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What is an Antioxidant? Will Eating this Help Me Lose Weight??

Nutrition  •  October 28, 2019

An antioxidant is a compound most often found in foods that inhibits OXIDATION, which is a chemical reaction that produces free radicals in the body.   What’s the big deal about free radicals??  Free radicals cause cell damage and play a role in promoting many cancers, heart disease, and other disease processes all over the body.  Keeping the free radical count down is very positive for our long-term health.

Some foods that are good sources of antioxidants:

• Blueberries
• Red and purple grapes
• Red berries like strawberries and raspberries
• Nuts, particularly walnuts
• Dark green veggies like broccoli, kale, spinach and collard greens
• Sweet potatoes and carrots
• Green tea
• Beans
• Fish, particularly sardines, salmon, oysters, mackerel, tuna, shark steak and albacore tuna.

The nice thing about most of these food is that they are all healthy and low in calories!!  The only foods that really needs to be portion-controlled are the walnuts and the beans: Walnuts are super high in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, but they should only be eaten as about 1/8 to ¼ cup per day.  Beans are also an incredible source of antioxidants, protein and fiber, but are a bit high in calories also so should be eaten at just about ½ cup per day. 

If you eat some of the foods on this list every day your risk for all-cause mortality should go down, and you will probably be making some overall better food choices so may lose a bit of weight in the process.  A bowl of berries for a snack instead of a handful of pretzels or popcorn is a great nutritious switch. Also, making an effort to get a serving of one of those dark green veggies every day at dinner will certainly boost your health and keep you feeling more full with fewer calories than many other foods.

Treat your body with respect and get in a few servings of a high antioxidant food every day!