Heart Healthy Antioxidants #71

Today I have eaten one bowl of oatmeal, one banana, half a handful of sunflower seeds/kernels, and 10 raw cherries. And that is from this morning until now which is close to lunch.   This would be a typical morning for me, the fruit may vary, maybe orange and apple for the banana and cherries, but this will give you an idea.  The last posting we talked more about vegetables, which I do need to eat more of.  Eating a lot of fruit is very important in my daily diet and to me remaining healthy.   I eat raw cherries, I am not sure if they are the sweet or tart variety.  They certainly do not taste sweet, but they are not sour.  This is significant only in that sweet cherries contain about twice the calories of tart.  We will base calories on sweet.   Raw sweet cherries contain 5 calories each and -0- cholesterol.   Cindy and I eat a lot of cherries when they are available.  Cherries are high in antioxidants, contain melatonin, zinc, cooper, iron, and potassium.  They are credited with helping soothe your nervous system, help control your heart rate, and blood pressure.

While researching cherries, I came across one of their health benefits being they "fight free radicals."  I have found so many references to healthy foods containing antioxidants that reduce, block, or prevent free radicals that I need to know what they are.   Free radicals are atoms or molecules that are highly chemically reactive, believed to be involved in degenerative diseases, the aging process, and cancers.   I am not completely sure, but in my simple terms, free radicals are a natural chemical process in your body disrupting your living cells.  Antioxidants and certain vitamins protect your body against free radicals and their multiplying out of control.  I also researched antioxidants and they seem to be even more complex than free radicals.  Basically everything a free radical is and does, antioxidants prevent or reduce in your body.  Foods abundant in antioxidants are fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and some meats, poultry, and fish. 

According to the USDA, these foods are ranked the highest in containing antioxidants.  Small red beans, strawberries, plums, apples, blueberries, red kidney beans, cranberries, sweet cherries, pinto beans, russet potato, pecans, raspberries, prunes, blackberries, artichokes.  If a particular fruit or vegetable is not on this list it only means they were not in the top 15 in highest levels of antioxidant content.  Most fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidant levels.  Note, you don't find two of the healthiest foods, spinach and tomatoes, listed.  Why?  Although not being as high in antioxidants content, they are an excellent source of antioxidants and contain high levels of other healthy nutrients needed by your body.  For your reference, in my research I did not find any specific meat, poultry, or fish listed as a recommended source of antioxidants.

Here is some interesting information about counting calories I got from CalorieKing.  The actual weight of packaged foods is usually 5-10% more than the label net weight and in some cases up to 50% more.   Which means the manufacturer's calorie count listed is based on the net packages weight shown, and would be understated.  As an example, tested honey buns were 33% more in weight and calories than as labeled.   I found the book CalorieKing Calorie Counter extremely helpful to me when I was determining which foods I would and would not eat. When I began my initial weight loss, I was eating fewer than 1500 calories per day.

I sincerely hope you can take some of my information about the foods I am eating and my experiences in improving your health.    Next time we will discuss some exercises.