The Folklore Of The Superfood Acai Berry

Acai is a Brazilian berry commonly found in the rain forests of the Amazon and has been heralded for centuries as a healing, immune-stimulating, energy-boosting fruit. Acai (pronounced as a-sigh-ee) is a palm tree that grows in the North of Brazil. It is known by the native people as "içá-çai", which means “fruit that cries”. For hundreds of years, acai (açaí) has been a conventional food of the native people of the Amazon – and part of its folklore, finding its way into legend as well as onto the table. 


Image: flickr.com/photos/archivalproject

Once upon a time, there was an Amazon Indian girl named Iaca, whose father was the tribal chief. The tribe had grown so numerous that there wasn’t food enough for everybody. In desperation, the Chief Itaki decreed that all newborn babies be killed to drastically limit the population. Shortly after the announcement, the chief’s own daughter discovered that she was pregnant. Her name was Iaca. Iaca was Chief Itaki’s only daughter, and a true princess of the Amazon. She was very beautiful with dark piercing eyes. The day came when Iaca finally bore her child. She wanted to spare her baby’s life but sadly, she couldn’t protect her from the cruel and harsh decree. The chief’s only granddaughter was sacrificed. Iaca was inconsolable and mourned her baby’s death inside her hut for days.

One day, Iaca thought she heard a baby crying. She went outside her hut and into the forest to track the distinct whimper. Deep into the forest, she found a large palm tree shooting up from the earth, covered in fruit. Full of despair, she fell down and died under the palm tree. When the tribe was looking for Iaca, they found her lifeless body, her arms wrapped around the trunk of the new tree. Chief Itaki wept. He decided to lift the harsh decree and declared that the fruit be named after his daughter (“Acai” is “Iaca” spelled backwards). The story ended with the tribe surviving the severe drought as they found a new source of food. They plucked the black pearls from each fingerling of a branch and squashed the berries into a deep rich purple porridge. With ample supply of food for all, the tribe thrived and multiplied.

The people of Brazil have reaped the benefits of Acai for decades. A bowl of Acai is commonly eaten in the morning for breakfast. Some prefer to have a bowl of Acai mixed with a banana and some guarana syrup. In the 1950s, doctors began to realize the health benefits of Acai. In the 1960s, the famous Gracie jiu-jitsu family recommended eating Acai before and after workouts. Acai berries are considered one of the top superfoods, generally due to their astounding antioxidant properties, and recently several new medical studies in the United States and Europe have found even more astonishing health benefits of Acai.

This has resulted to making the acai berry a highly demanded commodity and a classified high risk business. A full support of a reliable and secure acai berry merchant account is imperative for a stable and seamless payment processing online.

As acai berries have been making headlines as one of the healthiest foods on the planet, this has regrettably resulted in many supplement manufacturers and distributors making outrageous claims about this phenomenon. In the past years, there has been a lot of false hype regarding the acai berry and weight loss. Though many of those claims were fabricated and misleading, the acai berry still has many unquestionable, proven health benefits.