Super-fruits get their "super" label from antioxidants, molecules that fight...

Super-Fruits

Why go all the way to the tropics to sip on an exotic fruit drink?

Just go to your favorite grocery store and take your pick: açaí sorbet, mangosteen iced tea, pomegranate granola, noni smoothies, yogurt-covered, dried goji berries, and a whole lot more.

Super-fruits from faraway lands have been showing up in a growing number of products lately: bottled water, granola, powders, energy bars, etc.

With labels that evoke jungles and beaches, most promise to fight cancer, boost immunity and extend your life span, among other benefits.

It's all about the antioxidants

Most super-fruits get their "super" label from antioxidants, molecules that fight free radicals.

These cell-damaging chemicals emerge from nearly everything our bodies do that involves oxygen, including digesting and breathing.

Our cells make some antioxidant defenses on their own, but plants make far more.

The theory is that eating antioxidant-rich plants gives us extra help in battling our own free radical demons.

There are many thousands of plant-based antioxidants, called phytochemicals, and these compounds appear in various combination's in different types of produce.

Blueberries, red wine and açaí, for example, are high in anthocyanins.

Tea has lots of catechins.

Mangosteens are rich in xanthones.

Dark chocolate contains flavonoids.

Plenty of studies now show that eating a variety of super-fruits and vegetables can help reduce the risk of chronic disease and might even help us live longer and live younger.

Super-fruits like Acai (pronounced ah-sah-ee) berries, in fact most dehydrated berries (blueberries, cranberries) are extremely high in antioxidants and are aggressive free-radical scavengers.

The berries are a terrific energy booster and as a natural sports drink, it has the potassium and sodium we need for recovery after strenuous activity.

It's also extremely high in antioxidants.

Acai and matcha green tea, are both extremely popular.

Although no super fruits list can ever be definitive, and there is always some disagreement on what fruits should make this list, we've come up with our own (highly subjective) list.

And, if you think that you can't eat fruit because you're diabetic?

Think again.

Find the best types of fruit for diabetic dieting and when they're in season.

Before we get to our list, I'd like to let you in on a powerful secret.

~ Acai: This is a berry from an Amazon palm tree.

There are many experts calling Acai, No. 1 of the Super Foods on the planet, some in fact saying that it could be one of the most nutritious and powerful foods in the world.

Available as juice, as a frozen puree, or a supplement at health food stores, Acai berries are so blue they're almost black.

Taste one and you're apt to find flavours of blueberries, black currants, chokecherry and dark chocolate.

Acai has 10 to 30 times more antioxidants than blueberries, green tea, red grapes or red wine.

The pulp is packed with essential omegas (the good-for-you fatty acids) and has similar protein to an egg, with an almost-perfect (eight of the nine) profile of essential amino acids and valuable trace minerals, vital to proper muscle contraction and regeneration.

They may also protect the heart, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, fight depression and possibly fight certain cancer cells.

Especially Leukemia ~ See following article;