 An evidence-based systematic review of acai berries was recently published by the National Standards Research Collaboration, an impartial scientific body that refuses to take support from product manufacturers, cited by the World Health Organization as one of the most authoritative sources on such matters. What did they find? Whenever a new purported superfood hits the market, first thing researchers tend to do is look at its chemistry such as antioxidant capacity, which was done back in 2006. Based on one measure, it had the highest antioxidant capacity of any food reported to date. A remarkable finding I reported at the time, arguing that despite its cost, frozen acai pulp represented one of the best antioxidant bangs for one's buck, but still we didn't know what it did outside of a test tube. The next step is to go from test tube to petri dish and try it out on some human cells. They dripped the concentration of acai berry phytonutrients one would expect in one's bloodstream after eating them on some blood cancer cells taken from a woman with leukemia, and saw a dramatic rise in cancer cell mortality. In fact, about twice what was found previously using similar concentrations of hibiscus tea on the same cancer. Acai was also found to boost immune cell function at extremely low doses. Here are some videos of white blood cells gobbling up invading yeast. Om nom nom nom nom. Come back here. Isn't that amazing? They're like sucking them up like slurpees. I could watch these all day. Anyway, sprinkle some acai berry powder on them and they gobble more. With no acai for breakfast, white blood cells were able to engulf about 140 yeast, but in the presence of a tiny amount of berry powder they engulfed closer to 200. Slowly but surely, researchers began piecing together the mechanism by which acai affected cellular function. Still no human studies, though. Researchers moved from cells to animal models, who could forget the addition of acai to cigarettes has a protective effect against emphysema in mice. Instead of adding berries to their cigarettes, though, it might be easier to just encourage the mice to quit smoking. But then finally, starting in 2011, studies on actual people. Pain reduction and improvement in range of motion after daily consumption of an acai in about a dozen folks with painful conditions like osteoarthritis. After three months, antoxin levels went up and pain levels went down, though since there was no blinded control group drinking like some artificially acai-flavored Kool-Aid, the placebo effect could not be excluded. And finally, one last pilot study, the effects of acai on metabolic parameters. Ten overweight folks were given two packs of frozen acai pulp every day for a month, and even though they were allowed to take it with sugar, their fasting blood sugars dropped, as did their insulin levels and cholesterol, and it significantly blunted the sugar spike caused by a standardized meal, all without any observed adverse effects. In fact, the only theoretical concern cited in the new review may be that it might work too well if you're on diabetic blood sugar lowering medications that could potentially drop your blood sugar too low, or if you have an autoimmune disease or on immunosuppressants it could stimulate your immune system too much. But what about the case report of the guy whose muscle started dissolving after using this acai berry supplement? Turns out there was no acai berry in it at all. That's the problem with taking supplements. They are so poorly regulated you never know what you're getting. For example, a study was done on 27 supplements of another purported superfruit, pomegranate. Here's the main ingredients, okay, except of the 27 supplements tested, only five appeared to be actually what they said. Fine, you say. No pills. You'll just stick to the juice. 45 commercial pomegranate juice samples from 23 different manufacturers in the United States. They all said they contained 100% pomegranate juice on the label, but most of them lied. Only six out of 23 were what they said they were. The only source you can be guaranteed to get authentic pomegranate juice has no label at all.