Acai Antioxidant

Acai antioxidant versus free radicals

You, me, everybody you know, we're all made up of atoms. Generally, atoms tend to have a full compliment of electrons and are classed as inert. Just sort of hanging around and keeping out of our way.

Atoms without a full compliment of electrons become unstable and start to get a bit aggressive in their search for the missing electron. These atoms are known as Free Radicals.

Free Radicals spend all their time trying to get back to being inert. To do this they need to find an extra electron to latch onto. The only way they can do this is by swiping an electron from another atom, which inevitably means they create other free radicals as soon as they find that elusive extra electron.

Any stressful event we go through creates free radicals. And stress here goes beyond just being upsetting. Simple things like breathing, eating, walking around. More or less anything associated with being alive in the first place creates free radicals. When the number of free radicals in our bodies gets too high, we start to run into major health issues.

The most common form of free radicals racing around our systems is oxygen free radicals. These are oxygen atoms missing an electron and an overabundance of oxygen free radicals can start to cause oxidative stress to our bodies. Much like rust eating away at anything metal.

So how to deal with oxidative stress? By adding an antioxidant element to our systems. Antioxidants donate electrons to free radicals, allowing them to get back to being inert, which is where they wanted to be in the first place. All's well that ends well, or to put it another way, antioxidants to the rescue.

The antioxidant properties of any element are measured on the ORAC scale, or Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. For those of us without chemistry degrees, I'll just stick to measuring ORAC "units", rather than go into a long winded description of the actual values involved in the ORAC. Simply put, low ORAC is bad, high ORAC is good.

The USDA recommends a daily intake of 3,000 to 5,000 ORAC units. The "5 fruits and veg a day" programs provide around 1,700 ORAC units daily, so around half the lower USDA recommendations. Truth be told, over 75% of the population take in less than 1,000 ORAC units a day. No wonder free radical related illnesses are on the increase.

Fruits and vegetables are the richest source of ORAC units, and the acai berry tops the league table with a massive 5,500 ORAC units per 100 grams. Compare that to the 218 per 100 grams of apples, 221 for bananas and 2,400 for blueberries and you start to see the amazing acai antioxidant. Even higher, values for freeze dried acai antioxidant, weigh in at 50,000 ORAC units per 100 grams. Look out free radicals, here comes the acai antioxidant express.

What about the other elements of the acai berry though? Good question and it leads us rather nicely into the French Paradox. The French as a nation, consume large amounts of coffee, cheese, processed carbohydrates, and, wait for it, red wine. With that kind of diet, you would expect the French to have a high rate of heart disease. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Despite the artery clogging diet, the French enjoy one of the lowest rates of heart disease.

Research points to the anthocyanins in red wine being responsible for this low rate of heart disease. Ever wondered where grapes get their purple color from? Anthocyanins. Anthocyanins do more than just providing color though. They also protect plants from the ultra violet effects of strong sunlight, much like a sunscreen. Ultra violet light creates free radicals, so plants exposed to strong sunlight develop high levels of anthocyanins, as their antioxidant properties fight these free radicals.

Acai berries are rich in anthocyanins. Rich to the tune of over 30 times the anthocyanins found in red wine. Not only that, but the antioxidant properties of anthocyanins pass from host to host. Eat an acai berry and the anthocyanins pass their antioxidant powers to you.

Read our acai capsules comparisons and see how their acai antioxidant levels stack up.

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