ORAC bashing
There were some strong feeling expressed when the USDA’s Nutrient Data Laboratory (NDL) removed the USDA ORAC Database for Selected Foods from its website.
The move sparked a fiery response from former ARS-USDA scientist Ronald Prior, PhD, and long-time ORAC researcher.
“Without the ORAC database, we would not have had the opportunity to gather important epidemiology data that we now have relating antioxidant intake and various disease endpoints,” wrote Dr Prior in a four-page letter in response to the removal of the ORAC database.
In his response, Dr Prior wrote: “It is unfortunate but true that numbers obtained from ORAC analysis have sometimes been misused, but that does not necessarily mean that the information is not useful if used appropriately.
“In too many cases, the goal has been to obtain the highest antioxidant value. It is not always the case that ‘more is better’ and in some cases using individual antioxidant compounds, more may be detrimental. A lot of misunderstanding results from lack of knowledge of free radical chemistry.
“Results with assays utilizing different oxidant or radical sources cannot produce exactly comparable data because the reaction mechanisms differ.”