What is an ORAC Value?

Many times on this website we refer to products as containing a ORAC value, which is in actuality a tricky little number to nail down...

First of all, you should know that ORAC, which stands for "Oxygen Radical Absorbtion Capacity" is a measurement of Antioxidents in the samples of a food product. The reason you want a high ORAC value in your food each day is because the more antioxidents you eat, the better your body can fight the aging process.

ORAC is a method of measurement developed by the US National Institute of Aging, and they have estimated that the modern human body needs approximately 6,000 units of Antioxident as measured with ORAC daily, while the average American gets less than 1/8th that amount with our typical fast-food lifestyles here.

This is why a small amount of Acai Berry every day can make such a huge difference. Fresh Acai berries have the highest ORAC value of any edible item we know of on Earth, gram per gram. (Yes, there are apparently some poisionus plants that go even higher!)

The number one factor in how a sample of Acai scores in ORAC is how it is processed. A gram of raw Acai Berry off the tree may have an ORAC value over 1,200 all by itself but by the time it arrives on your kitchen counter in the US that number may likely be under 100!

The best known way to process Acai berries to preserve their high ORAC score is by flash-freezing them immediately after picking, and then while frozen grinding them into a powder, seed and all. That powder should retain the majority of the original ORAC score.

This is why a Multi-Level Marketing company by the name of Mona Vie is so famous. Not only does Mona Vie claim to flash freeze and powder their Acai for maximum ORAC, (they claim 1,027 ORAC per gram in every bottle) but they also say that they transport some frozen WET berries as well and re-combine them at their bottleing plant in Utah using a patended process that no one else is doing.

Their result? We cannot confirm this scientifically, but they have test results pulished that show the highest possible ORAC score and the most nutrients preserved, (including the Omega fatty oils lost to the drying-out process) over any other product we've seen to date. If you can afford it, Mona Vie would seem to be the most potent way to get your Acai.  (As well as 18 other fruit juices.) Unfortunately, they do not publish the amount of Acai in each bottle, so it is quite possible to get larger amounts of acai in products at your local grocery store to make up for the loss in potency by far.