Antioxidant-rich Radicchio Helps Combat Disease

The antioxidant score was reported as 3,537 per 100 grams, which is about 2 cups of raw, shredded radicchio like you'd enjoy in a salad.

12/10/06 Put some power in your salad! Deep royal purple-hued radicchio rates a high score for fighting disease with its rich antioxidant content. A recently published report reveals that radicchio, with a powerful flavor and color profile, also provides an antioxidant content rivaling that of blueberries and spinach.

"We suspected that radicchio is nutrient-rich, especially when you consider its deep color," said Dennis Donohue, president of European Vegetable Specialties, a leading grower of radicchio in Salinas, CA. Searching the published scientific literature to see if radicchio had been measured for this antioxidant activity, Donohue discovered the data in a paper prepared by a group of Italian scientists at the University of Urbino in The Marches region of central Italy, published in the British Journal of Nutrition (1) last year.

The antioxidant score was reported as 3,537 per 100 grams, which is about 2 cups of raw, shredded radicchio like you'd enjoy in a salad.

Dr. Paolino Ninfali, the lead investigator of the research team reports, “Our study revealed that radicchio is among some of the highest scoring vegetables for antioxidant activity." It’s widely known that many produce items—both fruits and vegetables—can be rich dietary sources of antioxidants and other nutrients.

Antioxidant activity is measured in terms of an ORAC score. ORAC—Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity—is a measure of the ability of foods to neutralize harmful oxygen free radicals that can damage our bodies.

Free radicals, naturally produced by our bodies, attack and damage healthy cells. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the most common free radical in humans is reactive oxygen molecules that cause cell damage to DNA and may lead to coronary heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Antioxidants (such as vitamins E and C, and polyphenols) which are found naturally in foods have the ability to neutralize some of these free radicals, effectively decreasing the amount of damage they can cause.

A staple on Mediterranean and European tables, radicchio is now an American salad staple. That's why radicchio's antioxidant score is great news for fans of salads with lots of flavor and crunch—which radicchio delivers along with the power of antioxidants.