Hi everyone, Mike Stuchiner, Master Herbalist, here with Z Natural Foods. Today's video is going to be answering the question: Which is better, acai or blueberries? But before we get started, there are a few things I need to mention. First and foremost, if you want to find out more about me or want to see some of my other videos, you can, of course, head to ZNaturalFoods.com. Or you can also go to my YouTube channel, "A Master Herbalist's Perspective." Next is our medical disclaimer. The information you're about to receive is for educational purposes only, and it is not intended to be used to treat, prescribe, or diagnose any specific or general medical condition. It is not a substitute for your primary healthcare provider's diagnosis, treatment plan, or medical information. That said, let's begin. Every culture defines how and why an individual food is considered healthy based on various factors. According to Western medicine, healthy food is a substance that provides the nourishment needed to sustain well-being and retain energy. Traditional Chinese Medicine looks at foods from a slightly different perspective. According to TCM, food is not defined as healthy or unhealthy, but instead, if it's the right food for an individual at a specific time. According to TCM, all foods have energy, and TCM teaches us that foods have yin-yang energy, five temperatures, five flavors, and four directions. Within these principles, yin represents cooling, calms blood, and has downward-moving energy, while yang is warming, energizing, and has upward-moving energy. Next is the hundreds, which helps us understand how we evaluate the effectiveness of any substance or food we consume and defines specific criteria for how an individual should assess their progress and results. The average individual consumes stimulants like caffeine daily because it effectively boosts energy levels for a short period. Pharmaceuticals are fast-acting isolated compounds created to have a specific targeted approach through particular mechanisms of action with somewhat predictable end results. As individuals, we may each respond slightly differently, but the bottom line is that substances work, but at what cost? Because the average individual consumes stimulants and prescription pharmaceuticals daily, we expect to feel a significant effect of declaring that a substance is generally compelling. Well, this concept has skewed our perspective on what is realistic and healthy. We believe a healthy way to assess the effectiveness of natural substances like foods, herbs, and spices on any individual is to look at how each one of us may respond in our own unique way. It's challenging to provide specific guidelines because we all have intrinsic unique differences in how we react both physically and emotionally to what we consume. Still, there are golden rules you should consider following to keep things in perspective for you. Okay, one: Foods, herbs, and medicinal mushrooms do not work like pharmaceuticals or isolated compounds because they contain a complexity of natural compounds that work synergistically, potentially supporting a more balanced and subtle result. They work on multiple mechanisms of action, whereas isolated compounds generally tend to focus on only one. Next, everyone is different or is in a different place mentally, physically, and emotionally. These factors consistently change based on many perspectives of individuals' lifestyles; therefore, these factors may change the time frame and outcome of your results. Next, our society uses caffeine-based beverages like coffee, tea, and energy drinks, providing a powerful and effective short-term burst of energy. Therefore, this skews our perspective into believing everything should work quickly and be as powerful. And finally, concentration levels of a food or product are essential when looking at appropriate ways of consuming and evaluating timeframes and overall results. So just be aware of how concentrated or how strong of a concentration the food or the product you're consuming is before you look at a timeframe and evaluate how your outcome should be. So when we talk about foods like acai and blueberries, many powerful compounds are found within these foods. And I'm just going to discuss four of these general categories of compounds. The first is known as polyphenols. Polyphenols are a term used to describe the general category of compounds found in a broad spectrum of fruits, vegetables, teas, and other foods that work as reducing agents, along with other compounds like antioxidants, to support a healthy inflammation response and the body's ability to protect and repair damaged tissue caused by oxidative stress. While there are over 8000 polyphenols that have been identified, some of the most common are flavonoids, flavonoids, and anthocyanins. The importance of discussing these various compounds allows you to more clearly understand the wide range of complexity of nourishment you're getting from foods like blueberries, acai berries, strawberries, raspberries, and a wide variety of these different, very brightly colored fruits and vegetables. Flavonoids are a group of water-soluble polyphenolic secondary metabolites found in plants, providing health benefits through cell signaling. This is a process where the cell responds to the substance outside of the cell through signaling the molecules found on the surface of that cell and the antioxidant effects of that food as well. Secondary metabolites are substances manufactured by plants that make them compete in their environment, exerting a wide range of effects on the plant itself and the surrounding living organisms, including flowering, fruit shedding, signaling behavior, and acting as antimicrobials. Over 50,000 secondary metabolites have been discovered, and many modern medicines rely on them for their mechanism of action. There are six subclasses of flavonoids: flavones, flavonols, flavanols, flavanones, and isoflavonoids. These account for approximately 60% of all polyphenols. Flavonoids are polyphenols belonging to the flavonoids family with a ketone group, studied for their wide range of biological activity, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and vasodilation effects. They primarily accumulate in the outer tissues, skin, and leaf of fruits and vegetables and are the building blocks of proanthocyanidins, compounds that attribute to the color of fruits and vegetables and are the most widespread of all these compounds in the human diet. The fourth category is anthocyanins, which are part of the flavonoids family of polyphenolic compounds. They represent the pigments that exhibit the bright red, purple, and blue colors found in fruits and vegetables, and there are many very powerful anthocyanins found in foods. Now let's discuss a little bit about blueberries. Blueberries, or what we also like to call nature's brain tonic, are well-known for their bright, vibrant color and highly nourishing polyphenolic content. These powerful, what I like to call blue nuggets of deliciousness, also known as brain berries, are considered one of the world's most nutritious and well-studied common fruits. Blueberries are native to North America, with 98% of their production happening in just ten states. There are four varieties of blueberries: the highbush, the hybrid, the half-high, and the rabbit-eye. But there is only one true thing, and that is known as the lowbush, aka the wild blueberry because they are smaller and contain less water. They are considered to have a more compact form of nourishment to match their uniquely sweet, tangy, and slightly floral taste. As mentioned earlier, anthocyanins, flavonoids, and water-soluble pigments that give fruits and vegetables their color account for approximately 60% of the total polyphenols in blueberries, yielding approximately 500 milligrams per 100 grams, ranking blueberries at number 16 among some pretty impressive contenders for foods rich in polyphenols. Flavonoids like quercetin are highly concentrated in blueberries, with a high antioxidant capacity and polyphenolic composition. Research conducted on young and old participants who consumed blueberries daily showed an increase in blood flow to key brain areas and improvements in memory and attention simply by incorporating blueberries into their daily diet. Now, let's discuss acai berries from a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective. According to TCM, acai berries are cooling in temperature and have a sweet and sour flavor that enters through the lungs, stomach, and spleen channels. They are specifically used to clear what TCM calls heat and dampness in the liver. In TCM, liver represents springtime because acai berries are late spring through mid-summer fruit. In TCM, they are also known to help support the elimination of toxins and nourish the liver, yin, and blood. Acai berries are dark purple berries native to South America with an earthy, bitter, mildly sweet, nutty flavor. Some people even describe it as having a chocolate-blackberry flavor. And if you close your eyes when you taste acai berries, you can taste the notes of a robust, rich flavor. The name "acai" comes from the native Tupi-Guarani word "iwasá'i," meaning "weeping fruit." Acai has caused quite the rage in North America as a highly nourishing and healing food used in smoothies, fruit juices, and other healthy snacks. A human study looking at the pharmacokinetics of anthocyanin and antioxidant effects after consuming acai-rich ice juice demonstrated increased plasma antioxidant activity of up to two to threefold. Specifically, for acai, research has been conducted on its health benefits, showing that it has been a part of the human diet of indigenous people in the Amazon for centuries, contributing up to as much as 40% of their diet. Traditionally eaten salted and accompanied by cassava flour. Now, is acai a superfruit? To quickly answer this question, it's vital to understand not only the definition and characteristics of what is known as superfoods but how they compare to what is known as functional foods. It's important to also understand that there is no legal definition for either one of these specific terms. Functional food is defined as dietary items that provide nutrients and energy to modulate multiple targeted functions in the human body by supporting specific physiological responses. For example, fermented dairy products are functional foods that offer essential probiotic bacteria for supporting and restoring gut health. A superfood, on the other hand, is a food enriched with compounds considered beneficial to a person's health, containing a very high nutritional density with meager calorie counting. Therefore, to answer whether or not acai is a superfood, the answer to that question is no. Acai falls under functional foods. These foods are actually the most intensely researched category with the intent to understand better how their compounds can support health by modulating specific mechanisms of action. So, to answer the question in this video, which is what is healthier, blueberries or acai? Based on Eastern and Western definitions, both blueberries and acai fit the bill as healthy foods because they both contain a treasure trove of highly nourishing compounds shown in human studies to affect human health in a profound way. Whichever is healthier for you may be a matter of your taste, your preference for specific usage, and how you choose to incorporate them into your daily diet. So I hope this video was helpful to all of you. As I realized that this is a very complex topic by nature, I realized that there's a lot of very complex information in videos of this nature. But in the end, most of these foods should be looked at as individual entities with regard to how we're going to use them, during what season we're going to eat them, and how we are incorporating them into our daily nutritional habits. With that said, this is Mike Stuchiner, Master Herbalist with Z Natural Foods. I'll see you next time.