What are Carotenoids?
Carotenoids are pigments that give plants their characteristic red, orange and yellow colors. Carotenoids are also natural antioxidants and help protect cells from the damaging effects of “free radicals.”
There are over 700 different carotenoids in nature, but only about 20 have ever been found in the human body. Only 2 carotenoids are found in our eyes. These are zeaxanthin and lutein.
Zeaxanthin is concentrated in the center of the retina and is also said to have “blue light filtering” capability along with the antioxidant action against those free radicals.
Research into the beneficial impacts of these antioxidants that are thought to be uniquely beneficial to eye health has stirred a lot of interest. Some of the key research published in this area are the “Age-Related Eye Disease Study” (often abbreviated as AREDS) as well as the Australian “Blue Mountains Eye Study.”
In the September 2020 issue of the journal, Molecules, in the paper titled A Brief Overview of Dietary Zeaxanthin Occurrence and Bioaccessibility stated “the overall occurrence of zeaxanthin in natural food products is low.” and “the most predominant sources of zeaxanthin present in the human diet are corn-based foods along with pepper and egg yolk.”
For comparison, from a table provided in that report, these were the top recognizable food sources of zeaxanthin, shown along with corn, peppers and egg for comparison:
| FOOD SOURCES OF ZEAXANTHIN | |
|---|---|
| Corn | 10.31 μg/g dry weight |
| (Sweet) Red Peppers | 55-97 μg/g dry weight |
| Egg yolks | 1.3 μg/g dry weight |
| Kale | 163-2460 μg/g dry weight |
| Hot chili peppers | 1230 μg/g dry weight |
| Red Chinese lantern fruit | 847-1035 μg/g dry weight |
| Wolfberry | 1231.1 μg/g dry weight |
Wow! I know which food source I would choose. Thanks to NingXia Red, I can have my Wolfberry and drink it too. No kale or hot chili peppers required, but if you choose to add those to your daily NingXia, it will be one powerful drink!!
