Oxygen radical absorbance capacity

Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) is a method of measuring antioxidant contents in different foods. It was developed at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Maryland. High scoring foods include such as prunes, raisins, blueberries, kale, spinach and cocoa. Foods with higher ORAC values per 100 grams include wild blueberries, pomegranates and black raspberries.

Natural fruits typically score between 500 and 900 ORAC units per 100 grams. The FDA has recently suggested that the Americans increase their consumption of antioxidants to 7000 ORAC units daily which is near 12 servings of fruit to help curb the cancer epidemic.

Recently, a number of health food companies have capitalized on the ORAC rating, with dozens selling concentrated supplements that they claim to be "the number one ORAC product", some purporting that their supplements have a value of more than 25,000 ORAC units per 100 gram serving. It is not known whether such values are accurate or if such concentrated antioxidants can be absorbed by the human body as effectively as those found in natural foods.