The Delightful Manner To Add More Antioxidants To Your Diet

1 Jul, 2009  |  Written by Mike Jones  |  under Nutrition

If you would like to advance your health, you need to look no further than the food and drink that you eat. Lots of of the foods that you can get at the supermarket produce aisle, your neighboring farmer’s market and health food store are loaded with antioxidants.

Our bodies necessitate oxygen for the processes of life. However, whenever oxygen is used it creates oxygen free radicals, which is a molecule that is lacking an electron. This lack of electron makes it exceptionally erratic and potentially devastating to our bodies. Free radicals contribute to inflammation, which is a cause for most ailments from serious things like heart disease and cancer to the less serious but still troublesome wrinkles and gray hair. An antioxidant will stabilize a free radical by donating the absent electron, thereby reducing inflammation.

The ORAC or Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity scale is the way that antioxidant facility in food is calculated. The antioxidants from the food are tested to see how well it is able to defuse free radicals in a test tube. It is then assigned a number and the higher the number the higher the antioxidant facility of the food.

Certain spices rank the very maximum on the ORAC scale but the two top foods are the acai berry from the rainforests of Brazil and dried, unsweetened cocoa. Dark chocolate with 60 to 70% pure cocoa is one of the maximum antioxidant foods that you can eat.

Acai berries are just as delicious. A lot of people describe the taste as something akin to a delicious berry dipped in dark chocolate. You can find acai berry products that are juices, smoothie mixes and even tablets and capsules. The acai berry is especially perishable so it is not possible to have the fresh fruit outside of Brazil. However, it is lucky that advanced processing methods have made this little berry available worldwide.

Another food that is delicious and satisfying but also very high in antioxidants is red wine. Red wine is great in a compound called anthocyanins, which is actually the pigment that produces the intense dark colors of nature, including the red grapes, deep blue blueberries, and the blackish purple of blackberries. Red wine is constructive in reasonable amounts as even though there are vast health benefits with alcohol, there is also the danger of serious tribulations caused by over-consumption. Nevertheless, if you can restrict yourself to one glass of wine a day it can be a enjoyable way to get a decent dosage of antioxidants.

Surprisingly enough though, the acai berry essentially contains 10 to 30 times more anthocyanins than red wine. Anthocyanins have been established to be beneficial for our cardiovascular systems along with many other advantages including potential weight loss.

You can get acai berry products as a smoothie mix, delicious juices and even capsules and pills. Eat some acai berry product every day, add in 1 ounce of high quality, dark chocolate and loosen up with one glass of red wine and you will have received a nourishing dosage of critical antioxidants.

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