Stay healthy with an antioxidant rich diet. Antioxidants are substances found in healthy organic coffee and other foods. They help reduce the incidence of Type II Diabetes, many forms of cancer, depression and diseases as diverse as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Although there are foods and beverages that contain higher concentrations of antioxidants, coffee is the leading source of these helpful substances simply because people drink a lot of coffee. Here is some recent information regarding better health with an antioxidant rich diet.
Antioxidants and Blood Sugar
We knew that regular and organic coffee antioxidants help reduce the risk of diabetes but now it is clear that an antioxidant rich diet can lower blood sugar. The antioxidants involved are polyphenols and are found in large quantities in the following foods and drinks. The following is a partial list from the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Identification of the 100 richest dietary sources of polyphenols: an application of the Phenol-Explorer database.
| Food or Drink | Polyphenol Content as mg/100g |
| Cloves | 15,188 |
| Dried peppermint | 11,960 |
| Star anise | 5,460 |
| Cocoa powder | 3448 |
| Dried Mexican oregano | 2319 |
| Celery seed | 2094 |
| Black chokecherry | 1756 |
| Dark Chocolate | 1664 |
| Flaxseed meal | 1528 |
| Black elderberry | 1359 |
| Chestnut | 1215 |
| Dried common sage, rosemary, spearmint and thyme | 1207-878 |
| Lowbush blueberry | 836 |
| Black Olive | 569 |
| Green Olive | 346 |
| Coffee | 214 |
| Almonds | 187 |
| Red Wine | 101 |
| Green tea | 87 |
As is apparent from the table, there are food sources that extremely rich in polyphenols and can help contribute to an antioxidant rich diet. As a practical matter you are probably not going to eat large quantities of cloves, dried peppermint or star anise. But you may use cocoa powder in cooking or to make hot chocolate. Dark chocolate comes in high on the list but sage and the other seasonings are commonly not eaten in great quantities. Coffee has about a seventieth the concentration of polyphenols as cloves but one is certainly likely to consume much greater than seventy times as much coffee in a day, week, month or year than cloves.
Practical Steps for an Antioxidant Rich Diet
A practical approach is to add enough antioxidants to your diet to make a difference. This has to be done on a daily basis and has to be realistic. Olives and olive oil can be used for cooking and on salads every day. A cup of hot cocoa can be a routine part of a diet as can two, three or four cups of coffee every day. Cloves, oregano and seasonings such as thyme, sage and rosemary all are great sources for an antioxidant rich diet and can routinely be used in cooking. But quantity is important. That is where coffee, tea, cocoa and olives or olive oil are essential for an antioxidant rich diet.
Coffee, Coffee, Coffee
Study after study has shown that daily consumption of antioxidant rich coffee is beneficial to your health. Healthy coffees such as the many Colombian organic coffee brands are great antioxidant sources and great tasting as well. For help finding the organic coffee that you like contact us at Buy Organic Coffee today.