Antioxidants: Plant vs. Animal Foods

In the beginning, blueberries were the best. Then walnuts took the title, then wild blueberries took it back. Then small red beans were considered the #1 most antioxidant-packed food (that is, until herbs and spices were tested). Frankly, I thought it was over in 2007. USDA had released a database of 277 foods. When only 40 foods were tested, sure, blueberries were #1, but when hundreds of foods were tested, blueberries no longer even made the top ten. I made videos ranking them by serving size, and by cost—antioxidant bang for your buck. Mission accomplished, or so I thought. Then came the landmark publication of a study of the total antioxidant content of more than 3,000 foods.

Today’s video-of-the-day on NutritionFacts.org completed my analysis of this groundbreaking study, but it’s important to take a step back and see what this amazing body of work has to say about what we should eat in general:

Other videos in this series include:

If you’ve found this video useful, please feel free to check out all my videos on more than a thousand topics at NutritionFacts.org, my attempt to provide a noncommercial, nonprofit, science-based source for the latest in nutrition research.

In health,
Michael Greger, M.D.

Image credit: aka*Travz / Flickr

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Adeline D.

5:57AM PST on Feb 26, 2012

Very, very useful thank you! Personally, I think we should try and adhere to "organic" as much as possible

send a green star

Leiah S.

4:54AM PST on Feb 25, 2012

I use only reindeer and moose meat and a bit pork ...never anymore cow because my cats didn't eat it.

Kishore A.

2:47PM PST on Feb 24, 2012

thanks

Cheryl B.

5:20AM PST on Feb 23, 2012

Rami N.

8:15PM PST on Feb 1, 2012

@Carol P. although Dr. Greger is pro vegan, he is so for a reason. He is not hiding studies that show any harms that may arise with a plant based diet. He shows possible, could be deficiencies and how to maximize the diet. Your not going to find a study that concludes "plants are harmful to ones health", but you can find many that come to the conclusion that meat is the primary cause of westernized diseases. The whole point of the website is to show people how to live healthy lives, and really the only healthy way to live is vegan. There is no hidden agenda.

J. G.

1:40PM PST on Jan 30, 2012

@John, you seem concerned that shifting from meat, dairy & eggs ends up costing more. In my experience (and many, many others have confirmed this,) a 100% plant-based diet can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it.

Yes, one can spend lots of money on specialty foods and treats, or one can fill the shopping cart with greens, beans, and way more whole, unprocessed foods. I've had times when I was the extravagant vegan shopper, and I've also had times when I needed to be the thrifty vegan shopper, needing to stretch the dollar. It was actually the dollar-stretching times when I started eating better, because I was staying away from the more processed foods.

1:27PM PST on Jan 30, 2012

@Margaret -- I think the main point of the video was comparing plant & animal foods in terms of antioxidant content (plant foods score way high, animal foods are practically nil)...

...but maybe you were looking for something like this, which gives a "top twelve" list?: http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/antioxidant-content-of-300-foods-2/

(Dr. Greger linked to it from the article, but maybe you didn't realize that's what it was.)

And here's another one, which gives a "best antioxidant bang for the buck" list: http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/superfood-bargains-2/

It's a great video, but keep in mind it's data from 2007, and only about 300 common foods were analyzed. More recent data has come since then (that's what the featured video was about). But I still think the "best bang for the buck" list from 2007 data is useful (gave me new appreciation for red cabbage, the humble apple, and pecans and cinnamon, too).

In case you don't have 2 min for the video, here's the list, with best bargain at the top:

1. red cabbage (or purple cabbage, I guess they're the same thing)

2. cinnamon

3. cloves

4. acai berries

5. artichokes

6. cranberries

7. goji berries

8. apples

9. pecans

Carol P.

12:21PM PST on Jan 29, 2012

My suspicions prove correct. nutritionfacts.org is a vegan website ... but doesn't promote itself as such. Michael Greger, M.D. who is responsible for its content is also a vegan.

Try looking up any topic that is related to an animal-based product and all you'll find are negatives. For instance, I looked for information about omega-3 and only found videos talking about the downsides of eating fish.

My take away is that this content is completely useless because it picks and chooses only the health information it wants to share in order to promote a vegan diet.

I have no issue with eating vegetables as they make up the majority of my diet. But when it comes to nutrition, I want the full picture, not just a sliver of it chosen by someone who has an agenda.

Peter M.

7:22AM PST on Jan 29, 2012

Margaret M.

7:32PM PST on Jan 28, 2012

Thank-you for the post. I don't think I got the correct video as it didn't really correspond with the topic of the article. Maybe next time.