Minimum Recommended Daily Allowance of Antioxidants

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DESCRIPTION: How many antioxidant-rich foods do we need to eat every day just to stay out of oxidative debt?
If those citrus phytonutrients sounded familiar to you, it's because I mentioned them before in videos like Keeping Your Hands Warm With Citrus (nutritionfacts.org/video/keepi...) and Reducing Muscle Fatigue With Citrus (nutritionfacts.org/video/reduc.... It's still better to eat the whole fruit though (See Best Fruit Juice, nutritionfacts.org/video/best-... and Apple Juice May Be Worse Than Sugar Water, nutritionfacts.org/video/apple....
Digestion isn't the only physiological source of free radicals-exercise is too. See Preventing Exercise-Induced Oxidative Stress With Watercress (nutritionfacts.org/video/preve....
Background on the role free radicals play in aging and disease can be found in my video Mitochondrial Theory of Aging (nutritionfacts.org/video/mitoc.... Antioxidant rich diets can even change gene expression: Plant-Based Diets and Cellular Stress Defenses (nutritionfacts.org/video/plant....
What's the best way of reaching our daily minimum of 8-11,000 antioxidant units a day? So glad you asked! Covered in my next video, How to Reach the Antioxidant RDA (nutritionfacts.org/video/how-t....
Have a question for Dr. Greger about this video? Leave it in the comment section at nutritionfacts.org/video/minim... and he'll try to answer it!
Image Credit: TheFoodJunk via flickr; and OCAL, Joshua8420, and Philip Hilgaertner via clker.com.
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[@roathripper]

this has to be one of the best channels on utube. Thank you Dr Greger!

[@WhiteKitta]

YES it is!

[@valnaples]

HOW could I *not like* this???? Dr. Greger, you have shown me the way to antioxidant nirvana (I hope!!! LOL)...with all of your prior videos!!! Amla, blueberries, ground cloves, etc...I try to PLAN each day with antioxidants...green tea and hibiscus tea too! Thanks for all you are doing to help save us!

[@l.ondracek]

Thank you for all your videos sir. Very well made and informative. I'm learning amazing things every week and sharing them with everyone!

[@MsFlamingFlamer]

Thank you so much for these videos dr Gregor ❤️

[@Lars-Peter-Lueg]

Very good video!

[@finmanau]

Fantastic .... Thanks Dr

[@justgivemethetruth954]

Thank you for a really great video - this is really important. We always hear about anti-oxidants, but very little about the what or why of anti-oxidants. How about some information on what an oxidant related disease is and how it works?

[@ldjt6184]

Dr. Gregor, is there such a thing as getting too many antioxidants a day...to the point that a pro-oxidant effed takes place?

[@foreverbydaogolf]

thx a lot for good knowledge

[@Meccarox]

Amazing video with great information.

[@migraine516]

I cherish your videos.

[@BrownBagSB]

Intresting!

[@SaludesHealth]

thanks

[@Timpfe]

Perfect

[@mrscaterina]

why USDA said that the estimated amount requirment of ORAC is between 3000 and 5000 and the Prior's study (min 2.38) said that it depends on your energy intake? What the most researchers say about it?

[@a0667318]

1Table 1. Composition and Amounts Consumed in Meals Containing Blueberries (BB), Dried Plums (DP), Dried Plum Juice (DPJ), Cherry, Kiwifruit, Strawberry (SB), and Red Grape: 189g. 131g, 315g, 280g, 300g, 300g, 280g : each blended with about 300ml of water so, 7 different kinds of smoothies

[@AndrewPawley11]

I love this channel!

[@PercivalBlakeney]

Oh Dr. Greger is there anything you don't know? Seriously "Daktah Gee" , you are a continuing source of enlightenment to the rest of us. VMT's genuinely. ^_^

[@damonstoudamiree]

Bel video!

[@lukestewart4755]

This verifies what i have said for years. That all calories will create a basic inflammation if there aren't natural antioxidants to accompany them. But how much clove or green tea etc are you recommending?

[@sanjeevhanda503]

Dr Greger is a saint disguised as a doctor

[@kinddata]

Astaxanthin. Good, bad or in between ?

[@manmango4126]

Hello Dr.Greger, Hello healthy people, Is it possible to take to much antioxidants?? Do i have to limit or can i eat several gramms of amla for example?? Especially after sport i read free r are neccesary. Who knows more?

[@marcofognog]

Alright, 11 0000 mols of antioxidants ... but, can you give me that in terms of bananas?

[@SongwriterTaco]

the ideal diet is to have the majority of your calories coming from fruits and vegetables

[@AstralS7orm]

Trolox equivalent = vitamin E equivalent. Vitamin E is a relatively weak antioxidant both in vivo and in vitro, but is quite easy to store. (As are vitamin C, A and K, the last two having main action in specific tissues. Folate and B12 also work as an antioxidant indirectly by sparing betaine and are a major part of homocysteine metabolism.) This number, as in the study above, is meaningless in specifying actual amount - except perhaps in as much as saying "more plants is good". ORAC is determined in a test tube - someone should measure actual antioxidant status after polyphenol ingestion, but it's very hard to do - you'd need to measure antioxidant capability of the serum and blood for example and even that is speculative and says nothing about tissue capability. (E.g. uric acid is active in blood but not active in tissues.) Have a short meaningless table: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_radical_absorbance_capacity

[@ChuckFreeburg]

Looks like about .34mmol/100g according to that list of 3100 antioxidant foods. This is why I’m confused his chart said 11mmol then he was like we need 11,000. Then why didn’t he change the units on his graph.

[@tobibader]

What does the number 11,000 mean in fruits, for example blueberries?

[@justgivemethetruth954]

I hope it doesn't mean 11,000 blueberries because the price of blueberries would kill me before the anti-oxidants could cure me!

[@tobibader]

I hope so too :)

[@intralimpidus6216]

Here's a list of the antioxidant content of over 3,100 foods: static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1186%2F1475-2891-9-3/MediaObjects/12937_2009_259_MOESM1_ESM.PDF

[@chiyerano]

More reason to eat more plant based whole food.

[@fistoffries]

What does 11,000 micromols translate to in laymen terms, say pounds of fruits?

[@fistoffries]

***** Thanks, but he covered it in the follow up video on 12/13/2013.

[@ernieblenkinsop782]

This could mean that reducing one's stress from all causes is the way to go, don't eat food that causes metabolic stress, don't go hungry, don't get dehydrated, don't lack sleep, don't over-do the exercise, don't have a stressful job, don't get stressed!

[@pastukas]

Ernie Blenkinsop or just simply LIVE a life with the plenty of help of our little berry/legume friends

[@ElectricityTaster]

What happens when you drink high fructose corn syroup water?

[@toylo9567]

oxidation and inflammation happens

[@SuperVt100]

The micromole is 1 million of a mole. For an explanation of a mole, look it up on Wikipedia. It has to do with the number of elemental particles of a substance.

[@Soul_Younes]

*soaks coal in water* ah yes, carbs!

[@WhiteKitta]

awesome... well then I get an Antioxidant overdose every day...I eat and drink tones of berries, leafy greens, veggies, wild foods and super foods every day ...(raw, organic or wild of course).....mmmhhh so yummy.. :-)

[@richardf911]

What's wrong with this Dr. Greger guy? He's giving away all the secrets!

[@howardjohnson9110]

Did that impart any useful information to me? Not that I can see.

[@martinplasse174]

How so? It is pretty clear: you need to eat antioxydant rich foods i.e. plants and avoid antioxydant poor foods i.e animal products.

[@AstralS7orm]

Martin Plasse It's not clear at all and bears little information about which plants, plant products and how much. It's no better than other epidemiology.

[@martinplasse174]

AstralStorm WO' wo, If you want precise info you need to go and look at the studies he suggests for yourself. And most importantly, you need to understand this video is one of MANY on antioxydants and such by Dr. Greger. and is meant to be viewed as such. Just search for them you'll find a wealth of info on the quality and quantity. Eat as much plants as you want, and eat more than less.

[@houndjog]

Ok...I'll fry an onion with my eggs :)

[@houndjog]

***** Actually was a Vegan before and got terribly DEPRESSED - Eggs were the savior. I eat 3 eggs every morning with tumeric and black pepper!

[@IResonateWithU]

houndjog keep us posted on how that plays out. Most vegans with depression arent getting enough calories,or they are consuming too much fat. Has zero to do with eating a bird-period. Seriously, a person who is calorie deficient will have even more symptoms than depression...like dry skin and skin ailments, brain fog, aches and pains over time....the body is not saying "please go find a bird...it must be one that goes "cluck", and wait for something to drop out its ass so that I can feel better". That would be a horrible,rotten,gross joke that evolution is playing. Just plain logic.

[@houndjog]

***** Unfertilized eggs ....oxymoron? Why would God create chickens to lay eggs that will never turn into a chicken? Sounds like fair food source to me!

[@houndjog]

***** Tisk tisk .....your ugliness reveals who is depressed. Get a life! Being Dr. Greger's channel troll is not a noble profession!

[@lapatria100]

nah, you just need to carb up, bro.