High antioxidant foods are found in some of the most surprising places. If you’re interested in putting together a meal planner that includes some really high antioxidant foods, look no further. We’re going to give you some ideas for that antioxidant diet plan you’re seeking.
First off, one of the best things you can do is plan all of your meals around high antioxidant foods. Of course, you don’t want to ignore the other nutritious foods found in the food triangle but by placing really high potent antioxidant foods on every meal plan, you’re doing the very best that you can for both yourself and your family. You can’t get any better when it comes to planning healthy meals.
So, let’s look at some of the foods that are loaded with antioxidants, that should appeal to just about anyone and that you can put on your daily meal planner (several times, if you want).
Of the “normal” everyday foods that we use a lot in the gool ol’ USA, blueberries are the common most potent high antioxidant foods. You can either put them out whole, include them in some type of dessert or even put them in nutritious drinks like smoothies. It’s also not uncommon for people to juice blueberries and keep the juice in the fridge for a quick pick-up and energy booster throughout the day.
Other very antioxidant rich foods include red beans (yep, surprise!), artichokes and potatoes (especially Russet potatoes). All you have to do to figure out how to use these in a meal plan is simply perform a web search for each type of food, followed by the word “recipe,” kind of like this, “red beans recipe.” By doing this you’ll find all kinds of excellent ways to cook and serve your high antioxidant foods.
Don’t forget to include such things as nuts, spices (oregano, cinnamon and cloves are high in antioxidants).A few more specific antioxidant foods would include blackberries, hazelnuts, pecans and walnuts.
The following is a list of the top 10 food sources of high antioxidant foods. The list was developed based on the total antioxidant capacity of each food per serving size. They are listed in order of rank. The serving size is listed right after the name of the food and the antioxidant capacity per serving is listed last.
- Small red beans, 1/2 cup, 13,727
- Wild blueberry, 1 cup, 13, 427
- Red kidney bean, 1/2 cup, 13,259
- Pinto bean, 1/2 cup, 11,864
- Blueberry, 1 cup, 9019
- Cranberry, 1 cup, 8983
- Artichoke: 1 cup, 7904
- Blackberry, 1 cup, 7701
- Dried Prune, 1/2 cup, 7291
- Raspberry, 1 cup, 6058
These are just the top ten. There are many more to choose from. Include one or more of the top ten and/or the following for every meal and you will be receiving maximum efficiency in your antioxidant food group. You don’t need to consume any more if you put a couple of these in each meal.
Strawberries, apples (red or Granny Smith), Pecans, Sweet cherries, Black plums, Russet potatoes, Black beans, plums or Gala apples (WebMd). Any fruits or vegetables that are bright colors are usually high antioxidant foods too.Examples would be tomatoes, broccoli, corn or watermelon.
New Study Reveals Eggs To Be High In Antioxidant Properties
A recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal “Food Chemistry” has concluded that, of all things, “eggs” actually contain two specific amino acids, tryptophan and tyrosine, that have quite high antioxidant properties.
It has been known and well recognized for many years that eggs are rich in proteins, vitamins, lipids and minerals but this new discovery is somewhat of a surprise. The nice thing about this discovery is the knowledge that these antioxidants actually help prevent cardiovascular disease and cancer. This is a complete turnaround from previous thought.
Here’s what the two scientists, Jianping Wu and Andreas Schieber and the two graduate assistants, Chamila Nimalaratne and Daise Lopes-Lutz further determined: to raw egg yolks contain nearlly twice as many antioxidants as does an apple and very nearly the same as about a half serving (or about 25g) of raw cranberries.
If the eggs were heated, as in frying or boiling, those same antioxidant properties were cut in about half. If the eggs happened to be microwaved, the loss was slightly more than half. Though by cooking the eggs, the antioxidant values are significantly reduced, the fact remains that eggs hold an equal amount of antioxidant power as an apple. While this significant discovery is good news, it also, most likely, means that there are probably even more antioxidant properties to be found in the yolks themselves.
So, do yourself a favor and remove eggs from your list of things “not to eat” because they definitely are in line with some Super Foods now. The more they look, the more likely they are to find even more antioxidant properties in eggs.
If you just use your imagination, you can put together some scrumptious antioxidant meals that will not only be highly nutritious and protective but will taste great too!
