ORAC By Jodi M

Q: What is an antioxidant?

A:An antioxidant is a substance, such as vitamin E, vitamin C, or beta carotene, that is thought to protect body cells from the damaging effects of oxidation. Several foods are very high in antioxidants such as green tea, goji berries, and acai berries. However, most fruits and vegetables contain some amount of antioxidants.

Q: Why are antioxidants beneficial?

A: Free radicals can cause cell damage that plays a part in a number of chronic diseases, including hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), cancer, and arthritis. It can also interfere with your immune system health making you more likely to catch a cold or flu. Antioxidants protect and repair cells from damage caused by free radicals. Because of this, ingesting plenty of antioxidants helps keep your immune system strong, making you better able to ward off colds, flu, and other infections.

Q: What is a good ORAC score?

A: The USDA recommends an intake of about 5,000 ORAC units per day to receive the optimum health benefits associated with antioxidants. The average person is only ingesting about 20%-25% of this recommended amount in his or her daily diet.

Q: How can I get more antioxidants in my diet?

A: Eating 8-10 servings per day of brightly colored fruits or dark green vegetables will help you achieve the recommended ORAC level in your daily diet. Now be careful, this doesn't mean drink a lot of cherry flavored kool-aid or eat grape popsicles. It has to be the actual fruit or vegetable. If this seems unattainable, you can always supplement with some sort of vitamin or immune boosters. There are many great products on the market that have been tested and have quite high ORAC scores.

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health developed the orac score as a method of measuring antioxidant levels in foods and other chemical substances. Foods with higher ORAC scores are believed to more effectively neutralize free radicals, which will slow the oxidative processes and free radical damage. This can reduce age-related degeneration and disease. So what is this oxidative process and what is a free radical? A free radical is an unstable atom or molecule that is highly reactive and can damage other molecules. It is sort of like rust attacking metal. When the rust starts to eat away at the metal, the metal begins to weaken and decay until it can no longer work. This is what happens in our body when free radicals attack it. Organs, cells and other parts of the body are weakened by oxidation, which ultimately leads to diseases such as cancer, and skin and heart diseases.
More and more foods and supplements are beginning to state the ORAC score on their labels, so this should make it easier to find foods that are good for you. Another great way to get the ORAC units that you need is to drink a daily fruit immune boosting drink. Many immune boosters contain berries with extremely high ORAC scores, such as the goji and acai berries.