Tag: Antioxidants

Categories
Food & Body

List of Some High-Antioxidant Healthy Foods

Free radical and antioxidants
Photo: wellandcompany.com

If you care about your health and watch what you eat, you definitely must have heard about Antioxidant-rich foods before. If you have never hear about this, you will know what Antioxidant foods are by the time you are done reading this article.

What Is Antioxidant?

Antioxidants help our body by protecting against the damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals. Free radicals enter our body every day as by-products of normal metabolic processes in our body, through pollutants from the environment and when the body breaks down some drugs in our body.

Free radical and antioxidants
Photo: wellandcompany.com

The damages cause by these free radicals are believed to lead to the development of such conditions as blood vessel disease (atherosclerosis), cancer, and some other conditions.

Now that you know what antioxidant is, how our body gets free radicals every day and the dangers of free radicals, doesn’t it make sense for you to want to know about “antioxidant foods” and add them to your diet?

List of Foods High In Antioxidant

A research carried out by USDA scientists analyzed the antioxidant levels in more than 100 different foods. The foods under consideration were tested for antioxidant concentration and their antioxidant capacity per serving size. They foods were then ranked in the order of antioxidant capacity per serving size as follows.

Rank Food item Serving size Total antioxidant capacity
per serving size
1 Small Red Bean (dried) Half cup 13,727
2 Wild blueberry 1 cup 13,427
3 Red kidney bean (dried) Half cup 13,259
4 Pinto bean Half cup 11,864
5 Blueberry (cultivated) 1 cup 9,019
6 Cranberry 1 cup (whole) 8,983
7 Artichoke (cooked) 1 cup (hearts) 7,904
8 Blackberry 1 cup 7,701
9 Prune Half cup 7,291
10 Raspberry 1 cup 6,058
11 Strawberry 1 cup 5,938
12 Red Delicious apple 1 whole 5,900
13 Granny Smith apple 1 whole 5,381
14 Pecan 1 ounce 5,095
15 Sweet cherry 1 cup 4,873
16 Black plum 1 whole 4,844
17 Russet potato (cooked) 1 whole 4,649
18 Black bean (dried) Half cup 4,181
19 Plum 1 whole 4,118
20 Gala apple 1 whole 3,903 
Table Source: WebMD

The result of the research also correlates with the work of Researchers at the University of Oslo, which tested 1,113 common foods for their antioxidant concentrations. They basically have about the same foods in their top 20.  In their own result, One cup of blackberries contained the most antioxidants of all the berries tested.

This table does not necessarily mean that you will get the most antioxidants from dried Small Red Bean and the least from Gala Apple. No. This is because, the amount of the antioxidants useful to your body depends on how the food’s antioxidants are absorbed by the body.

Conclusively, this table will be very useful for anyone who wants to increase their antioxidant intake. Adding any or some of these high-antioxidant foods on the list to your diet will help you achieve that.

Categories
Food & Nutrition

Red, White, Yellow Onion: Which Has Most Health Benefits?

onion with different colours and health benefits

Many people like to just eat onions and blend onion with various foods without knowing their attributes, nutritional composition and which one gives the most health benefits. Many think these onions only differ in colour and taste – but no, they are different in terms of the health benefits and other beneficial compounds they provide.

onion with different colours and health benefits

These onion types are all powerful superfoods that come with anti-carcinogenic, antiviral, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties. All these are beneficial to our body but which one has the most in terms of these benefits.

All these types of onion have been found to be low on the glycemic index (how much sugar they add to our blood), with a rating of 10. They provide about 10 percent of the daily value for vitamin C and the same amount of calcium per serving.

Differences in Health & Nutritional Benefits of Red, White & Yellow Onions

The red onion has about 2 grams of fiber per 100-gram serving. This is slightly a better source of fiber when compared to the white onion which contains about 1.2 grams of fiber in the same serving. Both are not particularly high sources of fiber.

Difference In Antioxidant Properties

From the colour of the red onion, it is easier to predict that they contain higher amount of flavonols. These compounds called flavonols have antioxidant properties. Red onions contain 415 to 1917 mg of flavonols compared to yellow ones, which only contain 270 to 1187 mg.

Red onions have higher flavonols, than yellow onions, which in turn have higher flavonols that white onions. The flavonols are more concentrated in the outer and redder layer of the onion. Therefore, when you peel your onion, don’t do so deep into the outer red layer of the onion.

Another important compound present in red onions is quercetin – a polyphenol compound. It helps in getting rid of free radicals. This compound is present in white onions too, but a lot more in the red type.

Difference In How They Help Fight Cancer

Since the red onions have higher level of antioxidants in them than the white and yellow types, they (the red onions) provide higher protection against cancer.

As mentioned earlier in this article, red onions contain higher level of quercetin. This quercetin, with allicin in red onions has been shown to reduce inflammation and be beneficial for both the prevention and treatment of cancer.

A particular study has shown that the risk of stomach cancer was reduced by 50% when half an onion was eaten daily. Other studies have also shown that eating onions reduces the risk of stomach, colorectal, oral, laryngeal, esophageal and ovarian cancer.

Final verdict on choosing onions…

As has been said earlier, don’t over-peel onions. This way, you get the best nutritional and health benefits from them. Most of these compounds that give these health benefits are more concentrated in the outer layers of onion.

According to a particular study, peeling the first two layers of the onion removes 75% of the antioxidant anthocyanins. So, you might want to simmer down on cutting those outer layers of your onions.

ALSO SEE: Working Tips For Cutting Onions Without Crying!