Have You Heard Of Acerola?

Have you ever heard of acerola? This small fruit, sometimes called the West Indian cherry, cereso, or Barbados cherry, can be found in the West Indies and in select locations in Central America, South America, and even in a few places in the U.S. The berries grow on a small tree that, in addition to bearing the tasty fruit, also looks very pretty when it flowers. While the berries taste really good when they’re ripe, they don’t last very long after they’re picked. That’s why you don’t see fresh acerola berries in many grocery stores or markets.

Freeze Dried Form

However, the berries can be freeze dried and made into capsules that contain all of the amazing benefits of the fruit. The acerola berry is very high in a number of antioxidants, especially Vitamin C. It also contains a good amount of anthocyanins. These antioxidants help eliminate free radicals from the body before they can destroy healthy cells, plus the high amount of Vitamin C means it will help boost your immune system and can prevent you from becoming sick.

Benefits

Acerola may also help combat a number of other illnesses. In 2006, a study was actually done to see if acerola affected blood sugar levels, and the results showed that it could possibly help diabetics maintain normal levels. The acerola helped prevent blood sugar from traveling through the intestines. Of course, more studies must be done before this benefit can be guaranteed, and even then, the acerola helped some people more than it helped others.

Another study was done on acerola and lung cancer. When given to mice, acerola helps to stop the growth of abnormal cells in the lungs and slow down the spread of the cancer. Those who have lung cancer may find that acerola helps keep it under control and makes therapy more effective. Again, more research is needed here, and it’s possible human trials will show that acerola does not help at all. However, if you have lung cancer, there’s no harm in taking this supplement to see if it helps.

These are just a couple of uses of acerola. If you get sick often or simply want to make sure you’ve got the strongest immune system around, grab some acerola capsules. The fact that it will provide you with some extra vitamin C is worth it by itself since this vitamin is so important.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to treat, diagnose, or cure any diseases.