Best Sources of High Antioxidants Foods

With Oprah’s new show out on eating healthy, I thought I’d share the results of the FDA study done in 2003 on high Anti-Oxidant foods.  Antioxidants aren’t the only thing important to consider when choosing foods.  Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of Eat To Live http://www.drfuhrman.com/ says you should choose foods based on their total Nutrient Value divided by Total Calories.  The higher the nutrients per calorie, the better the food for your long term health.  That said, eating a healthy variety of high Antioxidant foods is a no brainer.  So here are the foods with the highest anti-oxidants.

1. Fruits
   Berries (Cherry, blackberry, strawberry, raspberry, crowberry, blueberry, bilberry/wild blueberry, black currant), pomegranate, grape, orange, plum, pineapple, kiwi fruit, grapefruit.  Dried fruits, especially prunes and raisins, are powerpacked.
2. Vegetables
   Kale, spinach, mustard and other greens, chili pepper, red cabbage, peppers, parsley, artichoke, Brussels sprouts, russet potatoes, red beets.
3. Legumes
   Broad beans, pinto beans, soybeans.
4. Nuts and seeds
   Pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, ground nut, almonds, sunflower seeds.
5. Cereals
   Barley, millet, oats, whole wheat, corn.
6. Spices
   cloves, cinnamon, oregano, tumeric

The antioxidant content of top 20 foods are given below.

Best Antioxidant Foods

All foods are not equally good if we consider their antioxidant content. Some foods are better than the others. USDA recommends top 20 best sources of food antioxidants as measured by their total antioxidant capacity per serving size. These antioxidant rich foods are generally absorbed better by your body than antioxidant vitamins and supplement.  That doesn’t mean you should necessarily avoid supplements (I take them), but don’t take them in addition to, not instead of, these high quality foods.

List of 20 Best Foods High in Antioxidants

In the table below, the foods antioxidant power is given as per their serving sizes.

Rank	Type	Food item	Serving size	Total antioxidant capacity per serving size
1	Beans/Legumes	Red Beans (dried)	Half cup	13727
2	Fruit, Berry	Wild blueberry	1 cup	13427
3	Beans/Legumes	Red kidney beans (dried)	Half cup	13259
4	Beans/Legumes	Pinto beans	Half cup	11864
5	Fruit, Berry	Blueberry	1 cup	9019
6	Fruit, Berry	Cranberry	1 cup (whole)	8983
7	Vegetable	Artichoke (cooked)	1 cup (hearts)	7904
8	Fruit, Berry	Blackberry	1 cup	7701
9	Fruit	Prune	Half cup	7291
10	Fruit, Berry	Raspberry	1 cup	6058
11	Fruit, Bery	Strawberry	1 cup	5938
12	Fruit	Red Delicious apple	One	5900
13	Fruit	Granny Smith apple	One	5381
14	Nut	Pecan	1 ounce	5095
15	Fruit, Bery	Sweet cherry	1 cup	4873
16	Fruit	Black plum	One	4844
17	Vegetable	Russet potato (cooked)	One	4649
18	Beans/Legumes	Black beans (dried)	Half cup	4181
19	Fruit	Plum	One	4118
20	Fruit	Gala apple	One	3903

Scientists at the USDA have developed a rating scale that measures the antioxidant content of various natural plant foods. The scale is called ORAC, which stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity.

Fruits	Antioxidant Value ORAC units per 100 grams	Vegetables	Antioxidant Value ORAC units per 100 grams
Prunes	5570	Kale	1770
Raisins	2830	Spinach	1260
Blueberries	2400	Brussels sprouts	980
Blackberries	2036	Alfalfa sprouts	930
Strawberries	1540	Broccoli flowers	890
Raspberries	1220	Beets	840
Plums	949	Red bell pepper	710
Oranges	750	Onion	450
Red grapes	739	Corn	400
Cherries	670	Eggplant	390
Kiwi fruit	602
Grapefruit	483

Conclusion

USDA recommends to eat foods containing at least 3,000 ORAC units a day. CookEatShare has tons of recipes that are high in these special foods. I’ve create a CookEatShare group called Eat To Live and added many of these healthy recipes to that group. Click on the link or go here to see. http://cookeatshare.com/groups/eat-to-live-2

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 8:54 am and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.