Top Antioxidant Rich Foods

Here are 10 of the best antioxidant rich foods - start incorporating them into your diet.

1. Blackberries
2. Blueberries
3. Strawberries
4. Walnuts
5. Artichokes
6. Cranberries
7. Raspberries
8. Pecans
9. Cloves
10 Coffee - yes but see my other posts about coffee!

Carrots - What Do You Know

Over the next 6 days I'm going to be asking you some questions about carrots.

Carotenoids, a phytochemical, give carrots their yellow, red and orange hues. But do you know what gives purple carrots their purple color?

hint - it's not the carotenoids.

What gives purple carrots their purple hue is anthocyanims. These are very potent antioxidants which have anti-inflammatory effects as well. Look at the other post in the list to learn more about anthocyanims.

10 Healthy Foods for Less #4

Berries of any type are good healthy foods. Look for those in season and locally grown. If they are in season, often time stores will have a big sale on them and you can buy extras and freeze them for later use.

Berries are rich in antioxidants and can be added to things like salads or be made a dessert in and of themselves. You can use them in smoothies which just adds to the nutrient value of the smoothie.

Berries contain lutein, and a substance which can help decrease the risk of bladder infections. They make a great dessert and are very healthy for you.Heal

10 Healthy Foods for Less #3

One of my favorite healthy foods is spinach because of the variety of ways in which it can be used. Again, locally grown in season is best and usually the least expensive. This food is really a nutritional powerhouse.

Spinach is rich in antioxidants and is a real boost to your immune system. One cup of it raw is one serving. You can use it in salads, sandwiches, eggs, soups, or other side dishes.

Spinach is rich in iron, carotenoids, lutein, bioflavanoids, calcium, folic acid, Vitamin K, fiber and Vitamin C. The lutein specifically targets eye health. You can read more about lutein by going to the other posts about lutein in this blog.

Lung Cancer and Greens

I just read a study about lung cancer and eating leafy green vegetables. Before I read the study, I was fairly certain what it would show, since leafy greens are rich in antioxidants which can help prevent cancer.

Indeed, the findings were that eating leafy greens and taking multivitamin supplements demonstrated fewer changes in the cells of lungs from smokers and ex-smokers. While we know that it takes at least seven years of not smoking for lungs to at least recover somewhat from smoking, this seems to indicate that lots of antioxidants could help, certainly during the recovery phase once smoking has ceased.

Best leafy greens to eat are spinach, bok choy and kale.

Chocolate Good or Bad

There's been controversy around chocolate for a long time. The problem is with processed chocolate which contains a large amount of sugar and fat. If you look at raw chocolate or cacao, this is where the great benefits are founds.

Raw cacao contains high levels of antioxidants and chemicals that improve your mood. The bad news is that it takes something like dirt! So eat dark chocolate, it has more of the nutrients in it and if it's slightly bitter, that is OK. Look at the content of what you are eating. Eat chocolate in moderation!!

Good Foods to Eat

My great food for today is beets. Beets are excellent at purifying the blood and helping the liver. One of the best things about beets is that they reduce homocystein, which is an amino acid that is harmful to blood vessels. Beets also contain lots of potassium and antioxidants. The potassium is helpful in heart health and of course the antioxidants help our immune systems

One other thing about beets, they are a great source of fiber and while they contain the most sugar of any vegetable, they are considered low in calories.

The leaves of the beet plant have even more nutrients than the beets themselves, but aren't the tastiest. You can steam them or just put a few in a green salad with other field greens.

Two More Foods To Help With Flu

The other two foods that help with flu are Lemons and Garlic.

Garlic stimulates the production of infection fighting white blood cells and sharpens their viral killing instincts. All you need is 2 cloves a day.

Lemons help to maintain and restore the proper pH balance in your system. Four Tablespoons of lemon juice can help maintain and internal climate where healthy bacteria thrive and the harmful bacteria and viruses do not. Also, fresh lemons are a bright fruit which is loaded with antioxidants.

Foods That Help Fight The Flu

If you're looking for ways to combat the flu, today and tomorrow I will share with you four foods that can help. Of course eating healthy is what it is all about.

First of all, increase your antioxidants by eating lots of colorful fruits and vegetables. The brighter and more vibrant the color, the better. Antioxidants are key to immune system health and its ability to ward off disease. Get at least 5-6 servings a day.

Second in the line up of things to eat is yogurt. Be sure to get the kind that is live culture and has the good bacteria in it. These good bacteria actually strengthen the immune system. The other thing about yogurt is that it can help alleviate diarrhea, prevent yeast infections and improve overall health.

I'll cover the other 2 foods tomorrow.

What Causes Diseases? #1

You can probably starting naming things that you believe cause diseases, but what you may not know is that there are really only four processes involved in the development of a disease in your body.

By understanding these 3 processes, you can begin to work on those that you really need to work on to help prevent disease.

The first one that I'm going to talk about is free radical damage. Free radicals basically cause damage to the DNA in cells. Your immune system neutralizes free radicals every second of the day, but if your immune system is compromised, it may not be able to neutralize the free radicals or fix the damage done to the DNA. Your role in this battle is to make your immune system as strong as you possibly can. How? Eat 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Organic is better than just whatever is at the grocery store. Bright colors - reds, oranges, dark greens are best. For more information see my posts on antioxidants.

Joint Pain - Osteoarthritis

As we begin to age, many of us begin to experience joint pain. This is usually a result of osteoarthritis, often referred to as degenerative joint disease. The wear and tear on our joints does take a toll as we age. The joints most likely to be affected are the weight bearing joints like the hips and the knees.

The very best thing you can do for your joints is to lose weight. Because the joints most affected are those weight bearing joints, if you are carrying around an extra 10, 20 or 50 pounds, the effect on the joints is going to be dramatic. So as you begin to lose weight, the other thing that will help the joints is the healthy diet, high in antioxidants. The other part of that equation is exercise. Begin slow and easy and build it up. The more you can strengthen the muscles that support those joints, the better the joint will function. If you want to know how to get started with your exercise, go get my free eBook on making exercise simple.

Another Good Nut

Another good nut to use as a snack. Pistachios are a great snack. Research has shown that they actually reduced the bad cholesterol (LDL) so there may be some beneficial cardiovascular effect. There are also studies that show that Pistachios raise the good cholesterol (HDL).

They also raise antioxidant levels, so they help the immune system fight off disease. They are also a good source of protein and fiber. The great thing about pistachios is that a serving size rather than 6-8 is a small handful of about 30. These are a great snack for kids as well.

Alcohol

As I have mentioned before alcohol does have some beneficial effects. One of the things that alcohol does is relax blood vessels, while it boosts levels of HDL (good) cholesterol, thereby decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke.

The trick here is to keep the consumption of alcohol down. The max for women should be one glass per day and for men 2 glasses per day.

Red wine contains resveratrol which provides most of the beneficial effects mentioned above. The other thing about red wine is that it is provides antioxidants as well, which we know the body needs to protect itself from disease.

More Brain Health Foods

To fight inflammation which is a key problem in the brain, a good source of omega 3 is essential. Nuts are one of the best sources. Specifically almonds, pecans, and walnuts. I have written about almonds and walnuts before, but nothing about pecans.

Pecans are high in antioxidants as well as containing omega 3 fatty acids. This makes them very beneficial in terms of decreasing free radical damage, but also to decrease inflammation in the brain and decrease plaque in the blood vessels in the brain, putting you at less risk for a stroke. Stroke like a heart attack is not from the high cholesterol, but rather from the high degree of inflammation in the brain which causes a chunk of plaque to break loose and become lodged in a blood vessel.

Brain Health Food

You'll love these next foods for brain health. I've spoken about most of them before, but this is in relation to brain health and keeping your brain functioning at a high level.

These three things should be taken in moderation, so a little is good, but a lot is not. The reason they are good is because of the antioxidants that they contain. The first of these is coffee. You can see back in August on the 21st, I talked about the effects of coffee. This was mostly focused on the caffeine effects of coffee. So this is the important thing to know. Again, there is some good in a little coffee. A lot of coffee is not so good. For brain health 1-2 cups a day maximum. This does not mean 1-2 of the extra large grande sizes. This means 1-2 of the 6-8 ounce size cups.

The second food here is red wine. Red wine is loaded with antioxidants. Again, this does not mean you drink a bottle of red wine every day. If you are aware of the Mediterranean diet, this diet is to eat lots of fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry, beans, and nuts and then wash it all down with a glass of red wine. Remember though, if you are trying to lose weight, it may be better for you to not do the alcohol every day.

The last food in this high antioxidant grouping is chocolate. Now I have your attention. The best is to eat raw cacao as it is highest in antioxidants. I have a couple of entries in the blog on chocolate, just click on the word chocolate to see those.

Brain Health

I said I would talk more about foods that help your brain stay healthy and functioning at it's best. One of the things that really helps brain health is to reverse or minimize oxidation and inflammation. Oxidation occurs because of free radicals, so there is a huge need for us to decrease this potential damage to the DNA in our brain cells. The way to do this is with antioxidants.

The best antioxidants for the brain are the darker colored vegetables and fruits. Vegetables include spinach, brussels sprouts, beets, and eggplant. Fruits include berries, plums, prunes, cherries, red grapes, and oranges.

For the anti-inflammatory foods, go back and review the anti-inflammatory diet information starting on 2/13/09.

Lastly, Detoxifying the Skin

The skin is the last organ I'll talk about cleansing. I'm not talking about soap and water here, although that is important as well. The skin has to be able to breathe in order to cleanse itself. If you are applying oils, the skin's pores become clogged and it is not able to breathe. The first thing to do is to stop applying creams or lotions which contain oils. Oil is not what lubricates the skin. What lubricates the skin is water. The skin should be kept moist and supple with creams or lotions that are water based.

Also look at the cream or lotion that you are using. Does it contain alcohol? There are actually some good alcohols and there are bad alcohols. The molecular weight of the alcohol will determine if it is a drying or moisturizing alcohol. Cetyl and stearyl alcohol both are of a molecular weight such that they actually attract water. If you cream just says alcohol or ethyl alcohol, then it will be more drying than moisturizing.

Eating fruits and vegetables will also help cleanse the skin. The antioxidants in fruits and vegetables as well as supplements actually end up coming out through the skin. This will help remove toxins that have built up in the skin.

Of course bathing is important. Use care with the types of soaps and cleansers that you use on the skin. Again, soaps can be drying which can inhibit the skin from functioning normally. I talked a little about this previously.

One Last Thing About Licorice Root

While traditional Chinese medicine uses licorice to treat a wide variety of illnesses, besides the effects mentioned on 2/6/09, there is little research to support any other uses. However, we do know that licorice root contains flavonoids which are powerful antioxidants. These antioxidants boost the immune system and that certainly helps us combat infections of any type (viral, bacterial, etc.).

There is research that shows that licorice root can kill helicobacter pylori which a bacteria that is known to cause stomach ulcers. Alternative medicines use it precisely for this purpose.

More on Chamomille Tea

In addition to the benefits mentioned yesterday, Chamomille tea helps improve liver function, such that the liver is able to get rid of toxins in the body. This has a couple effects on you. One is that this along with the antioxidant strengthening the immune system helps promote tissue repair. So if you have a wound or if you have an injury to muscle, your body will be able to heal these more quickly.

One of the other things that Chamomille tea does is sooth the stomach. So if you are having nausea, this tea can help settle that down.

One thing to keep in mind about Chamomille is that it has a cumulative effect. In other words, while it begins to work right away, it will also hang around in the body for several days, so if you don't drink it every day you will still be getting some of the benefits.

More to Almonds

While yesterday's note on almonds said a lot, there is still more to the almond story. One of the main components in almonds is fiber. We all know that we need fiber in our diets and most of us know that we get way to little fiber in our diets. I mentioned yesterday that almonds decrease the absorption of carbohydrates, but they also decrease the absorption of fat.

While the fiber assists as mentioned above, it also serves to keep the bowel functioning normally and may prevent colon cancer as a result. Also, remember that it contains antioxidants which can boost the immune system and help prevent cancer as well.

Almonds also help reduce c-reactive protein which is an indicator of inflammation in the body. This helps prevent artery damaging inflammation. And as you might expect homocysteine levels are also decreased.