The acai, pronounced ah-sah-EE, berry is a small, dark purple berry touted for its nutritional benefits. This grape-sized berry grows on 60-foot-high acai palm trees in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil and is considered one of the most nutritious and powerful foods in the world, containing a high concentration of antioxidants, essential fatty acids and amino acids.

The Amazon acai berry is extremely perishable, spoiling within a day of being picked. The fruit is only a small part of the actual berry with the rest consisting of seeds and pulp. When acai berries are harvested for shipment into the US, they are processed to separate the pulp from the seeds. This produces a thick, edible puree. In the US, this puree is mixed with fruit juice and sold as a drink. It can also be purchased as a powder, tea or in capsules.

The berry itself has been a staple of traditional Amazonian diets for thousands of years, but has only recently become popular in the US. The Amazon acai berry is perceived much differently in the US, and even in urban parts of Brazil, than among people living in the Amazon. It is estimated that people of the Amazon estuary eat about two servings of this super-fruit a day and receive up to 30 percent of their daily calories from acai. Known to native people as “ica-cai,” or the “fruit that cures,” the Amazon acai berry is considered a good source of energy and calories—no more, no less.

Contrast this to how the Amazon acai berry is marketed in the US as a nutritional powerhouse and miracle fruit. On The Oprah Winfrey Show, dermatologist Dr. Perricone listed acai as nature’s number one superfood, claiming it has ten times more antioxidants than red grapes and an almost perfect essential amino acid complex.

Consumers claim these chocolate-tasting berries do everything from control symptoms of autism and alleviate anxiety to fighting cancer and slowing down the aging process. Some companies advertised acai as a weight-loss supplement, though this claim is contrary to how the berries were traditionally used as a source of calories. There also is no scientific evidence linking the berries to weight loss.

Some studies have linked consuming acai juice pulp to a short term spike in antioxidants, though no other effects were found. It is not known how much antioxidants the berries contain and whether the Amazon acai berry is the best source of antioxidants.