List of antioxidant foods:

The top twenty antioxidant rich foods, as determined by the United States Department of Agriculture and reported in the June Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, are as follows:

• Small red beans (dried).
• Wild blueberries.
• Red Kidney beans.
• Pinto beans.
• Blueberries (cultivated).
• Cranberries.
• Artichokes (cooked).
• Blackberries.
• Prunes.
• Raspberries.
• Strawberries.
• Red Delicious apples.
• Granny Smith apples.
• Pecans.
• Sweet cherries.
• Black plums.
• Russet potatoes (cooked).
• Black beans (dried).
• Plums.
• Gala apples.

These are in order according to the amount of antioxidants which the foods contain. One trend you may notice while perusing the list of antioxidant foods is the amount of vibrantly colored food contained therein. This actually is not a coincidence.

While little is known about antioxidants, it is a fact that it seems the best antioxidant rich foods contain vibrant colors. For example, lycopene is a compound which is found in tomatoes and watermelons, which is both a rich antioxidant and the agent that gives these foods their rich color.

When reviewing this list of antioxidant foods, it’s important to know that the way you consume the foods can greatly affect the amount of antioxidants your body absorbs in the process. For example, if you were to eat wild blueberries fresh, you would be eating one of the most antioxidant rich foods on the planet. On the other hand, if you were to make the wild blueberries into a pie and cook them, most of their value as antioxidants would be lost.

On the other hand, fresh tomatoes contain a decent amount of antioxidants, but if you were to cook them, their absorption values for antioxidants would skyrocket. This odd trend is one of the many mysteries placed in front of us today as we struggle to learn more about these crucial nutrients