Coffee and Health

From the year dot, my mother taught all her children that coffee was not bad for you. But of course it is. As a result, I managed to keep away from coffee, at least until the difficult age of 10, when, as I recall, I was allowed to join my mother and her neighbors in their regular gossip sessions at the coffee table.

That was when I started to exercise my taste buds on coffee. In those days, I developed a liking for coffee with milk. Perhaps I should have said I drank milk with coffee. However, I know now that the coffee I was drinking back then really was not so good. It was pre-ground, over-boiled and sometimes brewed with the grounds from the day before. Could you imagine anything worse? No wonder I wanted to hide that hideous flavor with tons of milk.

In the meantime, I probably took a good sip of coffee on the road and woke up to a much more pleasant reality.

It has been proved beyond doubt that antioxidant fruits are beneficial to health and well-being. However all antioxidant fruits do not provide the same level of health benefits. It could be said that some antioxidant fruits are more equal than others. They have a higher percentage of antioxidants and offer more health benefits than some of the other fruits. Some fruits may offer you nutrients along with antioxidant properties, while other fruit may have only vitamins.

The human body is designed to derive its energy requirements by utilizing oxygen as well as nutrients as fuel. However oxygen, though it does provide a lot of benefits and has a lot of positive effects, could possibly be accompanied by a negative ripple effect. When oxygen is processed in the body by a process known as oxidation, there is a simultaneous production of oxygen byproducts known as free radicals. The highly reactive free radicals may cause a certain amount of damage to cells. The antioxidant substances that are present in antioxidant fruits work by neutralizing these free radicals. In this process they are prevented from causing any damage.

The Benefits of Antioxidant Fruits

With so much being said in recent times about antioxidants and health benefits they provide people are becoming more and more aware of this radical substance. By now everybody knows that citrus fruits are rich in Vitamin C and apples have a high beta-carotene content. A daily diet that focuses on a high consumption of antioxidants helps give the body a stronger defense mechanism in its fight against free radicals and consequently oxidative stress, which is damage that free radicals cause. Many scientists have linked the process of oxidative stress to the development of degenerative and chronic diseases including cancer and heart disease.

Including cereals, vegetables and fruit in your diet give you additional benefits that you would not get if you took antioxidant supplements. Scientists suspect that this could be due to the fact that the consumption of antioxidant fruits in the form of food probably creates a combination of antioxidant substances that are lesser known but just as potent. These antioxidant combinations would probably have an effect that was far greater than that provided by any individual antioxidant supplement or any single nutrient.

In one of the recent Journal of Nutrition issues, the analysis of the antioxidant content of many different antioxidant fruits was published. According to the charts, strawberries, sour cherries, blue berries, crowberries, black currants, raspberries and black berries had the highest antioxidant content of all fruit in the berry family. Other important antioxidant fruits include grapefruit, plum, pomegranates, kiwi, lemon, orange, grape, dates, pineapple and Clementine. Broad beans were first in the list in the legume category, whereas walnuts occupied first place in the nuts category and sunflower seeds were second. Other foods that are rich in antioxidants include barley, red beets, kale, corn, red cabbage, ginger, chili pepper and millet.

It has been proved beyond doubt that antioxidant fruits are beneficial to health and well-being. However all antioxidant fruits do not provide the same level of health benefits. It could be said that some antioxidant fruits are more equal than others. They have a higher percentage of antioxidants and offer more health benefits than some of the other fruits. Some fruits may offer you nutrients along with antioxidant properties, while other fruit may have only vitamins.

The human body is designed to derive its energy requirements by utilizing oxygen as well as nutrients as fuel. However oxygen, though it does provide a lot of benefits and has a lot of positive effects, could possibly be accompanied by a negative ripple effect. When oxygen is processed in the body by a process known as oxidation, there is a simultaneous production of oxygen byproducts known as free radicals. The highly reactive free radicals may cause a certain amount of damage to cells. The antioxidant substances that are present in antioxidant fruits work by neutralizing these free radicals. In this process they are prevented from causing any damage.

The Benefits of Antioxidant Fruits

With so much being said in recent times about antioxidants and health benefits they provide people are becoming more and more aware of this radical substance. By now everybody knows that citrus fruits are rich in Vitamin C and apples have a high beta-carotene content. A daily diet that focuses on a high consumption of antioxidants helps give the body a stronger defense mechanism in its fight against free radicals and consequently oxidative stress, which is damage that free radicals cause. Many scientists have linked the process of oxidative stress to the development of degenerative and chronic diseases including cancer and heart disease.

Including cereals, vegetables and fruit in your diet give you additional benefits that you would not get if you took antioxidant supplements. Scientists suspect that this could be due to the fact that the consumption of antioxidant fruits in the form of food probably creates a combination of antioxidant substances that are lesser known but just as potent. These antioxidant combinations would probably have an effect that was far greater than that provided by any individual antioxidant supplement or any single nutrient.

In one of the recent Journal of Nutrition issues, the analysis of the antioxidant content of many different antioxidant fruits was published. According to the charts, strawberries, sour cherries, blue berries, crowberries, black currants, raspberries and black berries had the highest antioxidant content of all fruit in the berry family. Other important antioxidant fruits include grapefruit, plum, pomegranates, kiwi, lemon, orange, grape, dates, pineapple and Clementine. Broad beans were first in the list in the legume category, whereas walnuts occupied first place in the nuts category and sunflower seeds were second. Other foods that are rich in antioxidants include barley, red beets, kale, corn, red cabbage, ginger, chili pepper and millet.