Get the blues

Prepared Foods, July, 2008

USDA's database of antioxidant values for various foods places blueberry juice at the top of the list among more than a dozen juices tested--including pomegranate, apple, prune, cranberry and Concord grape. Using the Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity (ORAC) testing procedure, the gold standard of antioxidant measures for detecting the free-radical scavenging ability of foods, blueberry juice had the highest ORAC score of 2,906umol TE/100g.

While the recent USDA data collection did not specifically list ORAC results for wild blueberries or wild blueberry juice vs. just blueberries, previous USDA tests have shown wild blueberries outperform more than 20 other fruits in the ORAC test. Wild Blueberry Association of North America, www.wildblueberries.com