A recent study has been conducted in OURO PRETO, Brazil that shows acai lowers cholesterol of rats with high fat diets.  Published in the Nutrition journal (December, 17 2009) researchers found that acai contributed to lowering cholesterol and improving the antioxidant count in rats.

Female Fischer rats were separated in 4 groups: 2 groups ate a high fat diet full of twenty-five percent soy oil and one percent of cholesterol and the other 2 groups were given a healthy diet.  The first group and second groups were also given an acai supplement of acai pulp for 6 weeks.

By the end of the laboratory test, group 1 with the high fat diet had an increase in low-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and lower levels of HDL cholesterol.  The acai significantly reduced the levels of low-density HDL and total cholesterol.  In addition, the levels of serum with carbonyl protein andgroups of sulfhydryl (oxidative damage indicator) were decreased from the acai supplement in both rat groups the high fat or healthy diet.

Furthermore, the acai supplements also reduced superoxide dismutase (SOD) which are the enzymes that work as defensive antioxidants, proving that the test group with the high fat diet had a reaction specifically from the acai diet implementation.