Foods High in Antioxidants

Measuring Antioxidant Content

USDA Scientists developed a scale that rates and measures the antioxidant content of various natural plant foods. This scale is called ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity). This database holds data for 277 food items. The information contained in this report is a collaboration between:

• Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center in Little Rock, Arkansas
• Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center
• Nutrient Data Laboratory

How Antioxidants Prevent Cell Damage

First, to understand how antioxidants help prevent cell damage, let's take a look at free radicals. Free radicals are highly-reactive molecules that have the ability to start an unwanted chain reaction in cells. This chain reaction leads to damage. (UV light can produce free radicals.) Antioxidants offer a defense against cell damage. They react with free radicals and truncate the chain reaction before it damages molecules. Antioxidants include:

• Beta-carotene
• Selenium (found in fish and shellfish, red meat, grains, eggs, chicken and garlic)
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E

Benefits of Antioxidants

If you're looking for a way to stay young, antioxidants can help. They protect cells from the main cause of aging--oxidative free-radical damage. However, the benefits reach much further than this. The anti-aging antioxidants found in carotenoids offer all kinds of other benefits, too. They've been proved to slow down, prevent and even reverse conditions like:

• Cancer
• Degenerative eye diseases such ascataracts and macular degeneration
• Diabetes
• Diseases of the immune system
• Diseases of the nervous system
• Heart disease

Choosing Foods High in Antioxidants

The National Cancer Institute suggests a daily diet including at least five to nine servings of carotenoid antioxidant-rich foods. In reality, people eat closer to one or two servings a day. The best way to ensure adequate intake of quality antioxidants is to eat a variety of the following foods high in antioxidants in your daily diet as part of your fitness program:

Fruits

• Berries (blueberries, cherries, cranberries, crowberries, bilberries, black currants, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries)
• Apricots
• Dates
• Granny Smith apples
• Grapes
• Kiwi
• Oranges
• Peaches
• Pineapple
• Pink grapefruit
• Plums
• Pomegranates
• Prunes
• Raisins
• Red delicious apples
• Tomatoes

Vegetables

• Artichokes
• Beets
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Carrots
• Chili pepper
• Ginger
• Kale
• Parsley
• Peppers
• Red beets
• Red cabbage
• Red peppers
• Spinach

Cereals

• Barley
• Corn
• Millet
• Oats

Legumes

• Black beans
• Broad beans
• Pinto beans
• Red beans
• Soybeans

Nuts and Seeds

• Ground nut
• Hazelnuts
• Pecans
• Sunflower seeds
• Walnuts

Supplemental Sources

The following natural supplemental sources are noted as popular sources of rich antioxidants.

• Acai berry
• Gingo biloba
• Gogi
• Grape seed extract
• Mangosteen
• Micro sea algae
• Milk thistle
• Noni
• Pine bark (pycnogenol)
• Quercetin

Remember when you're mother told you to eat those vegetables? Well that wisdom still applies today. Add five servings of fruits and vegetables to your daily diet and you'll reduce the risk of stroke by 25 percent. Choosing foods high in antioxidants will also help enhance your immune defense, lower the risk of infection and even reduce your chances of getting cancer. Foods are the best source of antioxidants rather than those found in supplements, so eat up and enjoy good health.