Super Antioxidant Foods
These top 10 Super Antioxidant Foods can transform your diet and possibly your life.
Are you tired of dieting?
Don't worry, you can get thin and healthy at the same time. Certain super antioxidant foods are nutritional/antioxidant powerhouses, and should be piled into grocery carts and lunch boxes. Blueberries bubble with cancer-fighting, heart-healthy antioxidants. Avocados ooze with the same good fats that olive oil has, and spinach,... well, spinach has it all, as Popeye always knew. Current superstars are tea and dark chocolate, both brimming with super antioxidants. (As soon as coffee makes the list, it will be perfect.) Super Antioxidant Foods are the nutritional equivalent of the fountain of youth and can help prevent diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and many other diseases that attack our society every day. The fact is, there is every reason to eat them: Good Nutrition
The antioxidants in blueberries are good for you.
The avocado's mono-unsaturated fats are healthier than, say, the saturated fats in butter.
A little bit of dark chocolate contains micro-nutrients (flavonoids) that help lower blood pressure.
It's called nutrition, a concept dietitians have been trying to sell for years. Now, suddenly, it's trendy!
Food companies find the super antioxidant foods concept irresistible for advertising. But that doesn't mean that Dole, the fruit and vegetable giant, was wrong when it called brussels sprouts a superfood in a holiday publicity pitch to food writers. The sulfurous brassicas do contain lots of vitamin C and some other useful phytonutrients, and they're very good for you. Tomatoes, especially processed or cooked ones, have tons of cancer-fighting lycopene. Turkey breast is an exceptionally lean source of protein; it has much less saturated fat than chicken. And drinking tea -- green or black -- delivers a potent dose of antioxidants. The other thing is, after seeing the super antioxidant food list below don't ignore all the other veggies or berry good "friends" like raspberries, boysenberries, as well as other red fruits like cherries. They may not have as many anthocyanins (antioxidants) as blueberries, but they have some and are likely to contain other micronutrients whose value simply hasn't yet been studied as much yet. Whole foods will always be better than trying to get the same nutrients through supplements, but supplements can help. Foods deliver many nutrients, not just the ones science has pinpointed, to-date,... and the nutrients are delivered in combinations that may give them more added power than any one alone,... a concept known as synergy (1 and 1 = 3). For example, current research shows that consuming vitamin E and lycopene together, like avocados with tomatoes, enhances their antioxidant effects. Similarly, the oligosaccharides in onions also boost tomatoes' lycopene.
The language of super antioxidant foods can be confusing, because many of the terms for nutrients overlap. Here is a basic glossary: - Antioxidants: An umbrella name for many substances that retard the body's normal process of oxidation, meaning a reaction to oxygen that releases "free radicals" that damage cells and break the body down.
Digestion releases free radicals from food. Antioxidants help to destroy free radicals and slow oxidation, reducing allergies, heart disease, cancer and aging effects. Dozens of antioxidant nutrients have been identified so far, and there are likely many more. Many vitamins have antioxidant effects, including A (which is a carotene), C and E. - Flavonoids: These are the best-known antioxidants,... like tea and dark chocolate among a group called polyphenols.
You also see the word flavonol, which is a subgroup of flavonoids. Relatives are anthocyanins (which give blueberries their fame). - Carotenoids: These are the pigments that protect dark green, yellow, orange and red fruits and vegetables from sun damage and they work as antioxidants in humans, too.
Beta-carotene is the best known. It's also called vitamin A. Other famous carotenoids are lycopene and lutein. - Vitamins: Nutrients considered essential to health and or a shortage of vitamins can create health problems (such as eating fast foods all the time).
- Phytonutrients: Phytonutrients are plant-derived compounds that are believed to improve your health, but aren't essential to your health. This includes many antioxidants.
Top 10 Super Antioxidant Foods
What's so super about...? - Dark Chocolate: The magic word here is flavonoids, the same kinds of antioxidants that make tea so potent a health brew.
Research shows flavonoids have a role in helping lower blood pressure and in keeping your arteries from clogging, both of which are really good news for your heart. Only dark chocolate does the trick, not milk or white.
Healthy Dark Chocolate
is the best dark chocolate for you due to the fact that it is made with all natural ingredients.
- Apples: Different varieties of apples have different phytonutrients, but they all have tons of antioxidants, including flavonoids and other polyphenols, and fiber. Apples, too, are one of the super antioxidant foods.
- Avocados: Avocados have the same thing going for them that olive oil does: healthy monounsaturated fatty acids.
These are the "good fats," and they appear to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, and raise HDL (good) cholesterol levels. Fiber, potassium, magnesium, folate and antioxidants up the ante. Research shows that avocados help the body absorb more nutrients from other foods, (the tomato in the same salad, for instance). - Beans: Beans haven't gotten the same media buzz as blueberries, but some beans have even more health-promoting antioxidants. They also have as much cholesterol-lowering fiber as oats, and lots of lean protein.
Both dried beans and green beans are rich in B vitamins and potassium, (good for your heart). - Blueberries: Frozen do the trick as well as fresh, and they're easier to find in winter. For such tiny fruits, they deliver a huge wallop of antioxidants of many kinds, including anthocyanins and other polyphenols, and carotenoids.
They also have fiber, folic acid and vitamins C and E. And they taste good with very few calories. Just sprinkle a few on your cereal and you have started your day off with super antioxidant foods. - Kiwis: Vitamin C, vitamin C, vitamin C,...kiwis are loaded in this antioxidant, which also makes oranges a superfood. Kiwis rival bananas in potassium, pound for pound. And flavonoid antioxidants abound in the skin, which is edible but best if you rub the fuzzy skin off first.
- Oats: Kings in the fiber world, oats also deliver protein, potassium, magnesium and other minerals, and phytonutrients, including antioxidants.
Their cholesterol-lowering powers are well known, and their high fiber is believed to help stabilize blood sugar. Oats' combination of nutrients appears to have more healthy effects than if each nutrient were consumed separately, which seems to be true of all whole grains. Oatmeal is fast and easy to make in the morning and inexpensive, too. - Spinach: What doesn't spinach have? It's loaded with lutein (for eyes) and many other carotenoids, which are healthful antioxidants; plus other antioxidants like coenzyme Q, in serious doses; plus several B vitamins plus C and E; plus iron and other minerals; plus betaine, a vitamin-like nutrient research suggests is good for your heart.
And with almost no calories, you can eat as much as you want. Spinach's counterparts, kale, chard and other dark leafy greens make great salads. - Walnuts: All nuts have been rehabbed as the good-for-you foods, for their healthy fats and micronutrients.
A few go a long way, though, as they are calorie bombs. Walnuts' main claim to stardom are their omega-3 fatty acids, which fight heart disease. Other goodies: plant sterols, which lower cholesterol, and lots of antioxidants. - Yogurt: The healthy attributes of yogurt and tea have been known and used for centuries. Yogurt's claim to fame is live cultures, also called probiotics or beneficial bacteria.
They are what turns milk into yogurt (but some commercial yogurts are heated to kill the cultures after they do their work, so be sure to read the label). In your intestines, they fight bad bacteria, aid digestion, help metabolize food and generally tune your system up. Yogurt also is a good source of calcium and protein. Natural yogurt also replenishes the intestines with friendly bacteria after you have taken antibiotics.
So, make sure you get your antioxidants included in your everyday diet with these super antioxidant foods.
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