Over time and the advent of modern medicine notwithstanding, Guyanese health-seekers continue to evince an interest in so-called ‘superfoods,’ said to be nutrient dense foods that are especially beneficial to health and well-being.
Last weekend Vanessa d’Aguiar took her Acai products—juice pulp, wine, jam and ice cream—to the Sophia Business Exposition.
The Acai berry is widely believed to be one of the more popular ‘superfoods’ and once you get over the hurdle of understanding that, often, myths are inevitably attached to the healing properties of some of these products, you come to appreciate the remarkable flexibility of the Acai berry. Its value, we are told, reposes primarily in its antioxidant properties.
d’Aguiar lives at Siriki Sands, Upper Pomeroon, eight miles from Charity. The Acai berry grows plentifully at Siriki. Its commercial value has grown over the years and these days she buys the berries at around $30 per pound.
On Sunday, d’Aguiar’s Acai products attracted a considerable amount of attention among visitors to the Expo. People were tasting the products and, it seemed, liking them. Only a few bottles of wine were left from the two earlier days and those went quickly. The ice cream, too, proved popular with visitors to the booth and sold well.
d’Aguiar was upbeat about the response. Acai products are not popular on the coast and her New Haven Sands Acai Berry enterprise only got underway earlier this year. She had investigated the berry on the internet and had done some initial trials. Being a midwife she was interested in its alleged health properties. Those of her friends and patients who had tried it