Be-Well Information

Most of my junk email used to be about making money (just send some to them), then how to enhance my sexual performance, but now it seems to concentrate on miracle weight loss pills and potions. Chief in that group seems (without actual counting) to be claims for Acai Berry or green tea or both in combination.

Most such spam mail contains poor English and/or spelling, meaning that anyone can become a merchant’s affiliate and buy a broadcast emailer program.

Random Recent Examples:
“Acai Berry Will enhance your secual desires and help you Burn Fat. This is the worlds miracle berry. Include Acai Berry in your diet and start your Miracles today.”
    — Poor spelling and punctuation; diet “miracles.”

“Acai Berries + Green Tea
Get rid of Harmful Toxins and Easily Lose Weight.
Flush excess pounds of waste, Have more energy, Boost your metabolism, Feel great, Look younger, Eat less … Get a FREE trial!”
    — Why not just lose weight by eating less, their last item?

“The fastest, easiest, and healthiest way to attain healthier and more energetic body is to cleanse yourself of all toxins and waste that is built-up inside you.
Acai Power Slim uses a proprietary blend of 8 powerful herbs that will help to clear your body of that excess build-up in your digestive tract that is weighing you down.” etc., etc.*[see * below]
    — Yee hah!

“Acai Berry , Oprah endorsed wieght loss solution.”
    — Again, spelling errors. It is well known that Oprah can’t control her own weight, and that most celebrity science sucks. Her main skill is TALKING, not medicine or nutrition.

“Acai Berry higly recommended by health professionals.”
    — Do tell! Very few licensed physicians or nutritionists are among them. Again, no spell check.

“Acai Diet will burn your unwanted fat”
    — A. Lincoln said that “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.” Of course you only need to fool a small fraction of the population to get filthy rich.

“Acai Slim, lose wieght fast , everyone will notice. Hollywood stars use it, You should try it. Your free trial is just one click away.”
    — Again, celebrity science sucks.

“Add Acai Berry to your Diet. Lose weight Instantly.”
    — Oh, really! What a neat magical trick.

“Eat what you want without gaining in weight!… Fatblaster is a magic product that helps you to reduce hunger cravings and burns body fat stimulating thermogenesis. So you lose weight in a safe way taking 100% herbal and organic product.”
    — Yet another presentation for Acai. Thermogenesis is what warm blooded animals use to not be cold blooded animals. Drugs and herbs can stimulate artificial raising of body temperature to burn fat… at the cost of feeling hot, perhaps also feeling heightened anxiety. By the way, note that word “magic”, and the fact that this is another unregulated herbal product. Also note, a daily walk burns calories and releases calming endorphins.

And so forth. I have discarded thousands of such ridiculous emails.

Now let’s dig into some facts about Acai.

The acai palm is native to Central and South America. The plant yields pest resistant wood from the trunk, and heart of palm from growing stems. The leaves can be used as fiber in everything from hats, mats, baskets, brooms to thatch roofing. The fruit has long been used as a food in various forms, both for humans and for livestock.

In recent years, the açaí berry has been touted and marketed as a dietary supplement in the forms of tablets, capsules, juice, smoothies, instant drink powders, and whole fruit. The main reason is that the dietary supplements can be sold for thousands of times more money than as cattle feed.

This marketing is allowed because “herbal supplements” are completely unregulated in most countries, including North America.

Marketers of these supplements claim benefits of increased energy, improved sexual performance, improved digestion, detoxification, high fiber content, high antioxidant content, improved skin appearance, improved heart health, improved sleep, reduction of cholesterol levels, even reversal of diabetes and other chronic illnesses, as well as expanding size of the penis and increasing men’s sexual virility and sexual attractiveness to women.

Açaí is now most commonly marketed as a weight loss product.

Note that, as of March 2009, there are no controlled studies backing up any of these claims. These products have not been evaluated by the US-FDA, and their efficacy is highly questionable. In fact, the US-FTC often cautions against the use of “miracle diet” products.

By the way, most sites offering miraculous products, such as Açaí is claimed to be, won’t let web surfers navigate away without going through a series of pop up robots, or aborting the browser instance (alt-F4 in Windows). Listen up marketers! Many of us would not accept offers even of free gold from any site that pulls that crap. Usually such rude tricks identify sites / companies one should not trust.

One reported trick is that a “free trial” offer is made if you just agree to pay shipping costs, then you later find unauthorized charges on your card statement. Fine print says that you can only cancel by phone, not by mail or email, then the posted number is never answered.

If I were in Brazil, and very thirsty, I might drink some Acai juice. But I would not expect any weight loss, increase in penis size, or other miraculous side effects. I control my weight the old fashioned way, by moderate exercise with healthful food choices. Hunger is easy to satisfy with low energy foods, such as fruits and vegetables.