Protect Yourself from Aging with Dietary Antioxidants

Dietary antioxidants play an important role in providing protection against the free radicals that ravage the body attacking cells and causing disease and premature aging.

Antioxidant supplements are available in dietary and nutritional shops that provide this protection; however, the best source is through whole foods that supply dietary antioxidants.

There are many fruits and vegetables that supply antioxidants to protect the body, some supplying more than others. Recently the acai berry has become the favored dietary antioxidant due to its potency.

However, there are many other foods that are packed full of antioxidants, from cacao to blueberries the list of dietary antioxidants is extensive and sure to have something that everyone likes.

Evaluating Foods

A physician can tell you how much penicillin to take for an infection or how much Vitamin B is needed, but there are no cut and dried measurements for antioxidants.

There are new methods of measuring the value of the antioxidant power in foods. ORAC values are used to show how high or low the antioxidant power in a given food is. This is a test tube value assigned by laboratories that research antioxidants and their effect on free radicals.

While these numbers are good for determining which foods have the
highest antioxidant values it must be remembered that the values of all foods are based on the same portion size.

This means that although tarragon has a high ORAC value, the portion size that is measured is not one that most people would feasibly eat in one sitting. The same can be said for many spices. Although they have high ORAC numbers, it is virtually impossible to eat the portion that is considered high in one serving.

Taking this into consideration it is difficult to determine how much of a given food is beneficial. Doctors can’t say precisely how many blueberries should be consumed to protect the heart or how much turmeric should be added to foods to prevent cancer. That research is still underway.

In addition to how much of any given food to consume it is also important to consider the freshness and preparation method. It is not fully known yet how freshness and growing conditions affect the antioxidant properties of all foods. Fruits are known to lose their sugar content over time.

For example, the acai berry, a powerful antioxidant that is the main ingredient in many nutritional supplements, losing potency if not processed immediately after picking.
Cooking can also affect the antioxidant values in foods, not always negatively as people might think. Tomatoes cooked with or without olive oil, have a higher antioxidant value than raw tomatoes.

Dietary antioxidants are abundant in the foods used to prepare nutritious, well-balanced meals daily. Fresh, whole food offer a better source of antioxidants than manufactured supplements, although supplements can be used if necessary to add protection.