Delicious sources of antioxidants for healthy summer eating
Forget the hype about single antioxidants, like vitamin E or beta carotene. They’ve never lived up to the promise that they can halt heart disease, cure cancer, eradicate eye disease, or prevent Alzheimer’s.
But that doesn’t mean antioxidants aren’t important to your health. The notion that antioxidants are good for you comes from studies showing that people who eat foods rich in a variety of antioxidants have better long-term health. Trials of single supplements, usually taken in pill form, have yielded disappointing results.
Antioxidants stabilize harmful by-products of the body’s energy-making machinery. These by-products, known as free radicals, can damage DNA, make LDL (“bad”) cholesterol even worse, and wreak havoc elsewhere in the body.
It’s possible that single antioxidants haven’t panned out because it takes a network of antioxidants — like those that exist in foods — to neutralize free radicals. If that’s the case, then it would be helpful to know the antioxidant content of various foods.
An international team of researchers did just that for more than a thousand foods that Americans commonly eat. Topping the list for antioxidant content were blackberries, walnuts, strawberries, artichokes, cranberries, coffee, raspberries, pecans, blueberries, and ground cloves (see “Antioxidant-rich foods”).
Antioxidant-rich foodsHere are the three dozen foods with the highest per-serving content of antioxidants. |
|
Product |
Antioxidants (mmol/serving) |
Blackberries |
5.746 |
Walnuts |
3.721 |
Strawberries |
3.584 |
Artichokes, prepared |
3.559 |
Cranberries |
3.125 |
Coffee |
2.959 |
Raspberries |
2.870 |
Pecans |
2.741 |
Blueberries |
2.680 |
Cloves, ground |
2.637 |
Grape juice |
2.557 |
Chocolate, baking, unsweetened |
2.516 |
Cranberry juice |
2.474 |
Cherries, sour |
2.205 |
Wine, red |
2.199 |
Power Bar, chocolate flavor |
1.875 |
Pineapple juice |
1.859 |
Guava nectar |
1.858 |
Juice drinks, 10% juice, blueberry or strawberry flavor, vitamin C enriched |
1.821 |
Cranapple juice |
1.790 |
Prunes |
1.715 |
Chocolate, dark, sugar-free |
1.675 |
Cabbage, red, cooked |
1.614 |
Orange juice |
1.510 |
Apple juice, with added vitamin C |
1.462 |
Mango nectar |
1.281 |
Pineapples |
1.276 |
Oranges |
1.261 |
Bran Flakes breakfast cereal |
1.244 |
Plums, black |
1.205 |
Pinto beans, dried |
1.137 |
Canned chili with meat and beans |
1.049 |
Canned chili with meat, no beans |
1.045 |
Spinach, frozen |
1.040 |
Whole Grain Total breakfast cereal |
1.024 |
Chocolate, sugar-free |
1.001 |
Source: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, July 2006 |
Cooking appears to increase the antioxidant potential of most foods, with the exception of grains such as rice, pasta, and corn grits, which show lower levels after cooking.
The researchers were careful not to claim that eating foods at the top of the list will keep you healthy. Instead, they believe that rating the antioxidant potential of different foods could help test whether antioxidants really do prevent disease. In the meantime, the list toppers are healthy foods, so don’t hesitate to dig in.
For more information on antioxidant-rich foods, order our Special Health Report, The Benefits and Risks of Vitamins and Minerals, at www.health.harvard.edu/VM.
June 21, 2008 at 12:55 am
That’s great info. ORAC values are a good way to measure antioxidant potency, but putting it in a per serving value is useful for day-to-day eating decisions.