Antioxidant ListYour Personal Antioxidant ListYou may have heard of the importance of antioxidants in the media. Many products today claim to have high levels of antioxidants and their commercials may vaguely mention their health benefits, but they don't explain many important factors. For example, how much of these antioxidants do they contain? Until recently, there was no good way of objectively measuring the amount of antioxidants included in foods. That made choosing sources difficult, and it made evaluating manufacturer claims nearly impossible. The Importance of AntioxidantsOne of the interesting things about antioxidants is how important they are to our bodies. So much of the damage being caused from the inside and outside can be traced to free radicals.
A process known as oxidative stress, which is related to these free radicals, has been linked to many of our most serious health concerns, including Alzheimers and Parkinsons Disease. Additionally, oxidative stress may cause a role in aging. And that means without sufficient antioxidants you are more likely to show signs of aging early. What is oxidative stress will give you more information. Antioxidants help reduce this process by making free radicals non-reactive, preventing them from doing any damage to our bodies. If you have a stable supply of antioxidants, you will also be more likely to delay some of the signs of aging. Plus, science is still discovering new health benefits from antioxidants and that's why the development of an objective measurement and an antioxidant list is such a good and welcomed idea. ORAC MeasurementsAs you'll see in the "Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity" (ORAC) report, ORAC values is the measurement of how rich in antioxidants different foods are. The National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program (NFNAP) decided to use this measurement to test 59 different foods, primarily nuts, fruits, and other foods suspected of being rich in antioxidants. The results are published in the antioxidant list so you can compare them. Each measurement was calculated based on 100 grams of the food so serving size differences are not going to impact the findings. The numbers are going to provide you a clear way to compare the different foods which have been measured. While only 59 foods have been analyzed up to this point, this is a good starting point and can help you find some effective ways to increase the levels of antioxidants in your diet. Some Interesting FindingsIf you study the chart in the report, you'll find some interesting information. For example, the ORAC measurements seem to suggest that it's not just the foods you eat that determines the level of antioxidants but in what form you eat them. Take apples, for example. Dried apples scored much higher than apple juice in terms of the ORAC scale. Dried apples also seemed to rank higher than most of the fresh apples. Also, apples which still had their skin were higher in antioxidants than those that did not which suggests not skinning your apples before eating them is a smart decision. The chart doesn't just look at adult food either. Even baby foods were analyzed to determine how rich in antioxidants they were. This help parents determine which fruits and other foods in the baby food aisle are the best choices for their baby's health. These findings and more can be found in the pdf report. |
