Antioxidants in Foods

It can be hard to eat healthy, and even harder to eat healthy the right way. Sure, eating your fruits and veggies is an excellent way to slim your waistline, but what about your other health concerns? If you don’t eat a balanced diet you could still lose weight and retain some serious health issues. Choosing the right foods can be difficult, so make sure that you address specific issues with the correct foods. For example, if your doctor advises eating foods rich in antioxidants then just chewing on a stalk of broccoli won’t cut it!

Many people think of grapes as the big antioxidant superstar, but they really only pack a fraction of the punch as these other foods: beans, blueberries, and potatoes. When you’re trying to lose weight people tend to avoid carbohydrates like potatoes, but they actually can help fight off diseases better than most foods. It’s because of the heavy saturation of antioxidants that they can be an important addition to your diet.

A recent study shows that the best source of antioxidants is in fact the small red bean. Just a half cup of these unusual little guys has more antioxidants than an entire cup of wild blueberries, or even an entire gala apple!

The way that foods are prepared can also adjust the amount of antioxidants. For instance, cooking potatoes can get rid of the antioxidants held within the precious healthy spud. It’s strange, because you would think that would be the same for all foods across the board, however it turns out that cooking tomatoes actually increases antioxidants!

A diverse diet is still the best diet, regardless of the fact that many people choose to cut out certain groups of foods for the sake of losing weight. Doing that could actually have an adverse affect on your health. To keep fighting the good fight against diseases, make sure to have some antioxidant-heavy foods in your meal plan.

Doug, MagicKitchen.com Blogger