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HerbalEGram: Volume 6, Number 4, April 2009
Media Covers Questionable Acai Web Promotions After
Connecticut Attorney General Announces Investigation
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The increasingly popular “superfruit” acai (Euterpe oleracea), the fruit of a South American palm tree, has received a significant level of adverse publicity in recent weeks.
The adverse media follows a press release from Connecticut Attorney General (AG) Richard Blumenthal (no known relation to this author), announcing an investigation into Internet-based schemes to sell acai-based products for their purported and questionable weight-loss effects.1
According to the Attorney General’s press release, “There is no competent scientific research that demonstrates any of the claimed effects of Acai berry, including weight loss, detoxification and increased energy and vitality.”
Attorney General Blumenthal stated that various companies selling Acai berry products -- in addition to bogus weight loss claims -- have improperly charged consumer credit cards. According to the Connecticut AG’s press release, “After promising 14-day ‘free trials’ of Acai berry products, the companies often make it virtually impossible for consumers to cancel the trial, resulting in charges to consumer credit cards ranging anywhere from $59 to $89. Even worse, some consumers never even receive the product within the trial period -- making it impossible to try the product before deciding whether to cancel.”1
“There are no magical berries from the Brazilian rainforest that cure obesity -- only painfully real credit card charges and empty weight loss promises,” Blumenthal said in the press release. “Aggressive Acai berry pitches on the Internet entice countless consumers into free trials promising weight loss, energy and detoxification. These claims are based on folklore, traditional remedies and outright fabrications -- unproven by real scientific evidence.”
The Connecticut AG press release cites David Schardt, senior nutritionist at The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a consumer-oriented food advocacy group on Washington, DC. AG Blumenthal and CSPI have apparently worked together on this project.
CSPI posted an article (“Consumers Warned of Web-Based Açai Scams”) on its website on the same day as the Connecticut AG’s press release, March 23. In it Schardt likened some of the acai-based diet webscams to the discredited financier Bernard Madoff: “If Bernard Madoff were in the food business, he’d be offering 'free' trials of açai-based weight-loss products.”2 The same quote appears in the Connecticut AG’s press release. Schardt authored an exposé of what CSPI calls acai-based “scam” marketing schemes in the April issue of CSPI’s Nutrition Action Healthletter.3
The CSPI site also states, “Açai began attracting attention in 2005 on the belief that its juice was especially high in antioxidants. In truth, açai juice has only middling levels of antioxidants—less than that of Concord grape, blueberry, and black cherry juices, but more than cranberry, orange, and apple juices.” [Schardt is referring to a 2008 analysis by Seeram et al.4] Even so, the extent to which antioxidants by themselves promote health is a matter of some debate. No credible evidence suggests antioxidants promote weight loss.”2
On March 12, prior to AG Blumenthal’s announcement of his investigation, an article in the New York Times summarized much of the current status on acai, including the fact that complaints have been filed against several Internet-based companies for their allegedly questionable marketing tactics.5
This week, Jennifer Huget’s Washington Post article “No Matter How You Say It, Acai Comes With Some Pronounced Doubts”6 followed a series of other articles that started with an expose’ of web-based weight loss promotions of products claiming to be based on their contents of acai (see List below).
In the past 5 years acai sales have climbed relatively quickly. The Washington Post article cites the natural products market research and consulting firm SPINS saying that Americans spent more than $108 million on acai products in the 52 weeks ending Feb. 21, 2009, representing an increase from just over $62 million in the previous year.6
San Clemente, California-based Sambazon, widely acknowledged as the leading supplier of acai berry materials to the natural food and dietary supplement trade and the producer of its own line of acai beverages, issued a press release defending the responsible elements of the acai market.7
“Sambazon urges consumers to be wary of claims made by online diet scams as well as those made by organizations discrediting the many true benefits of açaí…There is an increasing amount of misleading information in circulation comparing packaged products to whole fruit or juice in an inaccurate attempt to discredit the true properties of açaí. Years of tests conducted by accredited organizations in Brazil and the U.S. prove that when comparing pure fruit to pure fruit, or pure juice to pure juice, the antioxidant capacity of açaí reigns superior to pomegranate, blueberry, blackberry and most fruits available.“7 The Samabazon release states that açaí is one of the few fruits that are rich in heart-healthy omega-9 fats, like the type found in olive oil.
In a letter to Stacey Greene of CSPI sent March 30, Sambazon Vice-president of Marketing Jeremy Black wrote that CSPI’s reference to the pomegranate and other fruit juice analysis was conducted by POM Wonderful, a Sambazon competitor, based on an analysis that compared POM Wonderful pomegranate juice to a variety of commercially-sold juices.8 Black stated that these juices do not contain pure acai but are mixtures of acai with other fruit juices. Thus, asserts Black, the comparisons are not valid, i.e. not head-to-head between pomegranate and acai. Black referred to tests by an independent laboratory for Sambazon of its acai juice compared to pomegranate and other juices showing that the acai had the highest anti-oxidant values tested by the commonly-employed ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) method.
To the criticisms of claims of some web-based companies that acai can help as an aid in weight loss, Sambazon’s Black wrote, “The CSPI’s statements are also misleading when discussing weight loss claims in connection with açai. Only the scammers are promoting weight loss. None of the credible companies that have been working for years to promote açai are promoting weight loss in any capacity.”8
There is a paucity of published clinical research on acai available on the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed database. As of March 31, 2009, PubMed contained 52 article citations on acai research, most of it dealing with chemistry and antioxidant pharmacology in laboratory conditions and animals. Only 2 small clinical trials were located, one dealing with anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of a blended acai-based juice in humans9 and the other dealing with pharmacokinetics of the antioxidant compounds of acai pulp and juice in humans.10 Both of these trials were published in 2008. At this time there does not seem to be any published clinical research indicating a weight-loss, appetite-suppressant, or any other activity that would suggest weight loss benefits for acai berries and/or their preparations.
—Mark Blumenthal
References
1. Attorney General of Connecticut’s Office. Attorney General Announces Acai Berry Investigation Involving Improper Credit Card Charges, Weight Loss Claims [press release]. Mar. 23, 2009.
2. CSPI. Consumers Warned of Web-Based Açai Scams. Washington, DC: Center for Science in the Public Interest. <http://www.cspinet.org/new/200903231.html>. accessed Apr, 1, 2009.
3. Schardt D. Web self-defense: how to protect yourself against Internet scams. Nutrition Action Healthletter. April 2009;9-11.
4. Seeram NP, Aviram A, Yanjun Z, Henning SM, Feng L, Dreher M, Heber D. Comparison of antioxidant potency of commonly consumed polyphenol-rich beverages in the United States. J Agric Food Chem. 2008;56:1415–1422.
5. Ellin A. Pressing acai for answers. New York Times. Mar. 12, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/fashion/12skin.html?scp=1&sq=acai&st=cse
6. Huget J. No Matter How You Say It, Acai Comes With Some Pronounced Doubts. Washington Post. Mar. 31, 2009.
7. Black J. Letter to Stacey Greene (Center for Science in the Public Interest). Sambazon, Inc. San Clemente, CA, Mar. 30, 2009.
8. Sambazon. Sambazon, world leader in açaí, stands up for the Amazonian fruit’s true nutritional properties [press release]. San Clemente, CA: Sambazon, Mar. 24, 2009.
9. Jensen GS, Wu X, Patterson KM, Barnes J, Carter SG, Scherwitz L, Beaman R, Endres JR, Schauss AG. In vitro and in vivo antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacities of an antioxidant-rich fruit and berry juice blend. Results of a pilot and randomized, double-blinded, placebo—controlled, crossover study. J Agric Food Chem. 2008 Sep 24;56(18):8326-33. Epub 2008 Aug.
10. Mertens-Talcott SU, Rios J, Jilma-Stohlawetz P, Pacheco-Palencia LA, Meibohm B, Talcott ST, Derendorf H. Pharmacokinetics of anthocyanins and antioxidant effects after the consumption of anthocyanin-rich acai juice and pulp (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) in human healthy volunteers. J Agric Food Chem. 2008 Sep 10;56(17):7796-802. Epub 2008 Aug.
List: Selected Recent Articles on Acai
The following articles have been published online and/or in print and in electronic media (e.g., television) in recent weeks:
Pressing Acai for Answers
by Abby Ellin. New York Times. March 31, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/fashion/12skin.html?scp=1&sq=acai&st=cse
That Acai Berry Diet Is a Scam! And So Is That One...And That One...And...
by Dan Shapley. The Daily Green, March 24, 2009
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/acai-diet-scams-47032402?src=nl&mag=tdg&list=dgr&kw=ist
Acai Scam?
Warnings on Acai Berry Online Offers Amplify
Watchdog Group Says Online Acai Credit Card Rip-Offs Are Reaching New Levels
by Susan Donaldson James. ABC News. March 23, 2009
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WellnessNews/story?id=7132495&page=1
The Problem with Acai
by J. Jennings Moss. The Daily Brief. Portfolio.com. March 23, 2009
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2009/03/23/the-problem-with-acai
Group challenges acai berry weight-loss claims
by Saundra Young and Madison Park. CNN. March 23, 2009
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/23/acai.berries.scam/
Top 5 things you need to know
MyFox.com. March 23, 2009
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/wildcard_5/top_5_things/032309_top_5_things_you_need_to_know
Warning Issued on websites selling acai pills
ABC News
http://www.wjbf.com/jbf/news/consumer/article/warning_issued_on_websites_selling_acai_pills/12054/
Beware ‘The Bernie Madoff of the Food Business’
By Blair Chancey. QRS Magazine. March 25, 2009.
http://www.qsrmagazine.com/articles/news/story.phtml?id=8328
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