The darker, the better

Muscle & Fitness, Dec, 2004 by Tabatha Elliott

There's a valuable nutrient you should get to know better: anthocyanins, the natural colorants that belong to a group of plant compounds called flavonoids. They're responsible for most of the red, purple and blue colors found in fruits, vegetables, legumes, flowers and other plants. They play important health-promoting roles when consumed, providing powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic activities. The foods with the highest anthocyanin content are those with the darkest blue, purple or red coloring, such as bilberries, black raspberries, black currants, blackberries and blueberries. To best obtain the benefits of this compound and up your natural antioxidant intake, consume these fruits and consider eating greater quantities of beans. Those with dark pigments, such as black beans (which are actually a very dark purple), adzuki beans and red kidney beans, have extremely high levels of anthocyanins, as recently discovered in a study by the USDA. Their research team found that black beans contained the highest level, about 10 times more overall antioxidants than an equivalent serving of oranges.

THE DARK SIDE OF FRUIT

This table lists the anthocyanin content (in mg per 100 grams fresh
weight) of several fruits. The obvious trend is the darker the fruit,
the higher the anthocyanin content.

FRUIT                       ANTHOCYANIN
                            (mg/100 g fresh fruit)

Bilberry                    450
Raspberry (black)           300
Black currant               250
Blackberry                  200
Blueberry                   200
Partridgeberry/lingonberry  130
Grape (red)                 120
Cranberry                    60
Strawberry                   45
Raspberry (red)              40
Currant (red)                15

BY TABATHA ELLIOTT, PHD