Heart Beat: What Foods Are Rich in Antioxidants?
A group of researchers measured the antioxidant content of hundreds of foods. The top choices are healthy foods, which reinforces the correlation between eating foods rich in antioxidants and better overall health.
Single antioxidants, like vitamin E or beta carotene, have never lived up to the hype that they halt heart disease, cure cancer, eradicate eye disease, or prevent Alzheimer’s. That shouldn’t be surprising. The notion that antioxidants are good for you comes from studies showing that people who eat foods rich in 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 determine 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 were blackberries, walnuts, strawberries, artichokes, cranberries, coffee, raspberries, pecans, blueberries, and ground cloves (see “Antioxidant-rich foods”).
| Antioxidant-rich foods
Here 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.
The testing of single antioxidants at a time provides the scapegoat for doctors to claim that vitamins don’t work. However, it’s the synergistic effect of multi-vitamins and multi-minerals combined that provides the benefits of vitamin supplementation. (my-antioxidants-guide.com)