Top 11 Super Antioxidants

What are Super Antioxidants?

Super Antioxidants have the highest ORAC Value (antioxidant power).

Antioxidants are substances such as vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, and polyphenols that help protect cells in your body.

They are nature’s way of fighting off potentially dangerous molecules in the bloodstream of your body. Such molecules come in the form of synthetic chemicals such as pesticides, plastics, and chlorine byproducts and are called free radicals.

An ample supply of antioxidants to stabilize and eliminate free radicals is exactly what we need everyday in our diet to keep a healthy immune system.

Some of us are starving our bodies everyday from the antioxidants we need to protect us and that is why we are seeing more and more diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer.

The majority of people today are too busy to slow down long enough to eat their fruits and veggies and/or the nutritional meals that their bodies need.

Your health is a serious matter. It's important to learn about fruits and vegetables and stock up every week when they are in season.

How Do Antioxidants Work?

ORAC stands for the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity of different foods. What that means is that the more oxygen you can get into all the cells of your body, the healthier you can keep those cells from being damaged by free radical molecules.

Free radicals are a by-product of normal metabolism and also come from smoking, pollution, poisons, fried foods. Free radical cell damage is associated with an increased risk of many chronic diseases.

The free-radical theory of aging states that by slowing down the oxidative processes and neutralizing free radical damage which can contribute to age-related degeneration and disease, we can remain healthier.

Antioxidants such as vitamin C, carotenes, vitamin E and polyphenols reduce the damage caused by free radicals.

It is believed that foods higher on the ORAC scale will more effectively neutralize these free radicals.

Check the ORAC values of different antioxidants, below.

1. Unprocessed Cocoa Powder is the Number One Super Antioxidant Food with a whopping 26,000 ORAC Value per 100 grams (3.5 ounces).

   Unprocessed cocoa is the highest rated antioxidant food source-much greater than red wine or green tea.
   
   

   
   
2. Acai Berries have an impressive 18,500 ORAC Value.

   Acai Berries are Nature's Super Antioxidants that look like a purple grape and are found in the Amazon Rainforest on acai palm trees.

   They were recently featured on MSNBC News and on The Oprah Winfrey Show.




3. Dark Chocolate (processed) has 13,120 ORAC Value. Unprocessed dark chocolate has many benefits to include lowering blood pressure, decreasing complications with diabetes, increasing the health of pregnant women, increasing energy, reversing the aging process, not to mention it tastes great!

   The difference between processed and unprocessed cocoa is that processed cocoa is heated (most chocolate you buy in store) at a high temperatures that destroys most of the antioxidants in the dark chocolate.

   
   

4. Prunes have a 5,770 ORAC value. I'll bet you didn't think that prunes would be one of the Super Antioxidants. Prunes are very good for you.

   Prunes are a type of plum grown specifically for drying. Prune juice is more fiber-rich than plum juice, and is often marketed as a way to increase regularity.




5. Raisins has 2,830 ORAC Value. Raisins are healthy and nutritious fruit snacks that can be enjoyed naturally or cooked as part of your favorite recipe.

   A small box of raisins is a great pick-me-up in the early afternoon and a small box of raisins is a healthy addition to kid's lunches.




6. Blueberries have a 2,400 ORAC Value.

   Blueberries are flowering plants bell-shaped with white, pale pink or red, sometimes tinged greenish flowers considered to be Nature's Antioxidant SuperFruit.




7. Blackberries has 2,036 ORAC Value. Wild Blackberries are like the ones you buy, but better. You can find them wherever you live. The fruit ripens from mid-summer to early fall and goes from red to black, sweet to taste and is wonderful.




8. Strawberries have 1,540 ORAC Value. Strawberries and blueberries have been linked to protection from Alzheimer's.

   Researchers are finding out more and more,everyday, about how antioxidants in our fruits and vegetables can protect us from many of the diseases that are attacking our society today.




9. Raw Spinach has 1,260 ORAC Value. Raw spinach is naturally rich in lutein (antioxidant). Lutein is found in hundreds of nutritional supplements, from multivitamins to eye care formulas to products containing lutein as the sole ingredient.




10. Broccoli Florets has 890 ORAC Value. Broccoli is a Super Food and research suggests that it is especially good for the stomach. A compound found in broccoli and broccoli sprouts appears to be more effective than modern antibiotics against the bacteria which causes peptic ulcers.

    Moreover, tests in mice show that the compound offers tremendous protection against stomach cancer - the second most common form of cancer in the world.

    A different study showed that consumption of broccoli was strongly associated with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease death in postmenopausal women.



11. Red Grapes have 739 ORAC Value. It's long been known that drinking red grape juice or wine has the potential to help fight off breast cancer.

    Researchers say the antioxidants (polyphenols) in the red grapes may lead to the destruction of mutated or abnormal cells, preventing their establishment and the development of cancer.

If you find that it is difficult to remember to eat several servings of fruit, especially on really busy days, you're not alone.

The easiest way to get the superantioxidants you need from fruits is to add frozen fruit with a little fruit juice or yogurt into your blender and make a fruit smoothie each morning.

As an example, here is a recipe for a Strawberry Pineapple Smoothie.

The easiest way to add fresh vegetable juice into your diet is to use a juicing machine.

If you've never tasted fresh, cold carrot juice, you may be surprised at how sweet it is. Even children like it. For variation, add a stalk of celery, a fresh beet, a handful of raw spinach or any other vegetables.

Simply remove the carrots from the refrigerator, rinse them off, place your glass under the juicing machine's spout and send the carrots through.

Carrot juice makes a good 'base' juice to add other vegetables to.

There are a lot of juicing machines on the market, but many people choose one of the juice fountains within the Breville line of juicers.

If you're interested in buying a good entry level juicer without spending $ 200-$300., take a look at the 700 watt Breville Compact Juice Fountain for under $ 100.

Then, read a few of the more than 500 reviews to see what other people say about it.

If you are vegan or vegetarian, have a large family or would just like to begin a new eating regimen which includes more super antioxidants in your diet and therefore will use your juicing machine more than once a day, you may want to consider purchasing the 'right machine for the right job', such as one of the stainless steel Breville juice fountains with the larger, 900-1000 watt motor.

Machines such as the 1000 Watt Breville Juice Fountain Elite are powerful, offer fast, easy clean up, have a 3" opening so you don't have to spend as much time slicing fruits and vegetables into small pieces, and create more juice per use before having to stop and clean out the pulp container.

Super antioxidants are really easy to add to your diet and quickly and compatibly incorporating them into your personal lifestyle will make for a healthier new you.

However, if you're a procrastinator, it's important for you to learn how to mentally get healthy, first.

If procrastination is a problem,... if you just can't get yourself motivated to do what you need to do,... if your willpower and persistence always seems to fizzle out, or you make a list and never get it all done,...then super antioxidants will help you become physically healthy.

But, to fully take advantage of the power of your mind over your body, and ultimately change your thinking, find inner peace, and remove stresses in your life. If this is a problem in your life, visit and ThinkRightNow.com and learn how to take back full control of your life!