Amazon Acai History
The Acai (ah-sigh-EE) berry can be traced back to its origins in the Amazon rain forest in Brazil, where it has been treasured for centuries by the local natives. Before the 1990’s, the Amazon Acai berry was kept undiscovered by countries outside of Brazil’s borders, especially beyond South America.
Brazilian Acai was considered by the locals to be an essential part of their daily diet, and it has been like this for hundreds of years. Due to the berry’s recent global publicity, a lot of interest has been peaked in regards to the history of the fruit, and how it remained a secret for so long.
Legend has it that the Amazon Acai berry was discovered by chance through a strange and sad turn of events. As the story goes, many years ago their was a massive famine in the area that pushed the population to verge of starvation. As a result, the chief ruled that all newborn children needed to be sacrificed to preserve and save resources.
The chief’s own daughter had a child, and so as not to appear hypocritical, he has his grandchild killed. The chiefs daughter, whose name was Iaca, understandably was incredibly distraught over the loss, and spent many days in her hut mourning her childs death. One day she thought she heard a baby crying outside and she set foot to follow the cry. On her search she discovered a large palm tree, that was full of purple round berries.
Word has it that she was so beside herself, acknowledging that this food could have prevented the recent tragedy, that she died right there under that same tree. She was found the next day, and so was the tree, which was harvested and consumed by the was named Acai, which is Iaca spelled backwards, in honor of her.
The Brazilian Acai berry became a staple food for those natives throughout the many years that followed. Many find it very in-coincidental that although many people perished through being infected by germs brought into the area by conquistadors, the Acai berry in their daily diets never saw their numbers decrease!
The Road to Super-Food Status
It wasn’t until the 1950’s that the berry started getting more attention from the local medical community. Certain doctors began to see the fruits many health benefits and encouraged more people to eat it. A few decades later, the berries were beginning to be harvested in larger quantities, being shipped to Rio, and a few other local populated areas.
Not until the year 2000 was the berry first used by a handful of new companies to formulate a new brand of health products to North America, Europe and beyond. One of these companies was MonaVie, which products Acai products world-wide.
Today, the Amazon Acai craze continues to gain momentum, as more and more people globally are discovering the amazing health properties of this little purple berry. Only time will tell what lies ahead for this “super-food”, but one thing’s for sure, it has definitely earned its place as one of most unique berries to grace our planet.
