A recent food Olympics has been conducted and out of the 100 different varieties of foods, vegetables, and nuts, 20 antioxidant rich foods came out at the top. This list of foods contained most of the very rich antioxidant foods as ranked by nutrition scientists at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and reported by the University of Alabama website on November 1, 2004. Antioxidant Foods For years now, scientists have touted antioxidants as the answer to all sorts of diseases, even aging. From preventing heart disease to slowing down degenerative diseases, to stopping cancer, to reducing blood pressure - you name it and everything points right back to antioxidants. The human body is incapable of producing its own concentration of antioxidants. We hear them mentioned all the time whenever there's a new scientific study being released in the American Health Journal or some such explaining how antioxidant juice from berries can aid in liver function or how antioxidant juice from red wine is the scientific reason behind the French paradox. Antioxidants, it seems, have far more benefits than we realize. Scientists say that these antioxidant red grapes may offer significant protection against certain types of cancer, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, cataracts, and many other chronic and degenerative diseases. The new study on antioxidant red grapes, released in April 9, was conducted by researchers at Creighton University in Omaha. Natural Antioxidant For years now, man has been dependent on nature for his source of nutrients essential for his health. Plants are where we get most of our foods and our medicines, relying on them almost entirely for developing our bodies to their full potential and at the same time reducing the causes of degenerative diseases. Literary tools aside, super antioxidants do indeed react against the harmful effects of free radicals by stopping them from reacting with the molecules in the first place. Some super antioxidants may also act primarily to break off the chain reaction of free radicals. Others act by repairing damages caused by the accumulation of free radicals in tissues.