Acai Berry: The Super Berry?

Over the past year, there has been a lot of talk about a berry called "Acai Berry". This berry has been labeled by the media as the "Super Berry" or "Super Food" for its incredible health claims, such as anti-aging, weight loss, cure for diabetes, or even penis enlargers.

 

Personally, the first time I heard about these berries was through the constant spamming of emails in my Hotmail inbox. Because of the immense amount of spam I was getting about these Acai Berries, I was curious enough to search this up in MedLine (which is a database for scientific journals/articles). Not so surprised, there were only 3-4 articles on these berries. However, through these hypes, people (or should I say scammers) are willing to make a buck or two by creating ridiculous products that have miraculous health claims with no scientific evidence to back it up. As a result, the purpose of today's blog is to help you discern the credibility of certain websites.

This is the website I will be looking at: http://www.slimberry.com/customers?t=CD957_396553095

  So what makes this website less credible?

• Domain names ending with .net or .com are usually not a credible source of information. This is because ANYONE can make a domain name. 
• Furthermore, if you type in the link www.slimberry.com ,you'll notice that this site is actually based upon referrals. This means each customer will get an incentive to lure more customers into using their products. In my opinion, sites that use this technique has less of a credibility.
• The health claims stated are too good to be true. People claim to have lost weight 12 pounds in 2 weeks using this product.

• Most importantly, there are no scientific evidence what-so-ever, other than the statements given by the media. It is true that Acai berries are high in antioxidant but there is no sufficient data that links antioxidants to weight loss, as provided by the link above. (However, antioxidants have been linked with helping CVD, hypertension and infertility in men though)

• The statement made by the doctor doesn't link weight loss to acai berries but rather to a "healthy diet". Yet, they still claim it "dissolves fat tissues". In a way they are correct, but they are taking a sneaky approach to try and fool you into buying a product that has fast weight loss results. Having a "healthy diet" is a behavioural change which is a lot harder to do than buying this supplement and "thinking" its going to help you lose weight.

• They also talk about Acai's fat burning qualities: "Acai's fat burning qualities will help to free your system of waste, toxins, and excess pounds".  However, like above, no scientific evidence is provided.  
• It should be noted that the trial version isn't even free as well and there is no money back guarantee. This shows their confidence in their own products.

Finally, most of these Acai berry products often contain prescription medications. This means that it is not natural and the results you achieve are most likely not due to the Acai Berries.

In conclusion, always be careful of the information the web or any media related source gives you. If it sounds too good to be true, then it most likely is!