An Antioxidant a Day

If you were living in a primitive environment, you wouldn’t have to worry too much about free radical damage. You would already have a natural immune defense system in place.

In primitive cultures like the ones I’ve seen in Peru, Brazil, and Africa, the native diet contains thousands of antioxidants to fight free radicals. In our westernized world, antioxidants are still the best way to prevent disease.

What are Free Radicals?

If you remember back to science classes when you were younger, you will recall that a free radical is a molecule which has lost one of its electrons. The insufficient molecule will then go about the body searching for other healthy molecules to “steal” an electron from. When the healthy cell is robbed of its electron, it will become injured. As a consequence, that particular cell may malfunction and cause a disease. Even worse, it may become a malignant cell and evolve into cancer.

Free radicals come from normal metabolic function, but also from toxins, processed food or polluted air. You are exposed to potential sources of free radical production every day of your life. So any time you increase your intake of antioxidants, you’re saving your healthy cells from damage.

To get you started, here is a list of the some of the best antioxidants for the body:

It may surprise you that beans top this list for natural antioxidants. Beans have long been credited as a great natural source for protein. As it turns out, they also contain high amounts of proanthocyanidins. Proanthocyanidins are plant nutrients that have a lot of antioxidant power.

Studies show that the antioxidant capabilities of proanthocyanidins are 20 times more powerful than vitamin C and 50 times more potent than vitamin E. The antioxidant and other actions of proanthocyanidins may help strengthen blood vessels, suppress blood clotting in arteries, reduce the risk of heart disease, lower blood pressure, prevent Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

If you add a bowl of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries to your breakfast, you will take in thousands of antioxidants. If you eat just a half cup of red beans for lunch, you’ll get almost 14,000 antioxidants. Of course, that’s only a partial antioxidant list. Spices, herbs, and teas are also surprisingly powerful antioxidants. You will find the highest amounts in cinnamon, cloves, allspice and peppermint. Oregano, sage, rosemary and Indian spices (i.e. turmeric) also contain high levels of antioxidants.1

Also, remember that pink colored foods have a huge antioxidant benefit. It’s a secret nutrient that might be the strongest antioxidant in the world and it’s called “astaxanthin”. Astaxanthin is part of the carotenoid family of nutrients, like beta-carotene; except astaxanthin is 54 times stronger as an antioxidant than beta-carotene and 65 times stronger than vitamin C.

Astaxanthin may just be the best antioxidant for DNA protection. It’s 6,000 times more effective for that than vitamin C, 800 times more than CoQ10, and 550 times more than vitamin E or green tea.2

Salmon is the best food source of astaxanthin. However, wild salmon contains over 450% more astaxanthin than farmed salmon. Four ounces of farm-raised salmon contains less than 1 mg of astaxanthin. But wild-caught sockeye salmon contains a healthy 4.5 mg.3 You can also find astaxanthin in pink-colored seafood like lobster, crab, red seabream and shrimp.

Learn more about other ways to get a balanced source of natural antioxidants into your body regularly, as well as other helpful natural health tips by subscribing to my free newsletter Doctor’s House Call.

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1. Wu X, Beecher GR., et al. “Lipophilic and hydrophilic antioxidant capacities of common foods in the United States.” J Agric Food Chem. 2004 Jun; 16;52(12):4026-37. 2. Bagchi , D. “Oxygen free radical scavenging abilities of vitamin C, E, β-carotene, pycnogenol, grape seed extract and astaxanthin in vitro” Pharmacy Sciences Creighton University School of Health Sciences. 2001, June. 3. Turujman, S. A., Wamer, W. G., Wei, R. R., and Albert, R. H. “Rapid liquid chromatographic method to distinguish wild salmon from aquacultured salmon fed synthetic astaxanthin.” J. AOAC Int., 1997;80(3):622-632.