My Healthy Habits

One of the most talked about health and fitness supplements right now is antioxidant dietary supplements. While we have always known that fruits, vegetables, and vitamins were good for us, we are just starting to realize how helpful antioxidants are to our bodies. Let’s discuss what an antioxidant is and then how you can best supplement your diet.

Free radicals float around your body and cause damage to your cells. There isn’t any reason to go into details here, but if you need to know more, head over to Wikipedia and you can get more information. Ok, so we have established that there are things called free radicals in your body and they are bad news. Now, let’s look at how we can fix that.

The key to neutralizing these free radicals is antioxidants. To over-simplify how it works, let’s say that one antioxidant kills one free radical. Free radicals are pretty much a given so we have to keep putting more antioxidants into our body so we can keep neutralizing the free radicals and stop the damage they cause.

The important thing to discuss is what you can expect as far as results if you start taking antioxidant supplements. Well, it is different for each person, but many people feel more energy and even lose weight. In theory, as the free radicals stop destroying cells, your body stays healthier and doesn’t age as fast. Yep, many people say that antioxidants can actually slow the aging process. I think this sounds like a really good thing.

Now I suppose you want to know where you can get more of these antioxidant things. You get antioxidants when you eat certain fruits like blueberries, pomegranates, and the ever popular acia berry. If you are into green vegetables, you can also get antioxidants from broccoli. The thing you need to be concerned with is how many antioxidants are in the different fruits and vegetables and how you can add them to your diet. You have 2 options here, you can either eat the fruits and vegetables or you can buy a dietary supplement to get them. Many people opt for the supplement because it is easier and usually cheaper than buying a bunch of extra fresh fruits which can spoil in a matter of days.

I don’t have a complete listing of antioxidant values for you, but I do have some of the best and most popular. I’m not even going to try to explain what the number mean (mainly because I don’t know myself), but it is pretty easy to see that 200 antioxidants is more than 100 and with antioxidants. More is better so I would say that the acai berry is the best antioxidant supplement.

While I have not seen the actual scientific studies that produced these results, I have seen them in many different places so I think it is highly likely they are accurate.

* Broccoli – 900 ORAC
* Peach – 1,300 ORAC
* Strawberry – 2,600 ORAC
* Blueberry – 3,200 ORAC
* Pomegranate – 10,500 ORAC
* Acai Berry – 18,400 ORAC

There really isn’t much more to talk about. The choice is up to you, but if I was making the decision, I would pick the food with the highest value. Supplements appeal to me more than eating whole foods because it is easier and usually cheaper. On top of that, I don’t really like fruits and vegetables very much and swallowing a supplement is easier than eating a bunch of fruits and vegetables. To me, it seems obvious which is the best, but it is up to you if you are going to try acai berries.

Thanks for visiting and keep an eye out for more articles on acai berries as well as the newly popularized resveratrol which was recently featured on 60 minutes. As with any new supplement or health change, you should consult with your doctor before you start taking it.