The ORAC Wars

Oxygen Radical Absorbency Capacity ( ORAC ) is a method of measuring the antioxidant capacity of foods by assigning a value which can then be used to determine their impact on free radicals.

In order to identify foods which offer a higher antioxidant capacity Nutritionists use ORAC scores. Foods with higher scores can absorb more radicals.

Recently these values have been bandied about like they were something magical and have come to be understood as THE way to determine which product is better than the rest.

This can be very misleading! Please read on and I will explain.

What They Tell You

Many foods contain antioxidant molecules which have the potential to reduce diseases triggered by free radicals at the cellular level.

In order to quantify the potential of these antioxidant molecules, a system of measurement was created and called the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity.

This measurement (score) is used to rate antioxidant activity and therefore place a value on the fight against Free Radical activity in your body.

"My product has the highest score and therefore is better than blah, blah, blah"

What They Don’t Tell You

Having a high score is a very hot trend now and companies are doing whatever they can to boost the score of their products.

Knowing the ORAC Score alone is not enough. It is much more important to understand the range of chemicals that contribute to this score.

It is also very important that the units being compared are similar. Are the scores reported as:

• units per grams dry weight,
• units per grams wet weight, or
• units per serving

For example, if you use “wet weight” a raisin will score higher than a grape even though they are essentially the same thing. This is because of the difference in water content. For the same reason, watermelons will rank unfairly low because of their large water content.

Many health food companies post high ratings and claim their products to be number one for antioxidant capacity.

Unfortunately most of them have not had their products studied and published in Scientific Journals so the accuracy of their data is hard to evaluate. We also don’t know how absorbable the nutrients are.

The Bottom Line?

An ORAC score is only meaningful in terms of the benefits provided to your body from the antioxidants that make up the score.

Aside from the whole “absorb-ability of the nutrients” question you should also consider what nutrients make up the score. Does the product have a broad spectrum of antioxidant components or are they “hanging their hat” on only one nutrient?

For the best results look for products that contain a variety of antioxidants from different sources.

There are lots of fruits, vegetables and herbs that have a high rating. The following “miracle” plants have recently met with lots of publicity and health claims abound:

• Acai berries,
• Mangostein (or Mangosteen),
• Blueberries and
• Goji

I believe they are all very good and well worth the cost but, allow me to introduce you to …

Do You Want to Know a Secret?

There is a very hardy little grape that has been getting some extremely good reviews lately and dare I say it????

… They have one of the highest ORAC Scores of any fruit you can name and are an outstanding source of multiple protective antioxidants including the much publicized Resveratrol. This gives them an advantage when fighting the free radicals that enter your body.

You probably haven’t heard of it yet and many of the lists of high oxidative foods don’t even show it as an “also ran”.

This I am sure will soon be changed.

The Muscadine Grape grows in the harshest of conditions in southeastern United States and was growing wild even before European settlers arrived back in the 1500’s.

For more information on this “Super Fruit” click the link above.

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