Superfruits for Your Health!

If you’re looking for a delicious way to reverse some signs of aging, while ridding the body of free radicals and toxins, superfruits are for you! The term describes a group of fruits with high levels of antioxidants, with one major benefit of being their anti-aging properties. Aging is presumed to be the result of oxidation of the body, an effect comparable to the oxidation of iron turning it to rust. This oxidation in the human body is caused by buildup of toxins or free radicals, and superfruits provide a solution to destroying free radicals and toxins! How do we know which foods work the best?

A group of scientists at Brunswick Laboratories in Massachusetts designed the ORAC score which measures potency of superfruits. More specifically, it measures a food’s Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC). If a fruit has super strength in eliminating those oxygen radical villains wreaking havoc in our bodies, the ORAC test will find out.

Among the top performing superfruits are Morinda Citrufolia, Mengkudu Mulberry, Tahitian Noni, or what is commonly called just Noni. The Noni fruit hails from Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean area. Noni juice can be bitter to taste, and it’s also sold in capsule form. It has an ORAC score of 4,500 per 100g.

Lycium Barbarum, Chinese Wolfberry, or Goji has been used in China for hundreds of years. It has an ORAC score of 25,300 per 100g.

Mangosteen from Thailand and the Philippines has ORAC of 12,000 per 100g.

From the Brazilian Rain Forest comes the Acai Berry. It has been made popular by Dr. Oz and Dr. Perricone on the Oprah Winfrey show. Its ORAC is 16,700 per 100g.

The Chilean Wine Berry or Patagonian Maqui Berry has the highest ORAC of any fruit or berry at 27,600 per 100g.

*But wait… there are fruits who have been with us all along who also pack a super punch. They are:

Blueberry – ORAC score 6,500 per 100g
Black Raspberries – ORAC score 7,700 per 100g
Prunes – ORAC score 5,770 per 100g
Pomegranate – ORAC score 10,500 per 100g

These ORAC scores are not written in stone. Many things can influence them, like the environment, when and where they were grown, and the way the testing samples were harvested and processed. Dried fruit is more concentrated and will test higher than non-dried fruit. Also, if a sample is brought in to the lab spiked with vitamin C, that will, in turn, spike the ORAC score.

The US Department of Agriculture recommends people consume 5,000 ORAC units every day, which is about the most that your body can utilize on a daily basis. Start eating those superfruits and enjoy the sweet (and delicious) rewards you get in return!