Everyday Systems

Has anyone tried the acai berry supplement for weight loss purposes?
I'd be interested to hear on other No-sers experiences and opinions on it. Good or bad

Last week, I picked up a bottle of acai berry pills in my grocery store. Normally, I'm very skeptical of these kind of claims i.e. miracle weight loss pills and probably wouldn't have 'wasted' my money on them. However, as it was going for a steal I thought what the heck, I'll give them a try. Apparently, they have other qualities such as high level of antioxidants etc.

I've not heard anything about this, but I would almost certainly venture to say that it won't help with weight loss, at least not significantly. If it did, it would be all over the place.

Perhaps it has the same sort of effect as green tea, which is said to speed up the metabolism. Thing is, you have to drink many, many cups of green tea a day, and the effects are still minimal.

I'm also skeptical of any sort of "weight loss miracle", and so wouldn't bother taking something like this even if it was given to me for free. Here's why:

1. You'll undoubtedly get much better results by simply eating moderate portions and exercising.

2. If I can't see myself doing something for a very long time (even forever, like NoS or walking every day), I see no reason to start. Even if the stuff has some positive effect, it won't be on sale forever. So eventually you'd have to start shelling out a lot of money to keep buying the stuff, and that's not sustainable.

I doubt that the supplement would hurt you and at least it's calorie free so *shrugs* Why not? So long as you aren't already taking a bunch of other supplements. The problem with acai berries that I've seen is that smoothie and frozen yogurt places offer acai smoothies with about a thousand calories worth of sugar and say it's "healthy" because of the acai berries which is obviously silly.

I've never taken acai as a supplement, but here is worthwhile website for general nutrition info (very balanced, imo) with a specific discussion regarding acai berries:

http://nutritiondiva.quickanddirtytips. ... ruits.aspx

HTH,

Not a miracle substance fan. They get popular because of good marketing, not great health benefits.

Thanks guys, for your input ! and also to vmsurbat for the very interesting article
As marygrace has said, a lot of these supplements are expensive and not sustainable in the long run. I guess i'll finish this supply up and don't think I'll buy anymore. Don't fancy being on them for life anyway.

I've only heard of it working for one person, and it was the kind that had some other thing in it, I think an appetite supressent, which I think is what was really responsable for the wt loss!! (And it was expensive!!)

Probably a bit cycnical of me, but here is another link:

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRel ... /acai.html