Want a taste of the tropics? Forget the plane ticket. Go to the grocery store and take your pick: acai sorbet, mangosteen iced tea, pomegranate granola, noni smoothies, yogurt-covered dried goji berries and more.
Fruits from faraway lands have been showing up in a growing number of products lately: bottled water, granola, powders, energy bars. With labels that evoke jungles and beaches, most promise to fight cancer, boost immunity and extend your life span, among other benefits.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, March 13, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 40 words Type of Material: Correction
Superfruit: An article in Monday's Health section on tropical superfruits identified a photograph as an acai palm. The image was that of a fan palm. The article also said the word "acai" is pronounced "ah-SIGH-ee." The word is pronounced "ah-sigh-EE."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Monday, March 17, 2008 Home Edition Health Part F Page 4 Features Desk 1 inches; 57 words Type of Material: Correction
Superfruit: A March 10 Health section article on tropical superfruits identified a photograph as the acai palm. In fact, the image was that of a fan palm. The article also said that the word "acai" is pronounced "ah-SIGH-ee." The word is pronounced "ah-sigh-EE," with the emphasis on the final syllable. (You can hear the word pronounced at www.acai-health.org/acai.mp3.)
But will a mangosteen a day keep the doctor away any better than an apple can? And is it worth the extra price you'll pay to get ingredients that have crossed oceans to get to you?
If you believe the companies that market these ingredients, the answer is a loud yes.
"Innumerable people across the world, including health professionals, have reported astonishing and life-changing health improvements as a result of using Noni," claims the Hilo, Hawaii-based Healing Noni company, which markets juice from the fruit of Morinda citrifolia, an Asian shrub.
Or as the San Clemente-based, acai-focused Sambazon company puts it: "Say hello to acai, the fruit that's making believers of world-class athletes and health-conscious people everywhere. Grown in the Amazon rain forest, acai is truly a gift from Mother Nature."
Nutrition researchers and dietitians aren't so sure. So far, they say, there are no gold-standard-type studies to support the idea that exotic superfruits carry special health benefits. Eating a variety of fresh, colorful produce, they add, does far more good than obsessing over whatever the superfruit of the moment happens to be.
And some worry that consumers are too quick to believe in whatever's new and different.
"I hate that term 'superfruit,' like your [fruit] is somehow wearing the cape," says Jeffrey Blumberg, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Antioxidants Research Laboratory at Tufts University in Boston. "There's no evidence that one type of fruit is better for you than any other variety. They're all good."
A handful of complaints in recent years filed by consumer advocacy groups have targeted the vague and overstated claims made by the dietary supplement industry, some of which have sparked official grievances and lawsuits. Pom Wonderful gained angry attention from the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus in 2005 for advertising that its juice could reduce arterial plaques by as much as 30%, a claim based on a small and limited pilot study.
