Acai & Mangosteen Juice or Junk

by Dr. Steve Chaney, PhD

I found a couple of interesting articles on the acai
berry and the mangosteen fruit in the October and
December 2009 issues of Environmental Nutrition.

Environmental Nutrition is not a peer reviewed
scientific journal, but they do a good job of
researching peer reviewed scientific journals to find
out whether there is any sound research behind many of
the nutritional products that you find in the
marketplace.

I thought that you might be interested in what they
found out about the scientific backing for all of those
claims that you have been hearing about for acai
berries and mangosteen fruit.

In both cases they found very little scientific backing
for the claims made for those products.

In the case of the acai berry they found one clinical
study that showed that when people consumed a single
serving of acai juice or acai pulp the antioxidant
capacity in their blood was increased over the next 12
hours.

While that sounds impressive, you need to realize that
the same is true when people consume a serving of
blueberries, raspberries or blackberries.

They also found a study showing that acai extracts
destroyed cancer cells in a tissue culture dish.

Again, that’s not as impressive as it sounds because
other fruits, such as grapes, mangos and guavas, have
been shown to do the same thing in cell culture
studies, and there is no evidence that any of those
fruits have the same effect in the human body.

The science behind mangosteen is only slightly better.

Cell culture studies show that mangosteen extracts can
stop certain bacteria from growing and can attenuate
inflammation and insulin resistance in cultured human
fat cells.

Again, this is true of almost any food extract with
high antioxidant potential, but that alone does not
mean that it will have the same effect in the human
body.

In animal studies mangosteen extracts suppressed tumor
growth in mice and reduced oxidative damage in the
brains of rats.

While animal studies are a bit more definitive than
cell culture studies, we need to remember that rats and
mice are not just little humans.

I have been actively engaged in cancer research –
anticancer drug development specifically – for 37
years. Based on my years of experience I can tell you
that only about 10% of the effects that we see in
animals also show up in humans.

As with the acai berry, there appears to be only a
single clinical study with mangosteen fruit. In that
study a mangosteen supplement with vitamins and
minerals enhanced immune responsiveness.

Again, that sounds impressive. But you need to know
that numerous studies have shown that supplementation
with vitamins and minerals alone increases immune
responsiveness. There is no evidence that the
mangosteen had anything to do with the results.

You might be asking “What about all of the fantastic
testimonials that the proponents of these products
offer?”

You should know that the placebo effect approaches 50%
when it comes to things like pain relief, energy levels
and feelings of well being. Unless there is strong
scientific evidence, I always discount testimonials.

Environmental Nutrition concluded that there was
probably no risk of consuming moderate amounts of acai
berry or mangosteen.

However, they cautioned that there was little or no
evidence to support the many claims made for those
products.

Finally, they stated that you can probably get exactly
the same antioxidant and health benefits – at a
fraction of the cost – by consuming many of the fruits
and vegetables that you can find at your local grocery
store.

I concur!

To Your Health!

Steve Chaney, PhD