Antioxidant Foods

Over 2,500 years ago, ancient doctor Hippocrates is supposed to have said, "Let food by thy medicine and medicine be thy food." Truer words were never spoken for your and my health. Vegetables, fruits, and grains are provided us as are almost perfect foods as they are nutrient rich and antioxidant rich as well. So, what are antioxidants?

Why is this important to you and your health? Antioxidants are free radical scavengers that neutralize free radicals' efforts to destroy cells in the body. This is why antioxidant foods are so vital for you.

Fundamentally, free radicals are very unstable yet highly reactive chemical substances that seek to capture needed electrons to gain stability. They roam throughout the body causing damage to your cells. When an attacked molecule loses its electron, it becomes a free radical, starting a chain reaction. Once the process is started, it cascades culminating in the disruption of healthy cells.

This inevitably leads to the slow, almost imperceptible process known as aging. Health experts also believe free radicals also contribute to diseases including cancer, and this leads us back to antioxidant foods and the benefits of antioxidants. Remember, the chief benefits of potent antioxidants in your body are that they:

Stave off aging
Neutralize disease causing free radicals.

To do this, however, you need to constantly replenish your body's supply of antioxidant foods by eating antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables, and this is where most Westerners fall short.

Antioxidant Foods

Foods High in Antioxidants

While modern farming methods have been a tremendous benefit to mankind, there has been a dark side. Over farming of land has stripped our modern fruits and vegetables of much of their antioxidant capabilities. Read this free PDF file to get a complete overview, but let's give some key points of the article here. Commercialized foods are produced with pesticides, fertilizers, and noxious herbicides.

Some U.S. food is even genetically altered and has been dubbed abroad as "Franken Food." We know there are certain foods that are high in antioxidants, but according to a research study published in the 2003 Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry, organically grown food far surpassed traditional commercially grown fruits and vegetables. In addition, the organic plants showed significantly higher polyphenolic content. (Polyphenols are the antioxidants you'll find in the food.) In the aforementioned file, an explanation is given as to why this is the case:

Consumer demand for cheaper and looking food has over recent decades changed traditional farming methods as well as distribution. A farmer used to rotate his crops to suit his land and maximized his yields through natural methods and then supplied his fresh produce to his local market for distribution. Regrettably that is largely the way of the past for antioxidant foods. Now, the emphasis is on production, appearance, storability and transportability. Nutritional value of fruits and vegetables is of virtually no concern. As Dr. Phil Warman, an agronomist and professor of agricultural sciences at Nova Scotia Agricultural College points out, "are bred to produce higher yields, to be resistant to disease and to produce more visually attractive fruits or vegetables, but little or no emphasis is placed on their vitamin and mineral content."

A professor at the Center for Food Policy in England, Tim Lang concurs with Dr. Warman saying how food has diminished in nutritional value, giving the example how one would have to eat 8 oranges today to get the same amount of our grandparents got from eating one orange.

Within the file, you'll see another study done, which I won't outline in depth here. A study commissioned by The Globe & Mail and CTV on core foods, namely, broccoli, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, bananas, and apples. The results were shocking to say the least. The humble potato, for example, has lost 100% of its Vitamin A, 57% of its Vitamin C and iron in only the last 50 years! (The results were similar for the other 25 core foods tested.) The Moral? Buy only organic if you can afford it. It's one of the smartest decisions you can make for you and your loved one's health.

Antioxidant Foods - Foods High in Antioxidants

So, what are the best antioxidant foods that are high in polyphenolic content? They are:

Artichokes
Bilberries
Black beans
Blackberries
Black plums
Blueberries
Cauliflower
Cranberries
Gala apples
Granny Smith apples
Pecans
Peppers
Pinto beans
Plums
Prunes
Raspberries
Red beans
Red Delicious apples
Red kidney beans
Russet potatoes
Strawberries
Sweet cherries
Tomatoes
Wild blueberries

Experts have long suggested a basic rule when focusing on fruits and vegetables -- their colors. It is the phytonutrients that give the vegetable their scent, color, and their flavor. The darker and richer the color, the more densely rich it is in phytonutrients. Look for that when choosing the best antioxidant foods. If possible, after cleaning the fruit or vegetable, you should always eat it raw as cooking destroys the delicate enzymes and vitamins when certain temperatures are reached. I try to do this whenever possible and I commend it to you.

Antioxidant Foods Alternatives

It's a challenge for me to eat with total and complete discipline on a daily basis, not to mention how difficult it is to try to eat 5 to 7 servings of vegetables and fruits daily as recommended by the FDA. In light of this, many (myself included) have considered adding their needed antioxidant foods like phytonutrients as a dietary supplement. When you are looking for a phytonutrient supplement, I recommend you make sure the following criteria are met (this will save you time, I believe):

The supplements should be produced at pharmaceutical standard GMP registered facilities. Facilities that are GMP registered comply with the most rigid standards so as to minimize the possibility of product contaminants. (These are the same standards pharmaceutical companies in the United States are required to operate under as mandated by the FDA.) Nutritional supplements are not regulated by FDA and as such fraud is rampant with many so-called supplements containing contaminants with 1 in 5 not having the ingredients as proclaimed on the label!
Ensure the supplement manufacturer has a Certificate of Analysis (COA) on file for review by you the customer thus confirming the potency of the herbal ingredients listed on the label.
Ideally, make sure the supplement does not contain any fillers or additives such as sucrose (sugar), starch, gluten, silica (sand) or any other artificial colors, dyes, or flavors.

Phytonutrients Supplement

There is a company that has engineered a superb phytonutrients product in New Zealand. It is noteworthy to mention that New Zealand has more rigorous standards for alternative health supplements, exceeding even the U.S. FDA. When combined with antioxidant foods, it can decelerate the aging process.

Their phytonutrients product has both red and green phytonutrients as well as pure Okinawa coral calcium amino acids, and critical enzymes.

I don't know about you but it's difficult for me to eat 5 to 7 servings of antioxidant foods such as fruits and vegetables a day to get my needed antioxidant, antiaging, phytonutrients, and vitamins. You might want to check out this company's Super Phytonutrients supplement. I've been using various products from this supplement company for about 13 months with terrific results.

I have more energy, better sleep, increased sex drive, and overall increased well being. I hope this Antioxidant Foods web page has been helpful to you.

Yours in health, hope, and harmony,
Nutritional-Supplement-Bible.com