4 Super High Antioxidant Foods That Should Be a Part of Your Anti-Aging Diet

Antioxidant has become one of the most important buzz words of the decade. It seems that every time you peak up a health related magazine there’s more news about the health benefits of an antioxidant diet. These free radical scavengers which mop up the damage caused by the effects of toxins and the natural aging process on the body play a key role in preventing chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer as well as slowing down the effects of aging on the body and the brain. Unfortunately, most people don’t get enough high antioxidant foods in their diet, particularly if they eat a typical American diet consisting mostly of processed foods.

One way to increase your blood level of antioxidants is to choose those foods which are the highest in antioxidant levels. Most of these foods consist of fruits and vegetables with four foods being particularly high in antioxidant levels. In fact, these foods are considered to be some of the highest antioxidant foods known. Antioxidant levels are measured by using a scale called the ORAC or oxygen radical absorbance capacity which gives a value that allows you to compare the antioxidant potential of one food with another. Here are four foods that measure the highest on the ORAC scale:

High antioxidant food: Cranberries

These brilliantly red berries that grace the table at Thanksgiving celebrations do more than just dress up the turkey. They’re a rich source of proanthocyanidins, a class of antioxidants which appear to have an anti-aging effect on brain cells, most likely related to its ability to protect brain cells from oxidative damage. It appears to help offset the loss of memory and coordination that occurs with advancing age and may play a role in protecting against certain neurological diseases associated with aging. If you can’t appreciate the tart taste of these berries, there are cranberry supplements available at most health food stores.

High antioxidant food: Blueberries

Blueberries are another high antioxidant food that are though to help preserve brain function due to their high anthocyanidin content. A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience showed that blueberries appears to offset age related short term memory loss and loss of coordination associated with aging in rats. With a measured ORAC value of 8,963, it’s not surprising that blueberries pack a potent antioxidant punch. Blueberries also have powerful antioxidant properties which helps to reduce the effects of photoaging and preserve the collagen support structure of skin.

High antioxidant food: Beans

It may surprise you to learn that beans measure high on the antioxidant scale. Three types of beans with a particularly high antioxidant potential are the small red bean (ORAC = 13,272), the red kidney bean (ORAC = 13,259), and the pinto bean (ORAC = 11,864). In general, darker colored beans are associated with higher levels of flavonoids and thus have a higher antioxidant potential. Beans are a simple, inexpensive way to add extra antioxidant power to your diet.

High antioxidant food: Aronia black chokeberry

This small, dark berry with its rich, purple coloration has an ORAC value of 16,062, one of the highest known for any fruit or vegetable. This puts it in a class by itself in terms of antioxidant potential. Studies are currently ongoing to determine the potential of the chokeberry to prevent a host of age-related disease such as cancer and heart disease. Like the blueberry, they’re a rich source of anthocyanidins and have anti-inflammatory activity which plays such a critical role in aging. Expect to hear more about this amazing berry in the future. In the meantime, you may want to add more of these small berries to your diet.

Antioxidants appear to play a key role in slowing down the aging process and adding these four foods to your diet can be a simple and inexpensive way to protect yourself against age related diseases.

Have a Little Health With Your Meal

Not all anti-aging processes have to do with creams and facewashes. An anti-aging treatment can be anything from a special spa treatment to buying different products at the grocery store, and now, even ordering speciall-themed foods at restaurants.

The association recently asked more than 1,200 professional chefs in the United States to list the trendiest items on their menus. Out of almost 200 items, pomegranate was 16th, fresh fruits were 61st and scallops were 100th - these are all foods rich in antioxidants.And these preferences aren’t confined to your favorite dining destination. More and more restaurants are springing up with the purpose of being a healthy body-mind haven. The chef at a spa cafe called Sprouts in Arizona believes diners are drawn to the pomegranate salad for its sweet taste and the health benefits.

Even if you’re not indulging in a spa-themed meal, you can still integrate anti-oxidants into your daily diet.

Read more at my Anti-Aging Blog.

Chime in for Chives!

Here’s a possible “super food” you don’t hear a lot about – Chives. They may have health benefits similar to garlic and onions, as they contain mild versions of sulfur compounds that can reduct your risk of cancer.

And they’re tasty, too – and sometimes easier to eat than their garlicy and oniony relatives! Chives go well with cream cheese, cottage cheese, cream sauces, butter sauces, fish, chicken, broths and cream soups such as potato or asparagus soup.

If you’re growing them yourself, you can cut and freeze chives. Before the plant blooms, cut the plant down to about three inches. Chop up and freeze the greens for later use. The plant will soon grow back.

The power of foods to prevent and cure disease is truly amazing, and often something taken for granted. Those anti-cancer compounds found in foods in the garlic and onions family have the unique power to protect against cancer. Chives can enhance almost any savory dish with their delicate flavor, while potentially making your healthier at the same time.

I’m a huge advocate for the idea of anti-aging from the inside out. Foods and vitamins are a great way to do this, and I talk about many other ways in my anti-aging Report.

Blueberries: The Anti-Alzheimer’s Berry

Blueberries are the ultra-trendy super food of the moment. The media loves a good blueberries-will-cure-all-your-ills story, so by now most of us know that eating blueberries is a smart thing to do. Researchers seem to announce new health benefits on a daily basis. But did you know that eating blueberries regularly can protect you from brain aging and Alzheimer´s disease?

Blueberries, particularly wild blueberries, are extremely rich in anti-oxidants.

Anti-oxidants fight damage to the immune system caused by elements called free radicals. Free radicals are rogue oxygen molecules that run amok on a cellular level, aging us and causing disease. Anti-oxidants rid the body of these unwanted free radicals, and stop the immune system from “rusting”.

Anthocyanin is the main anti-oxidant found in blueberries. Anthocyanin makes blueberries blue and it gets most of the credit for protecting the brain from oxidative stress.

A stressed brain ages faster and is more susceptible to diseases like Alzheimer´s and cancer. Anti-oxidants, in removing the source of oxidative stress (the free radicals), allow brain cells to function optimally and maintain good health. Alzheimer’s disease is associated with a build-up of protein plaque cells in the brain. Scientists believe that these plaque cells result from oxidative stress. No oxidative stress, no plaque, no Alzheimer’s disease. That’s an over-simplification, but you get the picture. Eat your blueberries!

While regular consumption of blueberries can prevent you from getting Alzheimer´s in the first place, what benefit do they provide if you´ve got the disease already? Well, it turns out that blueberries can help in that instance as well. Studies have shown that eating blueberries regularly slows down the progress of Alzheimer´s disease and senile dementia. No wonder they´ve been called the “brain berry”.

Eating blueberries as part of a balanced diet can also reverse brain aging and improve short-term memory. Elderly lab rats fed a blueberry-rich diet showed improvements in memory, co-ordination and balance. They out-performed their blueberry-deprived counterparts and became, biologically speaking, much younger rats. Like the rejuvenated lab animals, humans need not lose their mental and physical faculties just because they’re older.

Unfortunately, blueberries alone are not a cure-all. It’s tempting to view the handful of berries you sprinkle on your cereal in the morning as a sure-fire inoculation against disease. Perhaps your cunning plan is to have some blueberries at breakfast and then continue to eat junk food throughout the rest of the day. Nice try! Mother Nature tends to frown on those who cheat. She may not punish you, exactly, but you won’t achieve optimum health on a diet of burgers and blueberries.

Eat a nutritious, balanced diet. Fuel yourself with fruits, vegetables, healthy grains, lean meats, and plenty of blueberries. Then you’ll reap the anti-oxidant brain benefits of blueberries for many years to come.

Believe the Hype: Antioxidants Do Delay Aging

While the prospect of eternal life seems a rather morbid prospect for most people, a much-extended longevity is all the more appealing. Everyone essentially wants to grow younger instead of older, but the human body unfortunately isn’t built that way. One of the quirks of nature is that it wants you enjoy life for what it is, because you have a relatively brief time with it. Well, you won’t go down without a fight, you might say; and modern discoveries give you just that – a fighting chance.

You may be fed up with all the rant which antioxidants receive nowadays, but at least the phenomenon is no mere hype. If you haven’t already known, it turns out that there are elements within the human body which want it to break down – decay, if you can pardon the term. These so-called free radicals propagate within the body inevitably, and since Murphy’s Law is applicable to every cell within your body, an unhealthy lifestyle surely won’t help. Here’s where antioxidants help – sure, the body can regenerate its cells even without proper nutrition, but that’s just one of the wonders of nature which you don’t want to gamble with; you have to aid in the effort by taking in foods rich in antioxidant agents.

Free radicals are foreign substances which can be obtained from exhaust and fumes, food preservatives, and carcinogenic substances such as burnt food. Although it is improbable in today’s complex life not to be exposed to these, you can otherwise counter its effects by eating fresh foods for a change. Anything green and leafy (and edible) is a source of antioxidants, as well as a wide variety of fruits – any fruit or berry will do as long as it is fresh; you might also want to put away the paring knife, as fruit skins are thick with antioxidants. This is the reason why fruit stays for so long in your kitchen table unpeeled, and practically rots within the day when skinned.

Skeptics may scoff, but the tech is true. Studies have shown that foods which rank high in the antioxidant assay test effectively slow down the aging process, both in the body and the brain. Spinach does boost your mental and physical capacities after all. Of course, the obvious extreme of an infestation of free radicals within the system is cancer, and you wouldn’t want to venture into that tough arena. Basically, it all comes down to one tip – have a healthy lifestyle, and eat a balanced diet. That’s it. If your meals are healthy in the first place, you wouldn’t even have to count your antioxidant intake, and you won’t have to worry about laugh lines, because they wouldn’t show – well, not yet anyway. You can only hope for as much.