Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity

What is an ORAC value?

❏ According to USDA, ORAC is a way of measuring the ability of antioxidants to absorb damaging free radicals.

❏ It is an analytical method that emerged more than 2 decades ago.

❏ This method is developed by scientists working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and USDA.

❏ This method attempts to quantify the “Total Antioxidant capacity” of a particular food or substance.

❏ The benefit of the ORAC test is that it attempts to capture the synergistic effects between various nutrients and ways in which nutrients are more effective in combination than they are individually.

HOW IS IT CALCULATED?

❏ The ORAC value of a food is calculated by a lab test where certain molecules that are vulnerable to oxidation are placed in a test tube with molecules that generate free radical activity and a certain sample food to be tested.

❏ After a given period of time, the test then measures how well the sample protected the vulnerable molecules from the oxidation by the free radicals. There are actually a handful of different tests designed to measure total antioxidant capacity in this way, but the ORAC is probably the best known and most popular.

➢ Higher ORAC value units potential for better health.

➢ It is widely believed that high antioxidant foods help greatly to lower the risks of cancer, degeneration, and disease.

So how many ORAC units do you need per day?

● It is estimated that men, who consume an average of about 2500 calories a day need at least 11,000 ORAC units.

● Women, who eat about 1800 calories per day, should get at least 8,000 units.