LOS ANGELES, California — Until Cathy Salimbangon gave Leah Salterio and me one bottle each of Acai to taste (and test) its efficacy, I wasn’t aware that there was such a “premium health food” even if Tweetie de Leon-Gonzalez has been endorsing it in regular “Healthy is Beautiful” ads in the Tuesday Health page of this paper’s Lifestyle section. Tweetie is described as a “supermodel, entrepreneur, mother and health advocate.” (I would find out that my 86-year-old neighbor has been taking it for several years now, swearing by its benefits, and as active and energetic as women half her age.)
Cathy and her husband, Elton Salimbangon, are the owners of Organique, maker of Acai (pronounced a-sha-yi) which has been in local market (available nationwide in Mercury Drugs, Robinsons Malls and South Star outlets) for eight years now (since 2008) and is believed to, among other benefits, (“it may”) help cleanse and detoxify the body, improve sexual health, help prevent prostate enlargement, prevent osteoporosis, ease up menstrual pains, lower blood pressure, protect blood vessels, improve glucose and lipid levels, and reduce risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
A native of Cebu, Cathy is a nurse who used to work at a nursing home in California.
“It was there where I realized that most of old people were suffering from lifestyle ailments because they didn’t take care of their health when they were young,” said Cathy. “My husband and I thought that there should be a food supplement that is palatable enough to make people take it regularly, hindi ‘yung hindi malasa na kailangan mo pa ipilit inumin.”
After she resigned from the nursing home, Cathy continued taking care of senior citizens, visiting them in home-care facilities around Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Elton worked at a neo-nutritional company with a research and development team composed of food scientists, nutritionists and chemists. Soon, the couple formulated an acai berry blend.
“Acai is a generic plant, a berry found in the Amazons,” explained Cathy. “It’s very popular among Brazilians. That’s the secret of their nice bodies, matipuno ang katawan at mataas ang libido. Our product has no preservatives. It’s made of natural, wild harvested acai berries from the Belem region in the State of Para, Brazil. We manufacture and distribute a full line of pure acai berry products formulated to the ideal standards of native Brazilians.”
Among the celebrities who have been taking Acai is Cory Quirino who, although not an official endorser, so swears by the benefits of Acai (also said to be a potent anti-aging food) that she has featured it on her radio program Ma-Beauty Po Naman (over DZMM mid-mornings on Sundays).
Organique has enlisted Tweetie as endorser.