Improve Your Antioxidant Intake The Delicious Way

by Debra F Nelson

Antioxidants are crucial if you want to improve your health. Fortunately many of the foods that you can find at the supermarket produce aisle, your local health food store and farmer’s market are loaded with beneficial antioxidants.

When our bodies employ oxygen in the course of life, oxygen free radicals are created. A free radical is really a molecule that is missing one or more electrons. This makes it particularly variable and hurtful to our bodies. Free radicals produce inflammation, which is a cause of many ailments from heart disease to wrinkles. An antioxidant reduces inflammation by donating the omitted electron thereby stabilizing the molecule. Antioxidants are essential for reducing inflammation.

The antioxidants in food are calculated by how well they can deactivate free radicals in a test tube. This is referred to as the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity or ORAC. A number is assigned referring to its ORAC levels, the higher the number, the higher the antioxidant faculty of the food.

Certain spices rank the very uppermost on the ORAC scale but the two top foods are the acai berry from the rainforests of Brazil and dried, unsweetened cocoa. Dark chocolate with 60 to 70% pure cocoa is one of the utmost antioxidant foods that you can consume.

Acai berries are just as delightful. Many people describe the taste as something similar to a delicious 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 extremely 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 luscious and enjoyable way to get a good for your health dose of antioxidants is through red wine. Red wine is high in the pigment that causes nourishing foods to have the deep dark blue and red colors. This pigment is called anthocyanins and it is an enormously helpful antioxidant. Red wine is healthful in moderation however, as with any type of alcohol, there is risk of troubles associated with over consumption. One glass a day though can offer you a wonderful way to get a good for you dosage of antioxidants.

Even though red wine is high in anthocyanins, the acai berry actually has 10 to 30 times the amount of this fundamental antioxidant. Anthocyanins have been proven to be valuable for the impediment 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 daily and then calm down later on with 1 ounce of dark chocolate and one glass of red wine and you have received a respectable quantity of wholesome antioxidants.

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