oracs and anti-oxidants

This week's question comes from Richard who asks what the ORAC content is of our pomegranate, blueberries and acai smoothie. I'm afraid I'm going to have to go a bit geeky on you for this one.

Firstly what on earth is an ORAC? ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity and is the method of measuring anti-oxidants in foods. ORAC results are often presented as something known as Trolox equivalents (TE) and the units are in micromole per gram (umol TE/g).

And what is an anti-oxidant exactly? Anti-oxidants are natural chemicals found in food, especially fruit and veg. They help to neutralise free radicals which can cause damage to the body's cells. A free radical is an unpaired electron (so it has a negative charge). An anti-oxidant can neutralise the negative charge and so stops damage.

There are various families of anti-oxidants found in fruit. These include flavanoids, polyphenols, anthocyanins, and vitamins A, C and E.  Pomegranates, blueberries and acai all contain good levels of anti-oxidants and this smoothie contain over 3000 umol per 250ml which is pretty good for a little bottle. And if that wasn't good enough this smoothie also gives you 2 portions of fruit.

As ever let me know if you have any questions.

Bye for now

Dr Shilps

This week's question comes from Richard who asks what the ORAC content is of our pomegranate, blueberries and acai smoothie. I'm afraid I'm going to have to go a bit geeky on you for this one.

Firstly what on earth is an ORAC? ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity and is the method of measuring anti-oxidants in foods. ORAC results are often presented as something known as Trolox equivalents (TE) and the units are in micromole per gram (umol TE/g).

And what is an anti-oxidant exactly? Anti-oxidants are natural chemicals found in food, especially fruit and veg. They help to neutralise free radicals which can cause damage to the body's cells. A free radical is an unpaired electron (so it has a negative charge). An anti-oxidant can neutralise the negative charge and so stops damage.

There are various families of anti-oxidants found in fruit. These include flavanoids, polyphenols, anthocyanins, and vitamins A, C and E.  Pomegranates, blueberries and acai all contain good levels of anti-oxidants and this smoothie contain over 3000 umol per 250ml which is pretty good for a little bottle. And if that wasn't good enough this smoothie also gives you 2 portions of fruit.

As ever let me know if you have any questions.

Bye for now

Dr Shilps