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5 Facts About Antioxidants and Preservatives You May Not Know #AntioxidantFacts

I never bothered to ask questions about preservative and antioxidants because quite frankly I had no idea what I would learn. I thought if I found out they were evil I might have to cut some of my favorite foods from my diet and so I just never asked.  Until recently. This past week I was invited to a webinar hosted by ConAgra to learn some facts about antioxidants and preservatives and I’m happy to let you know I don’t have to give any of my favorite foods up! It was really an informative session and I thought I would share my top 5 Facts About Antioxidants and Preservatives You May Not Know.

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Disclosure: This compensated post is part of the #AntioxidantFacts blogger program by ConAgra Foods and The Motherhood. 

Back before there was proper refrigeration it made sense that food preservation was very important, but you may wonder why should we preserve our food today?  Well, here are few reasons:

• Taste
• Freshness
• Safety
• Natural color preservation
• Food waste reduction

These methods like freezing and canning or storing your food in the refrigerator are all methods of preserving your foods and ingredients can be added to every day packaged foods to help preserve them even longer.

Fact #1:

Antioxidants help prevent oxygen from damaging other molecules. Antioxidants function in the body to help protect cells, and they function in foods to protect oils from damage that leads to rancidity. These antioxidants can be found in the body and if normal levels are too low we can become very sick.  Antioxidants that are naturally produced in our body every day, such as after exercise help fend off environmental toxins and stress on the body.  Some of our most important vitamins, such as vitamin E and vitamin C, are used in our body as antioxidants.

Body benefits of antioxidants:

o Slow the aging process
o Boost your body’s natural defense system
o Help combat heart disease, cancer and other diseases

Fact #2:

Antioxidants are also found in our food. Like the vitamins in your body, certain foods contain natural antioxidants, such as polyphenols; some foods may also contain man made antioxidants. I know we get scared when we see these words pop up that we can’t pronounce and automatically assume they are bad for you, but that is not always the case. When you open a box of food, the exposure to air can cause certain ingredients that are common in our food, like fats and oils, to spoil; the unpleasant odors and flavors that follow are sometimes called “rancidity” but antioxidants helps prolong that from happening.

Food benefits of antioxidants:

o Prevent food from becoming rancid (spoiling), and therefore wasted
o Preserve food’s flavors
o Help preserve natural color in food

Fact #3:

Some antioxidants are naturally found in food such Vitamin E, Vitamin C, and Citric Acid. These are all natural antioxidants that keep our foods from spoiling.

• Alpha-tocopherol (aka Vitamin E) – Found in nuts, seeds and leafy green vegetables – helps to protect fats and oils in food from spoiling
• Ascorbic Acid (aka Vitamin C) – Found in citrus fruits, sometimes also called sodium ascorbate –saves breads and packaged meat from spoiling
• Citric Acid – Found naturally in citrus fruits – used to preserve sliced fruit

Fact #4:

Man-made antioxidants can also be found in food such as BHT and TBHQ.

• BHT: A tasteless, colorless man made antioxidant is used to help maintain freshness in grain-based foods like crackers and cookies
• TBHQ: A tasteless, colorless man made antioxidant used commonly to keep vegetable oils and other packaged foods fresh

Fact #5:

When natural and man-made antioxidants are used can vary.

• Man made antioxidants, like BHT and TBHQ, are used because sometimes natural antioxidants throw off flavors of foods we know and love, or because a certain antioxidant might perform best with a certain food
• One type is used over another based on performance – for example TBHQ is often used in fryer oils as it is more stable at higher temperatures than BHT, thus preserving these foods more effectively
• Natural and man made antioxidants are sometimes used together in our favorite foods
• Food makers, like ConAgra Foods, choose certain preservative ingredients based on what they know will deliver the best flavor, while keeping your foods safe and fresh

Check out the 6 fun facts in the Mental Floss video here.

Comments

  1. Mary Ambrosino says

    Interesting facts that I was unaware of.

  2. I knew some of the facts but not all of them. Thanks for sharing!

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