Why Foods with High ORAC Scores are Beneficial
An Oxygen Radical Absorbency Capacity, or ORAC, score is derived from an analysis of any given food and reflects the level of antioxidants in that food. The higher the score, the more powerful the food is as an antioxidant. High ORAC foods are critical for your health, as they help eliminate free radicals that contribute to or cause cancer, aging, heart disease, and other diseases and conditions. Free radicals, or oxygen radicals, are chemicals formed by natural cellular energy processing, and most are carried away as waste by your body and either excreted or recycled. Exercise creates free radicals; sunlight, pollution, and even digestion also create free radicals. These chemicals are highly reactive, and recent studies indicate that they can damage DNA or cellular structures, causing disease as well as the sort of damage that results in cancer. Normally, these free radicals are eliminated by normal processes in the body.
