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Most antioxidants are vitamins. Thus fruits and vegetables are the best sources of antioxidants. However, not every fruit and vegetable are equal. To maximize your antioxidant intake, you need to become familiar with those that have the highest levels of antioxidants.

Best Sources of Natural Antioxidants
You can often determine the antioxidant content in fruits and vegetables based on their color. The brighter fruits and vegetables contain more vitamins. The best sources of antioxidants are mostly berries. This includes blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, and blueberries. Berries contain high concentrations of flavonoids, which help eliminate free radicals that can be damaging. Some of the free radicals flavonoids help eliminate include peroxyl radicals, superoxide radicals, hydrogen peroxide, hydroxyl radicals, and singlet oxygen.

Eating healthy can be easy with berries being high in antioxidants, as they are great for using in deserts. Having berries with sugar does not interfere with the antioxidant properties of berries. However, milk, cream, and other milk products can minimize the effects of natural antioxidants, so avoid having berries with milk products to best get the antioxidant benefits from berries.

Citruses such as oranges and grapefruits are also good sources of antioxidant vitamins. The antioxidant benefits can be obtained by drinking freshly squeezed juices if you prefer.

Other Natural Antioxidant Sources
Besides just fruits and vegetables, there are other natural sources of antioxidants. One good source of flavonoids is green tea. Thus if you enjoy drinking tea, you can include more antioxidants in your diet by choosing to drink green varieties of tea.

Coffee is also a source of antioxidants. Researchers at the University of Scranton have found coffee to be a leading source of antioxidants for Americans. Decaf coffee has the same amount of antioxidants as caffeinated coffee. Remember to not use milk in your coffee, though.

Another good source of antioxidants is dark chocolate. Things like coffee, tea, and dark chocolate are easy things to add antioxidants to your diet many love anyways.

Easy Ways to Include Antioxidants in Your Diet
One way to increase your antioxidant intake is to choose fruits as snacks instead of junk food snacks. The fruit does not have to be fresh, as dried fruit like dates and prunes also have good amounts of antioxidants. However, if you are watching your weight dried fruits can be high and sugar and best avoided.

Include garnish in your meals that are good sources of antioxidants. A few options include parsley, coriander, and dill. These are spices that not only increase your antioxidant intake, but also make your food taste better.

When cooking vegetables you should be careful with cooking them too long, as a lot of the vitamins are destroyed the longer the vegetables are cooked. Stir frying vegetables are an easy way to cook vegetables while minimally exposing them to heat and thus retaining much of the vitamin content.

Natural sources of antioxidants can provide you with many health benefits. Regularly eating antioxidant rich foods has been shown to help prevent cancer. Additionally, antioxidants are anti-aging agents.