Thursday, August 25, 2005

Bucketfuls of Polyphenols

While researching tedious data on the fig, because I love doing that stuff, I found this table. Wow. I had no idea.

Polyphenols is a broad term encompassing lots of more specific plant chemicals (phytochemicals), including the flavonoids (e.g. quercetin), tannins (in tea and wine) and others known to have tremendous anti-cancer, anti-heart-disease, antioxidant, and, at least according to Pliny the Elder, wrinkle-smoothing abilities. So polyphenols is a bucket term, and boy do figs have bucketfuls!

The serving size listed in this table for figs (fresh, not dried) is 100 g., about 3 Calimyrna or 4 to 5 Black Mission figs, that's all - less than 100 calories.

Found in (pdf):
The Functional Food Properties of Figs

(The other surprise about this table was where barley ranked. Barley?)

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