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Top Antioxidant Foods and Why Eat Them?

farmingAntioxidants >> Top Antioxidant Foods

Antioxidants are agents in our body that help to fight off the destructive effects of free radical molecules that are linked to the development of heart disease and other ailments.

In addition to antioxidants that are naturally produced by our bodies, there are also antioxidants that are found in a number of assorted foods and the more of these foods we eat on a daily basis, the better off we are going to be.  

There are certain foods that have elevated levels of antioxidants than others and these are the foods that score high in antioxidant analysis (ORAC) and should definitely be include in our diet.

If you are interested in finding out what the best antioxidant foods are and why you should start eating more of them, the following information may be helpful to you. (For ORAC values of different spices, fruits and vegetables, see 3 tables below).

 Antioxidants in Dark Chocolate

chocolateChocolate is considered as one of the top antioxidant foods. That’s right, chocolate is actually good for you.

Well not all types of chocolate...dark chocolate - that is!

Milk chocolate or the dark chocolate eaten with milk is a no-no! (Milk was found to interfere with the absorption of antioxidants from chocolate).

What's So Wonderful About Dark Chocolate?

Dark chocolate is recognized as a potent antioxidant. It is full of antioxidants because it is made from the cocoa bean, which has the highest antioxidant value on the planet.

cacaoThe cocoa bean is one of the most complex foods because it contains over 300 chemically identifiable compounds, and the cocoa beans are packed with potent antioxidants known as flavonoids.

These compounds work to boost good HDL cholesterol levels in the body, reduce blood pressure, and reduce bad cholesterol.

You need to realize however that just because dark chocolate is full of antioxidants, this certainly does not mean that you can eat as much as you want of it without consequences.

After all, dark chocolate as with all chocolate is also full of calories, and so if you just sit around and chow down chocolate you will be getting antioxidants but you will also be consuming a ton of sugar and calories.

Other Top Antioxidant Foods

When looking for top antioxidant foods, you need to be aware of the foods that are scoring high in antioxidant analysis called ORAC. ORAC, is short for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, a test tube analysis that measures the total antioxidant power of foods and other chemical substances.

Two human studies show that eating vegetables and fruits with high ORAC scores or simply doubling intake of fruits and vegetables that are naturally high in antioxidants raises the antioxidant power of the blood between 13 and 25 percent.

Comparison of values in the USDA ORAC database per μmol TE/100g and μmol TE/typical serving

orac-chart

Comparison of similar top antioxidant foods (different samples) analyzed by ORAC assay in two different laboratories

orac-chart

References

  1. Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts.

  2. USDA Database for the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods.  Bhagwat, S., Haytowitz, D.B. Holden, J.M.  American Institute for Cancer Research Launch. Accessed 9/3/09.

  3. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (vol. 68, pp. 1081-1087) and the Journal of Nutrition (vol. 128, pp. 2383-2390) – featured studies on the antioxidant power of the blood after ingesting high- scoring ORAC foods.

 

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