Antioxidants are “in” – and “superfoods”\u00a0and supplements\u00a0are everywhere you look.\u00a0 Naturally, each new one is better than all the others that came before it.\u00a0 And how do you know this?\u00a0 Is it because of human clinical studies?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 It’s because it has\u00a0the highest ORAC score.\u00a0 As one supplement ad sez:<\/p>\n
“Fruits and vegetables tend to have the highest ORAC values. Per 100 grams – Apples score a 218, Bananas a 221, blueberries 2,400. And what about fresh Acai? Acai has an amazing 5,500 ORAC score<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n Here’s another sample of the spin:<\/p>\n “A new laboratory test known as ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity)<\/strong> was developed by USDA researchers at Tufts University to rate the antioxidant levels of fruits and vegetables.<\/em> It ranks the Ningxia wolfberry, also known as the Goji berry as the best antioxidant food in the world.”<\/em><\/p>\n In other words, “high ORAC” = “good.”\u00a0 And if high ORAC veggies and fruits are good for you, then so must be the juices, powders, concentrates and capsules made from them, right?<\/p>\n Hmmm…maybe, maybe not.\u00a0 Let’s take a closer look at what ORAC values really mean, and – more importantly – what their limitations are.<\/p>\n To begin with,\u00a0ORAC stands for “Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity.”\u00a0 It’s\u00a0a “test tube” (in-vitro) analysis that was developed by the USDA, and is a standard\u00a0assay for measuring the antioxidant capacity of a food source.\u00a0 The ORAC test uses a fluorescent probe\u00a0that can be\u00a0damaged by free radicals<\/a>.\u00a0 The change in fluorescence intensity is a measure of the amount of the damage.\u00a0 The\u00a0effectiveness of\u00a0an antioxidant is reflected by the protection it offers against that change.\u00a0 The results are compared to a standard – usually “Trolox” (a form of water soluble vitamin E) and expressed in terms of “Trolox equivalents<\/a>.”<\/p>\n So far so good…so what are the problems?<\/p>\n 1. The original assay was developed to detect hydrophilic (i.e., water-soluble) antioxidant capacity against peroxyl radicals.\u00a0 There are, needless to state,\u00a0other types\u00a0of free radicals, and it’s entirely possible for an antioxidant that is extremely effective against\u00a0non-peroxyl radicals to have a low ORAC score.\u00a0 Carotenoids are an excellent example.\u00a0 Carotenoids such as beta-carotene are highly effective at quenching singlet oxygen radicals<\/a>, yet perform poorly against peroxyl radicals<\/a>.\u00a0 Alpha-lipoic acid<\/a> is another excellent antioxidant that has a low ORAC value<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2. The ORAC assay is an in-vitro test.\u00a0\u00a0Thus, there’s no guarantee that\u00a0a food or supplement with a high ORAC score will be effective in a body.\u00a0 Bioavailability may be limited, for example;\u00a0or the active\u00a0compound(s) may be broken down or otherwise modified.\u00a0 Such metabolites may be more, or less, effective than the parent compound(s).<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0A high\u00a0ORAC score\u00a0can be misleading, as\u00a0antioxidants\u00a0with\u00a0lower scores may still have health effects specific to particular organs or tissues.\u00a0\u00a0For example, the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin are useful for\u00a0preventing age-related macular degeneration<\/a>\u00a0(AMD), \u00a0yet spinach, which is an excellent source of these compounds, has an ORAC value<\/a> of “only” 1515 (100g, raw), whereas\u00a0an equivalent amount\u00a0of raw blueberries come in at 6552.\u00a0\u00a0Thus,\u00a0when it comes to maintaining health\/preventing disease,\u00a0the\u00a0highest scoring foods aren’t necessarily the best ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n 4. Processing may alter ORAC values.\u00a0 Antioxidant activity can be lost\u00a0via heating, chemical treatments and\/or prolonged storage.\u00a0 For example, alkali treatment of cocoa powder can cut antioxidant activity in half<\/a>.\u00a0 Broccoli antioxidants can be lost during cooking<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0problem\u00a0is that\u00a0most producers of high-ORAC products don’t tell you when the product was tested.\u00a0 A “superfruit” juice tested prior to retort sterilization and bottling may have a very different value by the time it’s distributed at the retail level.<\/p>\n 5. ORAC values are not yet tied to clinical outcomes.\u00a0 Epidemiological studies have shown that vegetable and fruit intake are linked to reduced risk of various degenerative diseases.\u00a0 We do not, however, know what a “good” ORAC score is.\u00a0 Currently, scientists recommend consuming the equivalent of 3,000 – 5,000 ORAC units\/day<\/a>, but it would be a mistake to assume that – say – a single serving of a “superfood” or supplement\u00a0is all that’s needed to remain healthy.\u00a0 As alluded to above, not all antioxidants are alike.<\/p>\n 6. A high ORAC food may also have deleterious effects.\u00a0 For example, an interesting study on the effects of eating grapes and raisins<\/a> was recently conducted in human volunteers.\u00a0 This 4 week study found an increase in serum antioxidant activity over time, but also recorded “significant nonpositive changes” immediately post-consumption, probably due to carbohydrate-induced postprandial oxidation.\u00a0 High blood sugar (hyperglycemia) is itself a trigger for oxidative stress (via the production of superoxide<\/a>), so chronic consumption of high-ORAC\/high-sugar foods or juices may also contribute to the problem that people consuming them are trying to solve!\u00a0<\/p>\n In other words, it’s not so simple as “high ORAC” = “good.”\u00a0 Certainly, the ORAC assay is a great tool for making comparisons between foods, and\u00a0will help us learn\u00a0more about the relationships between dietary antioxidant intake and health.\u00a0 But for most functional foods and supplements, it’s just a marketing term.\u00a0\u00a0Rather than spending big $$$ on the latest “superfoods” and supplements, you’ll be better off choosing from a variety of high-ORAC whole foods<\/a>.\u00a0 Right now, that’s\u00a0what the science supports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Antioxidants are “in” – and “superfoods”\u00a0and supplements\u00a0are everywhere you look.\u00a0 Naturally, each new one is better than all the others that came before it.\u00a0 And how do you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,13,15],"tags":[53,719,765,1227,1568,1591,1723,1725],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10205,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/10205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}