Antioxidant Foods: 6 Top Antioxidants & Rich Food Sources

What Are Antioxidants?

There are so many antioxidant rich foods available to us, with the proper resources you can add so many new foods into your diet. Around 2 billion people worldwide are deficient in essential minerals and vitamins which means a lot of us could be eating more nutrient rich foods.

Many antioxidants are vitamins by nature. This means that making sure your diet has enough antioxidants is key to maintaining quality of life, especially as we age.

There are toxins or radicals trying to cause damaging alterations to our body’s internal structures on a daily basis and oxidative stress. The term antioxidant comes from the ability to prevent oxidation. Antioxidants stand in the way of another molecule taking part in an energetic reaction, where high energy electrons are exchanged, preventing oxidation.

Two examples of this are where foods go off, or cells become damaged.

When we age, cells disintegrate and don’t work as they did before. The parts of the cells in your body can become so damaged they are unable to repair themselves as well.

This aspect of the ageing process is happening constantly in your body and require antioxidants to balance recovery after damage.

When fruits or vegetables go off, they change colour to a darkened brown or black. This happens with the accumulation of reactive oxygen species radicals and nitrogen radicals. They cause the subsequent breakdown of the fruit’s internal structures.  This is also known as the ripening process. You can quite easily identify antioxidant rich fruits for example, because of their bright colouration. These fruits, or vegetables, are usually abundant in vitamin C or vitamin A.

We have also adapted to identify these fruits because of their bright or interesting colourations. These include fruits like bell peppers, citrus fruits or deeply coloured carrots.

Antioxidants: Role in our Body

The function of antioxidants is very simple.

Antioxidants neutralize threatening cell damage from unstable molecules, helping to maintain the biochemical harmony in your cells that is essential for life.

They maintain the overall stability of cells, or their homeostasis, so that they can survive. Without the internal balances in cells, they are not able to function as they are meant to and they die.

Unstable radical molecules tend to have a high energy electron, or electrons, that are highly reactive. Through the prevention of direct reactive, or redox, damage from these unstable radical molecules, antioxidants protect cells, organs and tissues against critical damage.

Reactive radical damage occurs when cells in the body, or the skin, come under attack from free radical molecules. This includes irreversible damage to DNA that causes cancers.

When the body’s antioxidant system fails your body has back up cell repair systems, such as initiated cell death, to prevent cancers forming. Antioxidants even protect these internal repair systems and energy producing systems. They offer an important balance in your cells that is crucial for life.

This is why antioxidants are so important to your health. Their interception of highly reactive and unstable molecules prevents critical cell damage.

These damages must then be repaired, requiring input energy and nutrients.

Having an antioxidant rich diet is very important because the body uses a lot of energy and resources to repair itself.

You can see why they are so essential to life and why so many of them are classed as vitamins.

Top 6 Antioxidants in Foods & Basic Functions

There are various major body antioxidants that you need to obtain from your diet. These can be eaten mostly through fruits, vegetables and some nuts.

This is why a balanced diet is encouraged with variation. Each antioxidant has so many functions and uses in different organs so we will run through them briefly.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is known as ascorbic acid, this is found in high amounts in citrus fruits.

The main roles of vitamin C in the body are to protect cells from oxidative damage and to assist with protein synthesis such as skin collagen.

The role of vitamin C extends to maintaining healthy gums, with deficiency being called scurvy.

Vitamin C is essential for life and might help to prevent diseases, such as cardiovascular disease.

This vitamin is water soluble, so requires water for uptake. The RDA for vitamin C is 45mg per day.

Selenium

Selenium is a critical mineral for normal metabolism, with conserved status throughout lifeforms as an antioxidant. This mineral provides a regulatory function in DNA synthesis and cell growth.

Selenium is found in our food as organic or bound selenium, or selenoproteins.

The heart needs selenium to function, the immune system needs selenium to be properly in balance. Moreover, your thyroid gland health depends on optimal selenium levels.

Vitamin A

This vitamin is not one that many people think of straightaway, however vitamin A is heavily implicated in the health of your eyesight.

Retinol or vitamin A has antioxidant capabilities and retains the normal functioning of your eyes, inhibiting free radical damage.

This vitamin is also fat soluble, so you’ll need to eat a healthy amount of dietary fat to absorb it.

You intake a pre-cursor to vitamin A, called beta-carotene, from certain vegetables or fruits and is identified through its orange colouration.

Your recommended daily intake of vitamin A is about 700 micrograms, µg, a day.

CoQ10

The coenzyme antioxidant, or CoQ10 is a real powerhouse antioxidant that is active as a helper in the mitochondria. In the antioxidant ready, or active form, CoQ10 is known as ubiquinone.

CoQ10 is so essential that it has basically been called a provitamin and the antioxidant power of CoQ10 can’t be stated enough. When initially discovered, scientists were not aware of the full scale of its abilities.

The mitochondria in your cells use this molecule to absorb high energy electrons, from other high energy molecules, as part of metabolism and energy production.

CoQ10 is not as prevalent as vitamin C in food, with much of it in the used form, but it is one of the most essential antioxidants of all. The coenzyme CoQ10 is a fat-soluble vitamin.

You can read more about CoQ10 in our dedicated article on CoQ10 supplements here.

Vitamin E

You find vitamin E in large amounts in the skin layers and cell membranes, where it displays its free radical protection abilities. Vitamin E protects fatty acid chains in your membranes from radicals.

This vitamin is also called alpha-tocopherol, which is natural form vitamin E. Vitamin E is fat soluble, meaning that to absorb it you need to be eating healthy dietary fat or oils. Vitamin E is an anti-inflammatory compound, helping with the maintenance of the skin against damage in the outer skin cell layers.

This includes sun caused skin damage, where this vitamin comes into its prime.

Zinc

This antioxidant trace element is needed in many metabolic functions. Overall, zinc provides general antioxidant protection within cells.

Zinc does this through the creation of antioxidant proteins, that neutralize radical oxidative molecules wanting to take electrons from key parts of the body. These zinc regulated antioxidant proteins work in a similar role to CoQ10, where they protect aspects of the metabolism from structural oxidative damage, while also protecting your DNA from damage.

Another major function of zinc is with the immune system, where it is able to help with healthy response to disease and reduced inflammatory response.

Top 6 Antioxidant Rich Foods

There are so many foods that are rich in antioxidants for you to integrate into your diet.

We will walk through some of the easiest ones to add into your diet, with the highest antioxidants in.

Vitamin C Rich Foods

Lemons, Red Bell Peppers & Broccoli

Lemon juice is quite acidic however, lemons contain 38.7mg of vitamin C per 100g of lemons. Add a dash to salad or fish for some serious flavour enhancing.

Your classic red bell pepper variety contains a staggering, 142mg of vitamin C per 100g. This brightly coloured fruit is also rich in potassium and phosphorus. Red bell pepper also has modest amounts of copper and manganese.

Broccoli contains 91.3mg of vitamin c per 100g, this is not so bad compared to lemons. Did you know that broccoli was originally purple when cultivated. All of these foods fall at least close to the 45mg RDA for vitamin C, with this being the lowest recommended amount. These are some seriously antioxidant rich foods.

Selenium Rich Foods

Brazil nuts, Brazil nut milk & Crustaceans

If you are looking for a selenium rich food, look no further than Brazil nuts.

The RDA for selenium is round about 200 micrograms a day, with Brazil nuts offering about 60µg per gram of Brazil nuts. Measure for measure this is a heavy weight in terms of antioxidant rich foods.

Offering a similar selenium content is Brazil nut milk, offering 7µg per gram of Brazil nut milk. Crustaceans also have a high selenium content per gram of food, with South America Ocean Crustaceans offering 1.08µg of selenium per gram of meat.

Selenium is easily obtainable from your diet with the right foods. However, soils are depleted in selenium in certain areas. The selenium enrichment of soils is becoming more of a risk to global food security too.

You can read a bit more about selenium and selenium rich foods here.

Vitamin A Rich Foods

Beef liver, Chicken Liver & Carrots

One standout food containing high levels of Vitamin A is liver, definitely meeting the 700µg RDA for this vitamin. Beef liver contains 9,510µg vitamin A per 100g of cooked liver, while chicken liver contains 3,990µg vitamin A per 100g of cooked liver.

Another food containing lots of vitamin A is carrots, they contain about 830µg of vitamin A per 100g of carrots.

CoQ10 Rich Foods

Beef, Herring & Olive oil

If you are low in CoQ10, the guidance is 400mg a day or as advised. If you are just generally looking to improve various body antioxidant levels, then here are some stand out foods for you.

Beef is a clear standout CoQ10 food, offering 3mg of CoQ10 per 100g of beef serving after cooking. Being rich in proteins and B complex vitamins, beef is a really nutrient dense food. The fish, Herring, contains about 2.7mg of CoQ10 per 100g of meat. Fish are also sources of omega-3 oils and iodine, so complement a nutrient rich diet.

Olive oil is a CoQ10 rich food. There is about 8.2mg of CoQ10 in uncooked raw olive oil and can be used generously on fish, or with salads. That is one of the highest of all of our antioxidant rich foods here.

If you would like to see more information on CoQ10 foods or supplements, then you can do so here.

Vitamin E Rich Foods

Raw virgin olive oil, avocado, sardines & almonds

Oils also contain high levels of vitamin E. Specifically raw olive oil contains 20.9mg of vitamin E per 100g of olive oil. This comes over the RDA for vitamin E of 15mg to 19mg, for males and females respectively. Avocados are also fairly rich in vitamin E, containing 2.07mg of vitamin E per 100g of avocado fruit.

100g of sardine meat contains 2.04mg of vitamin E, while almonds contain 25.6mg of vitamin E per 100g of almond nuts. These foods are all loaded with healthy fats that will work synergistically with vitamin E uptake. Raw olive oil is again coming out on top in our antioxidant rich foods, but for vitamin E this time around.

Zinc Rich Foods

Crab, beef, Oysters & Avocado

The RDA for zinc is 11mg for men and 8mg for women. This daily recommended guideline is very obtainable through eating the right foods.

Meat from crab contains very high levels of zinc, with 3.81mg of Zinc per 100g of crab meat. This is quite comparable to beef, which contains about 5mg of zinc per 100g of dry cured beef meat. These don’t compare to oysters though. Cooked oysters contain a massive 61mg of zinc per 100g of cooked oysters. That is another strong contender added into our antioxidant rich foods list.

Another zinc rich food for the vegetarians is avocado. Avocados are rich in various amino acids and contain 0.64mg of zinc per 100g of avocado.

Conclusion

Many antioxidants listed here are vital for life, being classed as vitamins. They all play a vital role in protecting the core homeostatic balance within the cell. Antioxidants are quite powerful for your health because of their ability to stand in the way of reactive radicals that can harm the body.

Highly reactive radicals can disrupt these balances if your levels of certain antioxidants drop, leading to potential cancer or cellular aging events. With 2 billion people globally deficient in key vitamins or minerals, we could probably all be eating more of the right foods with more nutrients in.

Some of the top antioxidant foods include red bell peppers for vitamin C, Brazil nuts for selenium, liver for Vitamin A, oysters for zinc and virgin olive oil for both vitamin E and CoQ10.

It is also important to remember that certain nutrients are fat soluble, meaning you need some healthy dietary fats to absorb them.

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