ORAC

How Do You “Measure” Antioxidants?

Hopefully since you’ve gotten this far, you’re starting to get a good idea of why you should eat, what you should eat, to maintain a good gout diet. The missing piece of the puzzle is some foods have more antioxidant power than others and that means ORAC.

How do we know? How do we measure it?

What Is ORAC?

“Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity”.

Once again, there is an enormous amount of very technical language to contend with. You can find a detailed explanation at Wikipedia about ORAC, but for our purposes, I want to try to keep this simple.

ORAC scores or values were developed by scientists at the National Institutes of Health. All the studies, testing and experimentation indicate that foods with higher values have a greater ability to neutralize the effects of free radicals. This is critical for slowing down the aging process and to help protect us from disease.

One of the most well-known companies to test for antioxidant potency is Brunswick Labs. They’ve been working closely with the USDA since 1997. (But that doesn’t make them all bad)

Depending on who you talk to, a good daily score is between 5000 and 6000 per day. Others say that 10,000 is optimal. As a side note, it’s good to try to keep your scores high because it is usually a good indicator that you’re getting a healthy dose of flavonoids.

Flavonoids are measured in milligrams. (mg) 1000mg or higher is what you and I are looking for when it comes to boosting up our sources of anti-inflammatory food sources that help keep the gout away.

Flavonoids Are Very Anti-inflammatory

It’s important to understand what the numbers mean when comparing the ORAC values of different foods. The values are based on a laboratory measure and expressed in micromoles (one millionth (10^-6) of a mole) of Trolox Equivalents per 100 grams of a given sample.

It’s important when comparing something like a ground spice to something like a raw fruit. 100 grams of ground spice is much more dense in organic compounds. Therefore, spices will undoubtedly have a higher ORAC value compared to 100 grams of a raw fruit that is made up of mostly water. You would find it difficult and even dangerous to consume large quantities of spices. Eating a wide variety of antioxidant-rich foods is advisable.

While various spices and herbs have outstanding antioxidant values, it is more commonly understood that dark-skinned fruits and green leafy vegetables are the more common and readily available sources. To get more specific, look for food that are high in flavonoids – here are a few ideas:

Fruits:

• raspberries
• cherries
• red grapes
• bananas
• oranges
• apples
• plums
• peaches
• apricots

Some Nuts:

• walnuts
• pecans
• pistachios

Nightshade Vegetables:

• tomatoes
• peppers
• eggplant
• onions
• celery
• artichokes
• snap peas
• okra
• broccoli
• kale

Spices:

• dill
• parsley
• thyme
• capers

Some Beans:

• black beans
• kidneys
• fava beans
• pinto beans

(be careful with beans! high purines!)

I saved the best for last. A food source with a particularly high ORAC value is raw cacao. Cold-pressed dark chocolate can be incredibly helpful with gout simply because of the high rate of “compliance” – with dark chocolate, you’ll never forget to load up on antioxidants.

   ☆ Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity…antioxidant power.