Rats fed daily doses of blueberry extract for six weeks before being subjected to two days of pure oxygen apparently suffered much less damage to the capillaries in and around their lungs, Prior said. The fluid that normally accumulates in the pleural cavity surrounding the lungs was much lower compared to the group that didn't get blueberry extract.
Neuroscientist James Joseph and psychologist Barbara Shukitt-Hale at the center tested middle-aged rats that had eaten diets fortified with spinach or strawberry extract or vitamin E for nine months.
A daily dose of spinach extract "prevented some loss of long-term memory and learning ability normally experienced by the month-old rats," said Shukitt-Hale.
Spinach was also the most potent in protecting different types of nerve cells in two separate parts of the brain against the effects of aging, said Joseph. Why spinach is more effective than strawberries--which score higher in the ORAC assay--is still a mystery. The researchers conjecture that it may be due to specific compounds or a specific combination of them in the greens. More details on this research appear in an article in the February issue of Agricultural Research , ARS' monthly magazine.
The story is also available on the World Wide Web at:. Menu Agricultural Research Service U. Any greater amount is probably redundant. That is because the antioxidant capacity of the blood is tightly regulated. Thus there is an upper limit to the benefit that can be derived from antioxidants. Have you ever wondered what makes superfoods so super?
Check out our informative article on superfoods alongside a few classic examples. Do you know your micros from your macros?
We take a good look at micronutrients and how they work within a healthy and balanced plant-based diet. As healthy eating continues to take centre stage, antioxidants are always mentioned, but what are they? Why are they good for us and what different types are there? Those who are interested in dare I say, obsessed with? It's a lab test that attempts to quantify the "total antioxidant capacity" TAC of a food by placing a sample of the food in a test tube, along with certain molecules that generate free radical activity and certain other molecules that are vulnerable to oxidation.
After a while, they measure how well the sample protected the vulnerable molecules from oxidation by the free radicals. The less free radical damage there is, the higher the antioxidant capacity of the test substance. There are actually a handful of different tests designed to measure total antioxidant capacity in this way, but the ORAC is probably the best known and most popular. The nice thing about this method is that it measures the antioxidant activity of a food rather than the levels of specific nutrients, such as vitamin C or E.
This approach would also capture any synergistic effects between the various nutrients—ways in which nutrients are more effective in combination than they are individually. Already a subscriber?
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