Sources of Antioxidants

By increasing the daily intake of antioxidants through diet and supplements, free radical activity within the body could be reduced. Our bodies contain natural antioxidants in the form of vitamins, minerals and hormones, but due to the incredible amount of stress modern society puts on us it can be good to take in more in our diet.

Sources of antioxidants include vitamin E, vitamin C and beta-carotene. These can all be found in many fruits – such as elderberries and vegetables.

Antioxidative Capability of Elderberries compared to other fruit

In 2007, The United States Department of Agriculture looked at the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) or overall antioxidant capability of various berries. They studied the antioxidant capacity of certain berries in terms of how effective they were at attacking these damaging free radicals. The higher the figure obtained the more antioxidant capacity the berries had.

Of the berries studied, the elderberry had one of the highest total antioxidant capacities.

Source: United States Department of Agriculture Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods – 2007

Notes: The above data represents average values and the actual content in any individual sample of fruit may show significant variation from the above quoted values. The USDA database provides details of the estimated accuracy of the above values. However, despite this variation, the above values can be taken as a reliable indicator of the those fruits which are likely to have the highest ORAC potential.