While 70 percent of us are aware of antioxidants and their health benefits, most may not know how to easily incorporate high antioxidant foods into our busy, fast-paced lives. Simple solutions for a balanced and healthy lifestyle include eating a diet rich in “functional foods” or foods with a purpose — foods that offer far-reaching benefits beyond just satiating our appetites — such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

The good news is there’s no need to sacrifice health for convenience. For example, Sunsweet Antioxidant Blend is a delicious dried fruit blend of cherries, plums, wild blueberries and cranberries, which are four of the highest scoring, free radical fighting fruits according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Fruit snacks are a healthy choice because they are high in antioxidants and offer multiple functional benefits. For example, prunes, also known as dried plums, are considered a “super fruit” because they are not only high in antioxidants; they also promote a strong immune system, improve heart health and are good for healthy bones.

“Functional foods are an important part of a healthy lifestyle that includes a balanced diet and physical activity,” says Steve Harris, vice president of marketing at Sunsweet Growers. “Functional dried fruits, like those found in Antioxidant Blend, offer a quick, convenient and healthy snack, as well as a nutrient-packed ingredient that can accent a tossed salad, enhance baked goods, or sweeten up any favorite recipe.”

Try these tasty suggestions to get the most out of functional dried fruits:

* For a treat that’s smart to eat, combine with raw almonds for a powerful and satiating snack.
* To enhance a meal, add to a mixed greens or spinach salad for added flavor and nutrition.
* For a boost to your breakfast, start by mixing the blend with hot oatmeal and benefit from the whole grains and fruit.
* Add a flavorful punch to any baking recipe by mixing the blend in breads or bran muffins.
* Add pizzazz to appetizers and snacks by pairing with low-fat cheeses.

Visit www.sunsweet.com for more recipe ideas.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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Foods High in Antioxidants

One of the best antioxidant food choices is berries. All sorts of berries in fact, everything from strawberries and blackberries to blueberries and raspberries, are full of antioxidants. These antioxidants are able to help prevent and repair the stress that comes from oxidation, a natural process that occurs during normal cell function.

Another best antioxidant food is green tea. You may think of green tea as only being a drink but this is actually not true. You can get green tea extract for instance, which can be included in a variety of foods and you may even want to take green tea supplements which offers you the benefits of green tea extract but in pill form so it is as easy and convenient for you to take as possible.

There are many other options as well when it comes to finding the best antioxidant food, and that includes broccoli, tomatoes, red grapes, garlic, spinach, tea, carrots, and soy products. All of these are chalk full of antioxidants and will offer you the benefits that you are looking for here.

These foods, known as the super foods of choice, are foods that you should definitely be including in your diet on a regular basis if you want to achieve optimum health. A healthy, balanced diet that includes plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, with as much variety as possible, will offer you the most complete nutrition and leave you in the best overall health possible.

The best idea if you are just getting started here will be for you to make a list of the best antioxidant food, namely that discussed here, so that you can incorporate it into your meal planning and really get the best nutrition possible.

This will not only ensure that you are eating enough of the right foods but also help your grocery planning and make the process quicker and easier for you. Meal planning is an important process for anyone interested in improving their health, because it ensures that you know what you are eating and are getting enough of the right foods.

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Hide Signs Of Aging

To keep your skin looking fresh as well as young, natural antioxidant supplements is the way to go since these supplements help replenish even skin that has begun to show signs of aging and it will in fact, give back a healthy as well as young looking glow and add beauty and youth to the looks of even quite elderly people. The truth of the fact is that we all want to preserve our youthful appearance and this is why using natural antioxidant supplements can prove to be a worthy alternative to cosmetic surgery and besides, they are also safer and healthier to use.

The beauty of taking natural antioxidants lies in the fact that they are readily available in certain foods that we consume on a daily basis and they are certainly abundant in vegetables and also in fruits. However, one may not be able to eat enough vegetables and fruits in the normal course of events and thus it becomes necessary to take natural antioxidant supplements.

To be sure absence of adequate antioxidants in the body can make the body vulnerable to diseases and also makes the skin age faster. In case you do decide to buy natural antioxidant supplements make sure that the one that you plan on buying contains the proper ingredients and so, also check the reputation of the manufacturer by reading reviews to ensure that you don’t end up wasting your money on a less than desirable supplements.

Besides consuming natural antioxidant supplements it is also necessary to maintain a healthy diet because many of the foods you consume on a daily basis are known to contain natural antioxidants and thus must become part of your daily diet, and as mentioned vegetables and fruits are a good source for antioxidants. Besides taking natural antioxidants and supplements there are also super antioxidants and one of them is Acai Berry that is worth taking as it can do your health a world of good.

As far as taking natural antioxidant supplements go, women are the biggest consumers and the reason is that they are most concerned about their skin and looks and the glow as well as replenishment that the supplements affect is the reason why women buy supplements in huge numbers. It is also recommended taking supplements if you wish to hide wrinkles in your skin and that is why many elderly women also use these wonder supplements and the best example of their effectiveness is none other than former actress Sophia Loren whose skin certainly belies her seventy plus age.

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The antioxidant enzymes also produced naturally by the body, help regulate the natural antioxidants as the reign in the potential for terror created by the existence of the free radicals. While new products are introduced nearly every week that claim to help rid the body of the harmful effects of free radicals, without the inclusion of antioxidant enzymes to regulate how they work, the products will not work as efficiently as designed.

While no product reproduced in a laboratory can replace the body’s natural system to keeping everything running smoothly, the use of antioxidant supplements as well as supplements of antioxidant enzymes offers humans a better chance of maintaining as well as improving their health.

Every Cell Requires A Little Outside Help

The body is a very complex and wonderful thing as it has the ability to keep every system running efficiently. However, there are things that can go wrong and the existence of too many free radicals can lead to cell destruction and when systems resultantly fail, the remaining cells can use a little help. The use of antioxidant enzymes has been studied over the years since the need for antioxidants was established.

The use of any antioxidant product will most likely have certain benefits but more importantly, they should also include antioxidant enzymes to make them work better and perform as they were designed. Some of the most common antioxidant enzymes include glutathione reductase, catalane and dismutase, ingredients often included in many antioxidant formulas.

These antioxidant enzymes are used in formulas as antioxidant response elements to help the antioxidant round up the free radicals, group them together and help make them more water soluble for faster, more efficient expulsion from the body. By using formulas that include the enzymes along with the antioxidants, the product will be able to perform more effectively.

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Berries

By far, berries are some of the best sources of antioxidants in the world. This includes almost all types of berries, such as raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and kiwi fruits just to name a few.

Antioxidants are important disease-fighting compounds and high amounts are contained in all of these fruits. Scientists believe that these antioxidants are able to help prevent and repair the stress in the body that comes from oxidation which is a natural process that occurs during normal cell function.

There is a catch however that you are going to want to be aware of, and this is that even though some fruits are considered as being some of the best sources of antioxidants, the body is not able to absorb it all. This is why variety in your diet is so important. You should not just start eating only berries because you know that they are high in antioxidants, but rather eat a variety of food that you know is going to be healthy for you.

Another of the best sources of antioxidants is green tea. We have all heard for quite some time now just how beneficial green tea is to our health, and besides the fact that it contains caffeine, there is almost nothing in the world healthier and better for our bodies than green tea.

It is important to do this in moderation just as with anything else however. Rather than completely modifying your diet to include only these foods, you should just make sure that you are eating properly, some of the foods from each of the different food groups, and then include some of these foods and drinks high in antioxidants to finish off your diet plan.

You can talk to your doctor if you want to get more information on this and get some helpful tips and advice on how to go about supplementing yourself with more antioxidants. Even by just including a few of these foods in your diet you will still be benefiting.

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The first step, before you can really understand which foods containing antioxidants you should introduce first, you are going to have to get more of a grasp on antioxidant levels in food and which have higher levels than others.

Top Antioxidant Foods

Most fruits and vegetables are foods containing antioxidants, but of course some are going to have higher levels than others. You are not going to be able to eat every single fruit and vegetable a day, which is why it is so important to recognize which foods containing antioxidants have the highest levels.

The food with the highest antioxidant count is actually not a fruit or a vegetable, but rather dark chocolate. Dark chocolate, unlike milk chocolate, is packed full of antioxidants and offers the body an array of different health benefits.

Then there is the fruit and vegetables. Berries are particularly full of antioxidants, and this includes strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and every other type of berry that you can think of.

Peanuts are other foods containing antioxidants that you will want to start including in your diet, and you can do this in a number of ways. You can buy a jar of peanuts to snack on throughout the day, or you can spread some peanut butter on toast – either way you will still be getting a ton of antioxidants that are great for your body.

Keep in mind that these are just a few of many examples of foods that contain antioxidants and which will be worth adding into your diet. Just take it slow and introduce the foods into your diet in moderation, so as to not overdo it.

You can overdo anything and in this case you would end up doing your body more harm than good, in one way or another. Dark chocolate for instance, although it is the highest antioxidant food it is also packed full of sugar and calories and so by eating a lot of it you will be putting a lot of garbage into your body as well.

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The reason that fruit and vegetables are so important is that they provide the body with antioxidants that can fight free radicals that could otherwise increase your risk of developing certain diseases. Recently many people have claimed that antioxidant tablets are a good way to include antioxidants in your diet. So, do they work?

Clinical Studies

The idea of using antioxidant tablets is a new one and studies are being conducted to test the effectiveness of antioxidant tablets in combating cancer, heart disease, strokes, and high blood pressure. At the moment there is not enough evidence to suggest that antioxidant are completely effective at preventing any of these diseases.

This is based largely on a study that was published showing that two test groups, one taking antioxidant tablets and another taking placebos, showed no difference in terms of lowered risk of the diseases antioxidants are supposed to prevent.

From this study it would appear that antioxidant tablets did not lower the risk of disease as people who took the tablets had just as much chance of developing the same diseases as the group of people on placebos. This doesn’t seem like encouraging news but not all hope is lost.

Before you flush your antioxidant tablets down the toilet stop to consider the findings. It is only one study that has been published. Other studies are still ongoing and could soon prove that there are significant benefits to taking these supplements.

On the other hand there is no harm in taking supplements. You could well be benefiting from the supplements. If you believe that taking supplements are important then keep taking them and make sure that the rest of your diet also includes healthy amounts of antioxidants. Fruits and vegetables are your best source of antioxidants, as well as green, black, and certain herbal teas.

An antioxidant a day could truly keep the doctor away. The evidence to suggest that antioxidants are key to preventing cancer, strokes, heart diseases, lowering blood pressure, and other degenerative and age related diseases is very strong. People who want to have a good quality of life in their later years would do well to have plenty of antioxidants in their day to day diet.

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The green tea supplement is known as being the best antioxidant supplement available on the market. Green tea has long been used by the Chinese as medicine, because they understand how productive it is and how beneficial it is to the body as a whole. They use it as a medicine to treat everything from headaches and body ache to poor digestion and life expectancy.

Green tea supplement is made of green tea extract, which is bioflavonoid rich and which is fantastic for fighting off free radicals in the body which, if left alone, are able to do serious damage to the body. Green tea extract also contains high levels of polyphenols, and in particular a rich source of EGCG.

This is considered as being the best antioxidant supplement because it is so overall healthy. There are many other supplements that are also rich in antioxidants but which do not offer many other benefits, whereas the green tea supplements are extremely healthy and advantageous in a number of ways.

Basically with this, the best antioxidant supplement, you are receiving all the benefits you would by drinking green tea. A few of the special benefits offered by green tea include that it helps to reduce blood pressure, lowers blood sugar, and fights off cancer. Green tea is also able to boost the immune system because of its high concentrations of polyphenols and flavenoids.

There is really no downfall or drawback to green tea which is amazing, except for the fact that it contains caffeine. Therefore if you have an adverse reaction to caffeine, for instance if you suffer from insomnia, you do not have to steer clear of it completely but you will want to limit the amount that you consume on a regular basis.

Supplements are great for your health because they ensure that you are getting the nutrition your body needs to strive, even when you don’t have a lot of time to spare. Just because you don’t have extra time to snack on berries and other antioxidant-rich foods through the day, with a supplement you can get all the same benefits.

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Eating fruit and vegetables everyday is one way to get a good dose of antioxidants; it is also the traditional way that people have received their daily dose of antioxidants. Now it appears that drinking a daily cup of tea might give you even more antioxidants. So how do you get your tea antioxidant levels up and free radicals down?

Are Packet Teas Good for You?

You might already drink tea everyday in the form of iced teas. So do ice teas give you the same tea antioxidant levels as freshly brewed tea? It really depends how you make your iced teas. If you make your iced tea up from a packet then chances are you are not getting the same amount of tea antioxidant levels then you would if you made your own iced tea.

Different brands of convenience ice teas have different levels of tea antioxidant levels. Some have barely anything and are not beneficial to your health while others have enough antioxidant levels to make a difference in your health. Research brands a little to find the level of antioxidants in each packet. Alternatively, just make your own the night before so that you can drink iced tea while on the go.

Hot or Cold

Some people believe that drinking hot tea is better than cold tea. The idea is that the hot tea releases more antioxidants. However there really is no difference between drinking freshly brewed tea and tea that has been sitting in your fridge the night before. So you can be assured that you are still getting a powerful punch of antioxidants whether you drink your tea hot or cold.

Types of Teas

The types of teas you drink are also important in determining the tea antioxidant levels in your diet. Herbal tea is popular but there has not been enough research about herbal tea antioxidants. Though antioxidants can also be found in herbal teas.

Green tea is thought to be the best green tea to prevent cancer while black tea is supposed to help prevent heart disease. The verdict is that it doesn’t really matter what type of tea you drink, black or green there are plenty of antioxidants to be found in tea.

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Top Antioxidant Foods

Of all the foods in the world, there are a few in particular that are considered as being the top antioxidant foods. One of the top antioxidant foods is chocolate. That’s right, chocolate is actually good for you. Well not all types of chocolate.

Dark chocolate is actually the only type of chocolate that offers any nutritional benefit, and in particular antioxidants which help to fight off free radicals in the body. Dark chocolate is full of antioxidants because it is made from the cocoa bean, and this is the food with the highest antioxidant value on the planet.

The cocoa bean is one of the most complex foods because it contains over 300 chemically identifiable compounds, and the cocoa beans are packed with potent antioxidants known as flavenoids. These compounds work to boost good HDL cholesterol levels in the body, reduce blood pressure, and reduce bad cholesterol.

You need to realize however that just because dark chocolate is full of antioxidants, this certainly does not mean that you can eat as much as you want of it without consequences. After all, dark chocolate as with all chocolate is also full of calories, and so if you just sit around and chow down chocolate you will be getting antioxidants but you will also be consuming a ton of sugar and calories.

Another of the top antioxidant foods is broccoli. Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts are all great and full of antioxidants. They are able to help prevent cancer and ward off heart disease, as well as reduce the risk of breast cancer and other estrogen-sensitive cancers such as cancer of the ovaries and the cervix.

Your doctor will be able to offer you more information on antioxidants, what they are and how they work, and what foods you can find them in. The more of these foods you eat the healthier you will be, as long as you do it in moderation of course.

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