Health And Fitness News 

Define Your ORAC

ORAC means many things to different people. To a sci-fi buff, it's the computer in Blake 7. To an aboriginal businessman, it's the place to go to register a corporation. But we're interested in another ORAC - the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity of a food. This scale is used to rate a food's antioxidant content. Generally, the higher the ORAC rating of a food, the better it is.

Wikipedia gives a great technical explanation of how the ORAC tests are applied. For the layman (myself included!), it's a bit too technical :-) But they raise some other great points about how the ORAC measurements are used, both in marketing and other areas.

Antioxidants are big business now. Even though health claims have to be carefully validated, many manufacturers simply rely on a consumer's general knowledge to connect the dots. There is a much greater level of awareness of health constituents and their effects, thanks to a more proactive approach from consumers, and plenty of media reporting.

When a food is found to have a high ORAC content, this is often publicized. Foods blessed with this antioxidant potential include: kidney beans, wild and cultivated blueberries (wild are higher), cranberries, prunes, artichoke hearts, apples, raspberries, and even russet potatoes! But not all reporting of ORAC values is created equal!

As the Wikipedia writer notes, ORAC values can be measured in different ways:

* per grams of dry weight
* per grams of wet weight
* ORAC units per serving

For any comparisons between food to be meaningful, both foods must be measured exactly the same way. Otherwise, some very misleading results could be implied. The author goes on to say:

"Under each evaluation, different foods can appear to have higher ORAC values. Although a raisin has no more antioxidant potential than the grape from which it was dried, raisins will appear to have a much higher ORAC value per gram wet weight than grapes due to their reduced water content. Likewise, watermelons large water content can make it appear as though they are very low in antioxidants. To say then that chocolate has "more antioxidant" potential than blueberries is tenuous at best. While ounce per ounce chocolate may have a higher ORAC value, on the comparison of dry weight, we see blueberries have a higher ORAC value." (Wikipedia)

Antioxidants are important for both inner health and beauty. What we eat plays a vital role in keeping our skin wrinkle free, and preventing aging.  This is one of the reasons antioxidants are in the news so much. In a culture concerned with youth and beauty, the lure is irresistible.