Improving Your Food Intake With Antioxidants The Enjoyable Way
Antioxidants are critical components to good health. Happily, you can find many foods that are high in antioxidants at your supermarket in the produce aisle and at your local health food store and farmers markets.
Antioxidants are a compound found in many foods that are fundamental to our superior health. When our bodies use oxygen for its processes, an oxygen free radical is created. A free radical is a molecule that is missing one or more electrons, which makes it exceedingly volatile and injurious to our bodies. It creates inflammation, which is a cause of many of the ailments that we face. An antioxidant comes in and donates an electron thus stabilizing the molecule. In short, antioxidants moderate inflammation in our bodies.
The ORAC or Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity scale is the way that antioxidant aptitude in food is measured. The antioxidants from the food are tested to see how well it is able to deactivate free radicals in a test tube. It is then assigned a number and the higher the number the higher the antioxidant capacity of the food.
Two great foods that achieve some of the uppermost ORAC levels of all concrete foods are the acai berry from the rainforests of Brazil, and dried, unsweetened cocoa. Dark chocolate that is at least 60 to 70 % cocoa is actually one of the most wholesome foods on earth, not to mention one of the most wonderful and satisfying.
Acai berries are just as delightful. A lot of people describe the taste as something similar to a luscious 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 exceptionally perishable so it is not possible to have the fresh fruit outside of Brazil. However, it is fortunate that advanced processing methods have made this little berry obtainable worldwide.
Another food that is wonderful and pleasing but also extremely high in antioxidants is red wine. Red wine is extraordinary in a compound called anthocyanins, which is actually the pigment that produces the profound dark colors of nature, including the red grapes, deep blue blueberries, and the blackish purple of blackberries. Red wine is valuable in moderate amounts as even though there are vast health benefits with alcohol, there is also the threat of serious troubles caused by over-consumption. Nevertheless, if you can restrict yourself to one wineglass of wine a day it can be a agreeable way to get a excellent dosage of antioxidants.
Even though red wine is high in anthocyanins, the acai berry actually has 10 to 30 times the amount of this necessary antioxidant. Anthocyanins have been proven to be valuable for the avoidance of cardiovascular disease and even for possible weight loss in certain studies.
Acai berry products can be found as smoothie mixes, delicious juices and even capsules and pills. Take an acai berry product each day and then slow down later on with 1 ounce of dark chocolate and one glass of red wine and you have received a excellent quantity of nourishing antioxidants.
