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

Below is a list of  to antioxidant foods followed by the antioxidant power per their serving sizes.

1. Red Beams 13727

2. Wild Blueberry 13427

3. Red Kidney Beans 13259

4. Pinto Beans 11864

5. Blueberries 9019

6. Cranberries 8983

7. Artichoke Hearts 7904

8. Blackberries 7701

9. Prunes 7291

10. Raspberries 6058

11. Strawberries 5938

12. Red Apples 5900

13. Green Apples 5381

14. Pecans 5095

15. Sweet Cherries 4873

16. Black Plums 4844

17. Russet Potatoes 4649

18. Black Beans 4181

19. Plums 4118

20. Gala/Fuji Apples 3903

For more information on the antioxidant rich foods above, and to see a table of foods with highest Antioxidant value per 100 grams, click here Antioxidant Foods .

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.