Which Products Are Better?

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American scientists have tested a pile of products recently to know which of them are rich in antioxidants most. The winner appeared to be red beans that bit the wild currants just at 1 antioxidant portion.

Antioxidants prevent our skin cells from harm caused by the so called free radicals. The molecules of free radicals provoke cardiovascular diseases and oncological ones and speed up the process of aging either.

The list of the best products was published in «Journal of Chemistry and Food» issue. It joined those of them that are able to manage with oxidation process and avert it together with free radicals blotting out.

To define the number of antioxidants in the products the scientists used up-to-date technologies and tested hundreds of thousands of sorts of fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts and condiments.

So here is the list of the best antioxidants products:

1. Small red beans

2. Wild currants

3. Red beans

4. Garden currants

5. Cranberries

6. Artichoke (boiled)

7. Black raspberries

8. Prunes

9. Red raspberries

10. Strawberries

11. Red apples of the “Delicious” sort

12. Apples of the “Smith” sort

13. Nuts

14. Sweet cherries

15. Black prunes

16. Potato (boiled)

17. Black haricot

18. “Gala” sort apples

Scientists can’t tell why some products have more antioxidants than others. Chemists and food problems specialists, who took part in the research work, proved that the component providing antioxidant characteristics of the product is called anthocyanin. It is it that gives them dark-blue tint.

Generally speaking the products color can act as an indicator of their capacity to withstand free radicals. Thus, if you want to define antioxidants rate of the product, pay attention to its color!

For example, yellow color of corn accounts for the lutein presence in it, orange color is inherent in all vegetables and fruits containing carotenoids (melon, mango). Red color indicates to the lycopene presence (tomato and water melon) and some darker colors (dark-blue, lilac that are characteristic for the wild berries) – is the sign of anthocyanin.

Moreover, the scientists insist that even the lab tests proved the presents of antioxidants of one or another products but it doesn’t mean that all of them are to be assimilated by the organism.

The more they study their characteristics the more they assure that some of them are digested only partially.

The effectiveness of antioxidants depends on the way we eat the products – fresh, frozen, processed or boiled. For instance, currants are recommended to have fresh but not baked in the cakes, and tomatoes on the contrary are better after cooking as lycopene effectiveness is higher. However the specialists advise not to limit yourself with only one product in the ration but have meals with different vegetables and fruits of all the colors of the rainbow.