ORAC values

[rainbowgardener]

So the tea thread has me thinking again about growing Camellia siniesis some day. I'm only willing to do it if I find one that is reliably hardy in zone 6. I have enough stuff to drag in for the winter. In the meantime, looking it up and reading about tea took me surfing, leading to the anti-oxidant value of tea, leading to ORAC values.

I had not heard that term before (probably meaning I'm way behind the times). ORAC = Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. It is a measure of the anti-oxidizing power of a particular food. So even though we talk about anti-oxidants kind of generally, some of them are way more powerful at binding oxygen free-radicals than others. It turns out most of the really potent ones are spices and some herbs. At the top of the list is ground cloves at 314,000 ORAC units. (ORAC values are listed as (µmol TE/100g) (micromol Trolox Equivalent per 100 grams). Trolox equivalency is used as a benchmark for the antioxidant capacity. I have no idea what all that means but the units give you a way to compare anti-oxidizing power.)

In the top 20 high ORAC value foods are also cinnamon, dried oregano, turmeric, unsweetened cocoa powder, cumin seed, dried parsley, dried basil, curry powder. Curry powder is 16th on the list at 48,000 units. (The units/power falls off rapidly after the top four.) The list of 20th - 40th includes sage, mustard, ginger, pepper, marjoram, chili powder, dark chocolate, paprika, tarragon.

All together 20 of the top 50 on the list are herbs and spices. So spice up your foods everyone, it is really, really good for you!!

Here's the list of the top 100 most potent anti-oxidizers (and where all the above comes from):

https://modernsurvivalblog.com/health/hi ... s-top-100/

[imafan26]

Very interesting research.

[DoubleDogFarm]

The USDA recommends an ORAC unit ingestion of about 3000 to 5000 units daily. The ORAC values of a certain food can differ due to growing conditions, processing conditions, and variety.

Not sure, maybe I missed. Does the article address cooking / heat destroying the benefits.

Eric

[rainbowgardener]

No, it's very basic. It doesn't even tell the quantities. So it says ground cloves are 314,000 units and blueberries are 6500. But if I'm reading it right, that's for 100 grams of whatever. Anyway the same quantity by weight. But you might eat a bowlful of blueberries, but probably less than 1/4 tsp of cloves in one serving of something. So how does the bowlful of berries compare to the 1/4 tsp of cloves? Doesn't give you much idea. The 1/4 tsp is well less than 100 grams and the bowlful of berries is a lot more. Let's see... if you ate 8 oz blueberries, that's 224 gms. 2.24 x 6500 = 14,560 ORAC units. 1/4 tsp = 1.25 grams, so it would take 20 tsps to = 100 grams. So 314,00 / 80 = 3925 ORACs. So if I did all that right, the 8 oz of blueberries is more than 3 times as many ORAC units as the 1/4 tsp of cloves, even though the cloves are so much more potent by weight.

So it's just a starting point to give you an idea of what foods are really potent anti-oxidants. Beyond that someone has to do more research and you have to use common sense....

[tomf]

This is something for me to study, thanks.

[rainbowgardener]

So last night I made a Pakistani veggie dish with turmeric, ginger, red pepper flakes, black pepper, garam masala. Inspired by the above, I doubled all the spices and more than doubled the turmeric, since it isn't hot.

Very yum and just think of all those ORACs!


(I'm going to have to buy more turmeric soon! I'm one of the few people I know that actually uses up their spices.)

[digitS']

See, this information may have already begun to reinforce good behavior, RG.

For me, I think you'd have to hold a gun to my head to get me to eat 1/4t of cloves. Oh, I like the flavor and will put all that sort of stuff in my food, but I want it in small doses.

Animal-based foods are low in antioxidants. Plant-based foods are antioxidant rich. Generally, yet there is nothing too absolute about it.

You should know that there is a little controversy about antioxidants, at the highest levels. (Always some controversy about diets & health, I suppose.) The USDA has pulled their ORAC chart, as best as I understand, because some of the things it measures haven't been shown to be of health benefit. So, the levels are inflated for some foods without good reason.

Here is what the USDA said: "Recently the USDA’s Nutrient Data Laboratory (NDL) removed the USDA ORAC Database for Selected Foods from the NDL website due to mounting evidence that the values indicating antioxidant capacity have no relevance to the effects of specific bioactive compounds, including polyphenols on human health."

Now, I don't claim to know much of anything about them but if you want a fairly comprehensive listing of antioxidant levels of all sorts of food (where's my breakfast persimmon ?) Here is the story on the research behind it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article ... 6/bin/1475

And, here is the pdf file: Antioxidant Food Table There are lots of pages but it is a text file and downloads quickly.

You would be 100% correct in pointing out that this information I've linked still doesn't solve the USDA's problem with this kind of list. Analysis is still too broad by including too many of the antioxidants and the benefit of those to human health cannot be verified.

Steve

[applestar]

Very interesting.

The little cynic in me is saying the USDA pulling the ORAC database might have more to do with FDA and not wanting to encourage natural supplements of this kind of stuff in capsules because that would be one way they can be promoted in large doses. And yet, as pointed out they cannot be eaten in high volumes as food. Common sense must apply here too. If you can't eat them unless you swallow them whole, are they really good for you?

Large doses of some spices can be toxic -- I'm reminded of a sci-fi novel I like called The Galactic Gourmet by James White.

I DID think of another way to increase "intake" of these spices though -- if you mix up your own Chai "tea" spice blend from freshly ground spices. I like drinking Chai during the winter months. I should start thinking about replenishing my spice cupboard -- spices turn over better near Thanksgiving and hopefully you can get fresher inventory.

[digitS']

There are also antioxidant properties to Vitamin C & Vitamin E, for example. Beta-carotene is on its way to being Vitamin A and acts as an antioxidant.

They are found in plants in varying amounts - some trifling but the spices seem to come on strong with vitamin C, especially.

No question that these vitamins are important to human health.

Steve

[Susan W]

Thanks for sharing.
As has been noted, does cooking (heat) make changes in benefits? Also, I noticed for regular green herbs, is listed as dried. What's that about?! I would think fresh just off the plant basil, parsley, oregano etc better than dried.

[rainbowgardener]

Don't know about the effects of cooking.

But no, for the herbs, drying actually concentrates the active ingredients. I'm sure you have seen in recipes things like "1 tablespoon of fresh basil or 1 teaspoon of dried." The tablespoon of fresh herb has what is in the teaspoon of dried, plus a bunch of water. Getting rid of the water concentrates both the flavor and what ever has the anti-oxidant effects (which may be the same thing!).