ORAC Scores

One of the legitimate health concerns today is the presence of free radicals in our bodies. These are molecular scavengers that rob healthy cells of electrons, making them unhealthy by doing so. (Free radicals are famous for possibly leading to cancer.) By consuming healthy antioxidants, we're consuming molecules that can safely donate electrons to free radicals and eliminate their harmful qualities.

The most popular method for determining antioxidant capacity is called an ORAC score. This stands for "Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity." (The capacity for something to "absorb" or eliminate oxidative free radicals.) Vitamins A, C, D, and E are all considered antioxidants.

Because it's important to maintain these antioxidants in the body, many health supplements have touted ORAC scores over all other qualities -- in other words, they've taken the natural antioxidant quality of natural plant foods and have hyped and marketed this single quality.

As I discuss on the health supplements page, it's important that we get a wide variety of nutrients, including all of our macro and micro vitamins and minerals. Supplementing with enzymes (because of our tendency to cook and package foods) and probiotics can be a good idea too. Antioxidants are important as well, but the basic nutrients allow our bodies to function in the first place.

What's more, since REAL (ORGANIC) FOOD is the optimal source of nutrition, why would you spend gobs of money just for antioxidants when a good handful of blueberries will probably hand you all the antioxidants your body can use at one time? So if you're ONLY buying something for its antioxidant quality, you might be best served by purchasing some high quality, high ORAC fruits.

Having said that, cacao scores among the top ORAC foods available, and a single wafer of the chocolate that I recommend scores about 3000 on the ORAC scale. Experts believe that getting between 3000 and 5000 ORAC units a day is optimal, and that getting more than this may be redundant, in the sense that they're just passed through the body.

But again, since ORAC isn't the only thing to consider, it's important to remember how many other nutrients cacao (and thus dark chocolate) offers. Among them is magnesium, which is the #1 deficiency among macro minerals in the average American diet. In fact, cacao may be the #1 food source for magnesium.

Hopefully, this page eliminates some of the mystique surrounding ORAC scores. They are useful, but not all powerful, not all important. Keep in mind the body's need for many nutrients. And then remember that I've said that healthy chocolate is NOT the first supplement you ought to be investing in; but that if you're buying chocolate anyway, this is a great way to eat chocolate on a daily basis and actually do your body a favor along the way!

So now with a basic understanding of free radicals and antioxidants, let's take a look at the next important topic as background to choosing healthy chocolate: organic foods.