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What are bioflavonoids?
Flavonoids or bioflavonoids are non-nitrogenous plant pigments that give food color.
More than 600 bioflavonoids have been discovered, and all of them seem to have a very important role in human nutrition, since they have very interesting medicinal properties.
These beneficial properties are exerted in an intrinsic and extrinsic way, by enhancing the beneficial effects of other antioxidant vitamins.
Foods with more bioflavonoids
The main ones can be found in natural foods like fruits, vegetables and greens. Among all of them, it is worth highlighting some such as citrus, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, cherries, apples, peppers, spinach or cabbages.
Citrus fruits, such as, for example, lemons, grapefruits or oranges, are very rich in these components, especially when their inner skin is eaten, which is where the greatest amount of these components is found.
What are the main types of bioflavonoids?
The most prominent bioflavonoids or flavonoids would be the following:
- Citroflavonoids or flavonoids from citrus fruits: They are so called because they appear with a greater quantity in citrus fruits, although they are not exclusive to these, as they appear in many foods. The main citroflavonoids are hesperidin, quercetin, limonene, rutin, and naringin.
- Tea flavonoids (Catechins) They appear mainly in green tea. The main ones are epicatechin, epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin and epigallocatechin gallate.
- Soy flavonoids (Isoflavonoids) They appear in soybeans and soy derivatives, such as tofu, soy meat, or soy milk. The main ones are daidzein and genistein.
- Red and violet fruit flavonoids (Anthocyanins) Anthocyanins are pigments found in some fruits that range in color from red to blue or purple, like blueberries, raspberries, cherries, purple cauliflowers, plums, or grapes. Apples are also very rich in this component.
- Vegetable flavonoids (Kaempferol) It appears in vegetables like for example radishes, leeks, beets, broccoli or endives.
How to get bioflavonoids?
The best way for the body to acquire these principles is through food.
You can also increase your intake through supplements. For example, the use of vitamin C with bioflavonoids is very popular, due to the properties of these components to enhance the effect of the antioxidant properties of vitamins.
Another example: it is only possible to obtain the benefits of resveratrol from supplements, since the therapeutic dose is impossible to obtain through foods such as grapes.
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