Antioxidants

Top 20 Antioxidants

The battle of fruit and veggies took place recently. The prize? Top spot in the antioxidant-rich foods top twenty compiled by nutrition scientists at the USDA(U.S.Department of Agriculture).

They used the most advanced technologies available to determine top antioxidants levels in more than 100 different types of fruit, veggies, berries, nuts and spices too.

Who won?

Small red beans! Yes they literally 'pipped' wild blueberries to the post!

To use the actual words of the list co-creator Ronald L Prior (a USDA nutritionist and research chemist based in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA) this list is a "relative ranking of the capacity of foods to interfere with or prevent oxidative processes processes and to scavenge

free radicals." It's worth noting that these results are based on foods with the highest concentration of disease-fighting compounds per serving.

1. Small red beans (dried)
2. Wild blueberries
3. Red Kidney beans
4. Pinto beans
5. Blueberries (cultivated)
6. Cranberries
7. Artichokes (cooked)
8. Blackberries
9. Prunes
10. Raspberries
11. Strawberries
12. Red Delicious apples
13. Granny Smith apples
14. Pecans
15. Sweet cherries
16. Black plums
17. Russet potatoes (cooked)
18. Black beans (dried)
19. Plums
20. Gala apples

It is interesting to note that although beans came out 'on top', Prior explained that "we don't have a lot of information on beans," and added that there is "still a lot we haven't learned about why some foods are richer in antioxidants than others".