Popular antioxidant drinks compared

After my last post, one of our readers brought up a good question: "...I have heard a lot about the Acai Berry, and, for the most part, I think it is just another fad. Where do you weigh in on it?"
After a quick literature search on Pubmed, I found an article that compares the antioxidant levels in popular brands of an assortment of antioxidant-rich drinks. It lists its findings in descending order of antioxidant capacity: "PJ [pomegranate juice] > red wine > Concord grape juice > blueberry juice > black cherry juice, açaí juice, cranberry juice > orange juice, iced tea beverages, apple juice (1)." The authors stated that pomegranate juice had at least 20% more antioxidant potency than any other beverage tested. There are two things worth mentioning here. First, juice is just one of many ways to get antioxidants, and the research I've read and blogged about did not talk about other forms of antioxidant-rich foods. Second, the article cited in this post was partially funded by a company that sells pomegranate juice, so be aware that there is some potential bias in these results.

1. Navindra P. Seeram, et al. Comparison of Antioxidant Potency of Commonly Consumed Polyphenol-Rich Beverages in the United States. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2008, 56, 1415–1422