I miss my strawberries! I wanted to find just one last sweet and juicy strawberry in my backyard today, but there were none. I won’t miss the battle with the birds and bugs over the strawberries, but my brain will miss the antioxidants that strawberries provide.
I’m sure you’ve read or heard about antioxidants before, but did you know you need about 3,500 ORAC units a day for optimal brain protection? First, you might be wondering, “What’s an ORAC?” ORAC, or Oxygen Radical Absorbency Capacity, is a score used by nutritional scientists. According to Dr. Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan on page 96 in their book, The Alzheimer’s Prevention Program, “(ORAC) score provides a general indication of how effective a particular food is at protecting brain cells from the damaging bombardment of free radicals.” A strawberry’s antioxidant potency in ORAC units per 3.5 ounces is 4,300. So, by eating about half a cup (which is easy to do!) you are well on your way to fighting off oxidative free radicals and lowering your risk for Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Is your brain intrigued? Check out the book I mentioned earlier, The Alzheimer’s Prevention Program, for a complete list of fruits’ antioxidant/ORAC scores. I was surprised to see cranberries at the top of the list! But I do love my organic strawberries best of all (despite their being 8th on the list in comparison).
Tina Davidson 