Healthy Food and Living » USDA http://healthyfoodandliving.com Good Advice to Eating Right and Living Right Mon, 24 Oct 2011 04:06:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Powerful free radical protection http://healthyfoodandliving.com/powerful-free-radical-protection/ http://healthyfoodandliving.com/powerful-free-radical-protection/#comments Tue, 06 May 2008 08:37:13 +0000 lightfl http://healthyfoodandliving.com/2008/05/06/powerful-free-radical-protection/ We know that we are exposed to free radicals and we cant actually avoid it. Free radicals are everywhere, generated by air pollution, sunshine, X rays, pesticides, car exhaust and even breathing and exercise. However by increasing our intake of free radical fighters – antioxidants, we are able to defend our cells from free radicals.

USDA measures the raw power of antioxidants by measuring the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC). It measures how well the antioxidants mop up the free radicals. The USDA recommends that we need to get about 3,000 to 5,000 ORAC units daily, preferably from fresh vegetables and fresh fruits.

Chart entitled Top Antioxidant Foods, on page 48 of Discovery of the Ultimate Superfood by Gary Young ND, Ronald Lawrence MD, PhD, Marc Schreuder; Essential Science Publishing; © July 2005 listed dried wolfberries as one of the natural fruits with high ORAC unit ( about 20200 units). All antixoidant capacity measures are estimated by Ferric Reducing Power and are expressed as micromole Trolox equivalent (TE) per 100 grams or 3.53 ounces, accurate to ±5%.

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