For this month's Science Corner, we continue looking at antioxidants and the world's top superfoods.  That now leads us to what many consider the best of the best - the açaí berry.

With all of what would appear to be a hyped, to-good-to-be-true story of this magical açaí berry that has only recently been 'discovered' from the Amazon Rainforest, for once, science is actually revealing that what this berry can do in our bodies April very well be even bigger news than what is being touted.

Alexander G. Schauss, PhD, FACN, recognized as the world's foremost expert on açaí, recently summed up the awe that açaí has science in when he stated, "This açaí is unlike any fruit, vegetable or nut that has been seen before.  Because you can not just explain its profound antioxidant activity by what we understand today."

In a time when nearly every disease has at its root unbridled inflammation caused by excessive free radical damage, daily intake of proper and natural antioxidants is absolutely essential.  Our bodies are under more oxidative stress than ever with increased stress levels, environmental toxins, processed foods and just our normal activities.

Free radicals react with organic substrates in our body such as proteins, lipids and, yes, even our very DNA.  Oxidation, much like the rusting of iron, causes damage resulting in disruption of function that can accelerate aging and lead to disease.

The Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity assay, or simply ORAC score, is a reliable validated method to compare the antioxidant capacity of a food's ability to neutralize the peroxyl radical (the most dominant free radical that is produced in our bodies.)

The ORAC assay has been called one of the most significant developments in analytical science in the last 100 years.  It has been suggested that units of ORAC should simply be called "anti-aging points."

So we will start our look at the açaí berry with this anti-aging measure of the ORAC assay.  The USDA has analyzed 278 fruits, vegetables and nuts, comparing their antioxidant capacity using this gold-standard test.

The ORAC of freeze dried açaí was so much higher than any other food ever tested, that they actually believed there was an error in conduct of the lab test.  So they repeated it multiple times, always arriving at the same value.  Freeze dried açaí was then sent to various laboratories across the US - all to arrived at the same result - 1,027 micromoles of Trolox equivalent per gram - over ten times that of the previous known top antioxidant foods - blueberry and cranberry.

For some perspective, let's look at some ORAC comparisons with other fresh fruits.
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For a typical serving of 100 grams, cranberries and blueberries would total approximately 9,000 ORAC units, while açaí would total 102,700.

With antioxidant protection being so critical to disease prevention, anti-aging and general wellness,  açaí brings an unmatched antioxidant army to combat the prevalent peroxyl radical in human body.

The next chart compares ORAC scores to common vegetables.  We again see açaí as an outlier.