amount of red wine and the the red wine grape, due to its anthocyanins is what is believed to be responsible for the very low incidence of heart disease. While red wine has a good quantity of anthocyanins, the Acai berry has over 30 times the anthocyanins as red wine.

If you want real acai berries then you will have to go to the Brazilian rain forest. Seriously. Once harvested the fruit degrades so quickly that distributors cannot get it out of Brazil without some pre-processing (or freezing) which turns it into a different product. If you’re really interested in getting as much acai as possible then you should move to the areas where they harvest the acai fruit: these people take in acai fruit comprising around 42% of their food by weight. Wow.

One of the better ways to get the acai to your grocery bag is with acai preserves. Acai preserves really are just what they sound like, and you would make them in same way that you would make strawberry or raspberry jam. And like with strawberries and raspberries, the more the better; so it is with acai preserves which contain up to 99% of their volume as acai fruit.

Pretty impressive by any standard, but phenomenal when you compare it to the alternatives which can be pills and powders said to contain acai. I would much rather have the real thing in front of me.

The good thing about the very simple way in which acai preserves are made is that the minimal processing means maximum retention of all the goodness and nutrients in the acai.

These days, the cell phone booster is becoming very popular among many cell phone users. There are even models for new types of cellular phones like the iPhone. Because of this, many individuals can enjoy clear and uninterrupted calls. This is due to the fact that the cell phone booster can improve even the slightest signals created by the cell phone. Due to this, a great number of cell phone users will be able to enjoy using the service from their providers. The reason for this is the users can make calls anywhere they like. They can even make calls at places where the signals are usually weaker. Because the device can amplify the signals, the users can surely enjoy calling.

Other than improving the signals of cellular phones, the cell phone booster can prevent brain tumor. Some researcher suggests that the production of too much signal from cell phones are increasingly becoming one of the leading cause of brain tumor. Nevertheless, there are not enough proofs available for the public that the strong signals created by the cell phone, can cause such ailments. However, to ensure that a cell phone user can avoid such ailment, it is best to use cell phone booster. Because the device can amplify the signal, it prevents the cell phone to produce signals, which can cause harmful effects.

If you’ve read anything at all about Acai, you’ve seen references to Oprah proclaiming the virtues of the Acai Berry. But it is actually pretty difficult to find any quotes or video of what she says. That’s because the scammers have been making all kinds of outrageous claims about Acai being some kind of miracle diet pill, and using Oprah’s name to try and lend credibility to these claims. So, Oprah’s lawyers have been VERY busing getting videos pulled from youtube. Above is a little bit of Oprah with Dr Perricone introducing the Acai Berry juice to her audience. Pretty skimpy stuff.

But there is a lot of buzz about Oprah shedding some light on the Acai scene on her “best life week” special runs Jan 5. The quote below is from her website talking about her struggles, and a little about the special. For the full hour by hour schedule of events for this week visit www.oprah.com.

Oprah Winfrey opens up about her recent 40-pound weight gain and reveals intimate details about her struggle to stay in shape after being diagnosed with a thyroid problem in the January issue of O, The Oprah Magazine and in a special episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show airing Monday, January 5, 2009. Both kick off Oprah’s “Best Life Week” a multiplatform, company-wide event designed to help readers, viewers, listeners and online users confront the issues in their own lives and make a commitment to wake up and unlock their own personal happiness in 2009.