The Government recommends an intake of at least five portions of fruit or vegetables per person per day (the 5 A DAY program) to help reduce the risk of some cancers, heart disease and many other chronic conditions. We all know fruit and vegetables contain nutrients like vitamins, minerals and fiber, but those aren’t the only reasons why fruit and vegetables are so good for our health, although those nutrients are definitely essential for our well-being. Fruit and vegetables can also contain lycopene, carotenoids, resveratol, flavonoids, ellagic acid, chlorophyll, folate, lignans and quercetin, which can act as antioxidants. Also vitamin E, C and beta carotene (a form of vitamin A) can act as antioxidants. Antioxidants fight free radicals, preventing diseases and contrasting the aging process.

How do we know how many antioxidants there are in the the food we’re eating? There’s a rating scale that measures the antioxidant content of foods called ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity). The ORAC value is expressed in micromoles of Trolox Equivalents per 100 grams of sample (this is the laboratory measure of ORAC). The USDA recommends a daily intake of 1,000 to 5,000 ORAC units daily, while the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently suggested that a daily consumption of around 7,000 ORAC units may provide optimum antioxidant protection.

There are a few tables available on the internet, indicating the ORAC values of all kinds of foods, per 100 grams. The weight of a serving for different foods can vary widely and knowing the ORAC value per 100 grams isn’t very useful without knowing how much a serving weighs. Therefore I calculated the ORAC value per serving for a number of fruits, vegetables and other kinds of food.*

As you can see, acai berries, blueberries, apples, peaches, plums and strawberries score very high on the ORAC scale. Including any of these fruits in your daily diet would be a fairly easy way to eat a large amount of antioxidants. Fruit with a low antioxidant content on the other hand, can still be very nutritious for other reasons. Bananas are a very good source of vitamin B6, which is important to the immune system, and potassium, which helps the kidneys function normally and is said to lower blood pressure. Kiwis are a very good source of Vitamin C, of which one kiwi contains 75% of the daily value (similar to the 83% of an orange), and Vitamin K, which helps protect against osteoporosis.

Kidney beans, broccoli, cauliflower and spinach score highest in antioxidant content per serving. Also in this case, low in antioxidants doesn’t mean low in nutrients. Tomatoes for example, are a great source of vitamin A, which  helps strengthen immunity from infections, vitamin C, and potassium.

So by simply eating a piece of dark chocolate (2,080), an apple (3,900) with half a teaspoon of cinnamon (1,340), a teaspoon of dried oregano (2,000) sprinkled on your lunch or supper, 3 walnuts (2,025) and drinking a glass of green tea (1,950) and a glass of red wine (4,875), you can have a daily intake of 18.170 ORAC units! More than double the amount of suggested daily antiaging antioxidants for optimum protection.

* Source for ORAC values (rounded): USDA Database for the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods, 2007

Link:

Other anti-aging sources: http://hubpages.com/hub/Coenzyme-Q10-CoQ10

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajawin/2237351359/