Benefits of Antioxidants
Fruits are known to bear a large number of and to have many benefits of antioxidants. In fact, the berry that packs the most antioxidant punch is the Brazilian Acai Berry. To learn more about this berry, please click here: Benefits of Antioxidants and the Acai Fruit.
Scientists believe that Antioxidants help repair the stress that is caused by oxidation, the natural process that happens during normal cell function. During the oxidation process, a small number of cells become damaged and turn into free radicals. This starts a chain reaction that harms more cells and possibly results in disease. Unaddressed free radical activity has been linked to:
- Cancer
- Heart Disease
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Parkinson’s Disease
Some of the most readily available fruits that are richest in Antioxidants and that give the Benefits of Antioxidants are cranberries, blueberries and blackberries. Apples, dried fruits, peaches, mangos and melons all score high on the antioxidant chart. Antioxidant-fruits.com looks at fruits that aren’t as readily available as these.
However, while all these foods are high in Antioxidants, they aren’t always helpful, since a big portion of their aid is dependent on our bodies and how we absorb these antioxidants. The concept is called “bioavailability”, explains researcher Ronald Prior, PhD, a chemist and nutritionist with the USDA’s Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center in Little Rock, Ark. He authored a landmark antioxidant study.
“Bioavailability has to do with absorption or metabolism in the gut,” Prior explains. “What’s absorbed will be impacted by the mechaantioxidant-fruits.comcal structure of different antioxidants in food — if they’re tied up with fiber or if they have sugar molecules attached.”
