Açaí bowls are making you fat, despite the popular notion that they are healthy.
Sad, I know. I wish they were healthy just as bad as everyone else because they taste great, but science says otherwise.
Let's explore why açaí bowls might not be as great as some make them out to be:
1. They are loaded with sugar, which leads to disease and weight gain
The average açaí bowl has around 50 to 90 grams of sugar, a toxic amount for any human to consume in such a short period of time, especially when you consider that the American Heart Association recommends no more than 36 grams per day for men and no more than 25 grams for women.¹
Yes, this is "natural" sugar from fruits, but I dug deeper the other week when I wrote about fructose in fruits:
Some might say that the sugar in fruit is "natural", and that makes it healthy. Unfortunately, this is a myth because sugar is sugar and the fructose in fruit sends a chemical message to your genes and brain to store fat for the "winter".
Fruit and Cancer:
Cancer cells generate ATP (cellular energy) through sugar fermentation, and they need 18x the amount of sugar compared to normal cells to be able to grow and divide.²
What's more?
Cancer cells prefer to ferment sugar in the form of fructose.³ So, if you or someone you love has cancer, you can starve these cells by eliminating fruits and shifting metabolism to ketones (cancer cells cannot grow when your metabolism shifts to ketones as a source of fuel, as they are designed to feed off glucose for growth).⁴
Fruit and your Kidneys:
Fructose in fruit causes your kidneys to swell and suffer injury, which can ruin them.⁵
Next time you want to be "healthy" by eating a platter of fruit [or an açaí bowl], you might as well reach for the Skittles instead because it's similar crap. The Skittles will save you time and money.
2. Granola - the Whole Grain Truth
Granola is rolled oats (oats are grains), usually drowned in honey or some sort of sugar and is found in your typical açaí bowl.
Why are oats and other grains so bad?
Grains contribute to chronic inflammation, leaky gut, and autoimmune diseases. Intestinal permeability (gut destruction) and immune reaction have been confirmed in humans with the following molecules found in grains: gliadin, wheat germ agglutinin, prolamins, and lectins.⁶
We won't dive into these, but when you consider some açaí bowls are made with soymilk, peanut butter, and more toxic add-ons, they become increasingly unhealthy.
My friends, the truth may be hard to swallow, but it's the truth and you can do better than settle for a $10 açaí bowl that is making you fat and sick. Instead of a health food, view it as an occasional (once per month?) treat.
References:
1. http://www.newhealthguide.org/How-Many-Grams-Of-Sugar-In-A-Teaspoon.html
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2849637/
3. https://www.reuters.com/article/cancer-fructose-idAFN0210830520100802
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4235292/
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17670904
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3705319/
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To maximizing health,
Jordan Paris, NASM CPT
