Berries, Beans Top 'Best Antioxidants List': "(HealthDayNews) -- A variety of vegetables, fruits and nuts battled it out for the top spot on a new list of the 20 most antioxidant-rich foods, ranked by nutrition scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
In the end, small red beans won the day, narrowly beating out wild blueberries as the food with the highest concentration of disease-fighting compounds per serving. Antioxidants fight damage to cells from rogue molecules called 'free radicals.' Experts believe this assault on cells may fuel killer diseases such as heart disease and cancer, and even aging itself.
The new Top 20 list, published in the June issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 'is a relative ranking of the capacity of foods to interfere with or prevent oxidative processes and to scavenge free radicals,' explained list co-creator Ronald L. Prior, a USDA nutritionist and research chemist based in Little Rock, Ark.
Prior and his colleagues used the most advanced technologies available to tabulate antioxidant levels in more than 100 different types of fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts and spices.
Their Top 20:
1) Small red beans (dried)
2) Wild blueberries
3) Red kidney beans
4) Pinto beans
5) Blueberries (cultivated)
6) Cranberries
7) Artichokes (cooked)
8) Blackberries
9) Prunes
10) Raspberries
11) Strawberries
12) Red delicious apples
13) Granny Smith apples
14) Pecans
15) Sweet cherries
16) Black plums
17) Russet potatoes (cooked)
18) Black beans (dried)
19) Plums
20) Gala apples
Links Bristol Cancer Clinic * World Health Organisation * Media Contacts - Nutritionist Foods For Life
