Top 50 Best Antioxidant Foods And Herbs List

In this article we list the 50 best antioxidant foods and herbs – from most powerful antioxidant to the least powerful.

Don’t you worry though.. You don’t need to travel to exotic destinations to get the best antioxidant foods and fight those pesky free radicals. Every food in this list is widely available both online and via your local supermarkets or fruit markets.

Free radicals & oxidative stress

Free radicals are highly unstable molecules that form naturally when carrying out biochemical reactions. The body can also be exposed to free radicals from various environmental sources, such as cigarette smoke, air pollution and sunlight.

Free radicals can cause ‘oxidative stress’, a process that can damage cells. Oxidative stress is thought to play a role in a variety of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, hypogonadism, eye disease.

Antioxidant molecules have been shown to counteract oxidative stress in laboratory experiments (for example, in cell or animal studies).

The main natural antioxidants are vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E, carotenoids, lutein, lycopene, selenium, flavonoids, tannins, phenols and lignans.

Here’s a short, simple yet very informative 2-minute video on what are free radicals to help you better understand them.

The classification of foods according to their antioxidant content was attempted in the twenty-first century extensively (3100 foods) for the first time by researchers at the University of Oslo (Monica H Carlsen et al.). The research was published in the Nutrition Journal on 22/01/2010.

According to the researchers, plant foods have higher concentrations of antioxidants compared to foods of animal origin.

More specifically, high concentrations of antioxidants were found in coffee, walnuts, dark chocolate, dried fruit, green tea, pomegranate juice, red wine, Aegina nuts, peanuts, strawberries, blueberries, sunflower seeds, buckwheat flour, artichokes, dried fruit, sun-dried tomatoes and tomato paste.

Herbs high in antioxidants

Particularly high concentrations of antioxidants were found in dried herbs and spices such as:

• Basil, dried.
• Bay leaves, dried.
• Cinnamon sticks.
• Cinnamon, dried, ground.
• Cloves, dried, whole and ground.
• Dill, dried.
• Tarragon, dried.
• Ginger, dried.
• Mint leaves, dried.
• Nutmeg, dried and ground.
• Oregano, dried.
• Rosemary, dried, ground.
• Saffron, dried, ground.
• Saffron, dried whole, whole speck.
• Sage, dried.
• Thyme, dried.

Best Antioxidant Foods List

According to a follow-up study in August 2006 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Bente L Halvorsen et al.), in which the researchers used data from the United States Department of Agriculture, the top fifty best antioxidant foods that have the most antioxidant identified concentration were: (mmol [millimoles] per 100g):

Studies carried out since then have confirmed the initial conclusions:

How much antioxidants per day?

Various researchers suggest that an optimal intake of ORAC units is between 3000-5000 per day; the USDA also suggests 5000 as a healthy daily amount.

ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, and it is a laboratory test used to measure the total antioxidant capacity of foods.

How many mmol of antioxidants per day, you may ask – since our table was measuring antioxidants in millimole units? Well, to counteract the oxidation caused by digestion, we need about this much antioxidant (measured in millimoles of trolox equivalents) per day:

• In the U.S., men average about 2500 calories per day, so they should be getting at least 11,000 micromoles per day.

• A woman who eats 1800 calories a day would have to consume at least 8,000 micromoles per day in order not to be OK.

A significant portion of Americans are getting far less than the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for antioxidants. As a result, they’re unable to neutralize all of the free radicals created by normal bodily processes—leaving them vulnerable to disease and other health problems.

How to check antioxidant levels in body?

According to the website Oxford Biomed, there are a a total of five tests you can do to check your body’s antioxidants.

TEAC: The first one is the Trolox Antioxidant Capacity test. This test is used to measure hydrophilic substances’ antioxidant capacity, but it suffers from interference by peroxidases and gives nonlinear results when samples are diluted.

TRAP: The second one is the Total Radical Trapping Antioxidant Parameter test. In 1995, this test was modified to eliminate interference from plasma proteins or dilution. Although it is fast and convenient, this test does not reflect the antioxidant capacity of other tissues or body fluids. It also measures only a limited portion of total plasma antioxidants activity.

FRAP: Next on the list is the Ferric Reducing Ability of Plasma test. This test responds to uric acid (meaning that you need to give a urine sample) but it fails to measure adequately many important antioxidants, including ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and glutathione.

ORAC: The Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity test is an easy and trustworthy method for determining the peroxyl radical absorbing capacity of plasma or any other body fluid.

TAP: The Total Antioxidant Power test measures the combined activity of all antioxidants presented in a specimen. This test is appropriate for determining the total antioxidant activity in a sample as a result of all of its contents, such as vitamins, proteins, glutathione, uric acid, and so on.

Antioxidants and dietary supplements

Antioxidants became widely known in the 1990s, when scientists discovered that free radicals were involved in the process of arteriosclerotic blockage, carcinogenesis and other chronic diseases. Since then, the antioxidant supplement industry has boomed.

However, despite the beneficial effects of antioxidant-rich foods, antioxidant supplements failed to demonstrate the expected benefits in large subsequent studies. Causes have been proposed for this oxymoron phenomenon:

Antioxidants tend to work best in combination with other nutrients, plant chemicals and even other antioxidants present in their natural sources.

The typical concentrations of antioxidants used in the supplementation studies were significantly higher than the amounts found in food.

There are differences in the chemical composition of antioxidants in foods compared to antioxidants in supplements. For example, eight chemical forms of vitamin E are present in foods. Vitamin E supplements, on the other hand, usually contain only one of these forms – alpha-tocopherol, which, it should be noted, is the form used in almost all research studies on the antioxidant activity of vitamin E.

Bottom Line

Antioxidants are found in a variety of foods, including fruits and veggies. In this article we’ve listed the best antioxidant foods found in the American diet.

Some evidence suggests that taking antioxidant supplements may help prevent certain diseases and conditions but in no way they can much the power of antioxidants coming from natural sources – such as food and herbs.

If you would like to check how many antioxidants there are in your body, there are a total of 5 tests your physician can do to measure your antioxidant levels.

Finally keep in mind that an average male will need around 11.000 mmol/TE antioxidants per day to function properly and female will need around 8.000 mmol/TE per day.

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