Re: ANTIOXIDANT SUPERFOOD LIST.

[lrduff]

Anyone have information on the possibility of too much antioxidants and possible unhealthy effects? Something was mentioned in an earlier post (can't find now) in response to someone listing their daily ORAC regimen for breakfast, lunch, dinner (cloves, cacoa, etc.) with extremely high concentrations. Is more better?

[esoteric17]

lrduff Wrote:Anyone have information on the possibility of too much antioxidants and possible unhealthy effects? Something was mentioned in an earlier post (can't find now) in response to someone listing their daily ORAC regimen for breakfast, lunch, dinner (cloves, cacoa, etc.) with extremely high concentrations. Is more better?

Certainly you can't OD on antioxidants from food (fruits, vegetables, grains, juices). Whatever you don't absorb will just pass through. I'd be weary of some of the highly concentrated volatile oils like clove though; clove can be toxic. I use a little dash of true ceylon cinnamon instead. As for the supplements, there are many great antioxidants, but do your research. For example, curcumin (turmeric) or silymarin (milk thistle) both have effects on liver enzymes involved in drug metabolism and can cause interactions with prescription drugs.

To be on the safe side, stick to whole food antioxidants. You'll get PLENTY of antioxidants if you just add a few high orac items from this site to your diet (e.g. walnuts, dried cranberries, apples, grape juice), and won't have to worry about safety. The values on this site are very useful: many everyday fruits and vegetables surpass the ORAC activity of the "superfruits" and supplements.

[philipjterry]

On the Orac Score table it shows Acai as having more orac score than Maqui berry. Why is that? I thought Maqui was something like 3 times more powerful than Acai? Be great if someone could help me set the record straight on this?

[goldena]

Are omega-3 pills that you can buy at a vitamin store have any mercury in them? I just read from another question I asked that omega-3 fatty acids is good to take if your pregnant, but to be careful about mercury levels. Do omega-3 fatty acid pills have any mercury in them? Can I just have my wife take those pills instead of eating fish?

[Jelena Djordjevic]

lrduff Wrote:Anyone have information on the possibility of too much antioxidants and possible unhealthy effects? Something was mentioned in an earlier post (can't find now) in response to someone listing their daily ORAC regimen for breakfast, lunch, dinner (cloves, cacoa, etc.) with extremely high concentrations. Is more better?

There are side effects of antioxidants, or better to say, interaction between other antioxidants in diatary suplements, and with drugs. Antioxidants are not hermless and you can overdose. The most frequent interaction is betwen ginko biloba and aspirin. Why?
Because every antioxidant is anticoagulant. Aspirin is anticoagulant. The summary is highest anticoagulant effect and it may cause bleeding anywhere in body. If you take at least 325mg of aspirin per day, an take ginko biloba, there is a huge possibility to cause haematoma. This is the frequent interaction betwen food antioxidants and drugs. Then you should be carefull if you take antidiabetic drugs, because antioxidants can decrese you glycemia and cause hypoglycemia.
So you should be carefull, nothing isn`t harmless.
If you take antioxidants directly from food, you can hardly overdose. But if you take dietary suplements - you can overdose.

[maxD]

My previous posting was in the wrong forum - it should be in this, the FOOD forum.

I was searching, but could not find anybody referring to the food with the highest ORAC score I ever noticed: extracts based on the Chaga mushroom.

The Chaga mushroom is a parasite that grows on birch trees and has many medicinal qualities, apart from the ORAC score.
Check wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaga_mushroom.
Check PubMed [scientific literature and publications]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/gquery?term=chaga

http://oriveda.com/chaga/resources.php shows a small bar graph that is self explanatory.



How come this was never mentioned here ?

[thoughtfulliving]

I find this scare about coumarin interesting. It reminds me of how people are ingrained into thinking how bad benzene is but as far as fuel oxygenates such as methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) that has a higher water solubility and can be in underground fuel tank leak plumes, traveling much farther than the relatively water insoluble benzene.

As you see, the relative acute toxicity RATIOS are similar. Evil benzene is only 3X more toxic than MTBE. Coumarin is just 3X more toxic than cinnamaldehyde, as tested by Jenner et al. in 1964 for each chemical using rats with oral administration.

[thoughtfulliving]

maxD wrote :
> I was searching, but could not find anybody referring to the food with the
> highest ORAC score I ever noticed: extracts based on the Chaga mushroom.
>
> The Chaga mushroom is a parasite that grows on birch trees and has many
> medicinal qualities, apart from the ORAC score.

That is interesting about the chaga mushroom. Perhaps all powerful antioxidants can be used somehow to ward off cancer. Even alkaline water purportedly helps. We are at the cusp of a great amount of discoveries for treatment without surgery (at least to some extent). In a way, it's like almost going back in time with rediscovery of what we have naturally around us on this planet to be used wisely for prophylactic care or in larger quantities for therapy. Sadly, the FDA and ordinary medical professionals suppress this since it would work contrary to them making a good living maintaining their status quo. I have reservations on some things like homeopathy but it need not be discussed here.

Now, what I see as the next new coffee product is chaga fortified coffee based on the wiki article.

[MaRtiNSeaN]

Well as posted here "Anyone have information on the possibility of too much antioxidants and possible unhealthy effects? Something was mentioned in an earlier post (can't find now) in response to someone listing their daily ORAC regimen for breakfast" so is that really concern to Anti Oxidants...

[Oriveda]

(02-04-2011 02:55 PM)thoughtfulliving Wrote:  (...)
Now, what I see as the next new coffee product is chaga fortified coffee based on the wiki article.

Actually there are already quite a few people selling Chaga coffee (or tea) out there. The only thing to keep in mind is that you need to brew it pretty long to expect therapeutic effects - steeping a teabag in hot water for 5 minutes is not enough. Making Chaga tea is in fact the original Siberian way to benefit from the medicinal properties of Chaga. They used a samovar, creating a tea concentrate (known a zavarka) by drawing the chaga (or general tea) all day long and diluting this concentrate with warm water when they wanted to drink it.

In fact they were performing a single hot water extraction this way, thus releasing the bioactive components from the indigestible chitin cell walls in which they are locked. You can do the same at home when you brew your chaga tea, but take your time!
Don't go for the method 'health guru' Daniel Vitalis is recommending: quick and fast, use a blender, etc. The result will still be undigestible. Mushrooms are made of undigestible chitin - you need heat (like when cooking them) to 'melt' this chitin and to set the medicinal components and anti-oxidants free.
People that want to read more details about Chaga and its qualities can go here: http://www.chaga.us.oriveda.com/chaga_details.php