New research from Israel’s Volcani Institute reveals that eating one fresh red plum with your meal counters the oxidizing agents in a seven ounce portion of red meat.

They further discovered that the levels of antioxidant agents in fresh red flesh plums are three times as high as those in pomegranates and five times higher than those in red wine, apples and bananas.

The research measured the levels of oxidation caused by the digestion of dark turkey meat in an artificial stomach. Fruit extracts were added to the simulated digestion and their effects on oxidation and antioxidant levels were measured.

Results showed that to maximize the effects of the beneficial antioxidants, you should eat the fruit with your meal.

In the early ’90s, Prof. Joseph Kanner of the Department of Food Science at Israel’s Volcani Institute, the leading scientist on this project, researched the Mediterranean diet and the “French paradox.” He suggested that the low rate of heart attacks in France, despite a diet high in animal fat, could be explained by the French custom of drinking red wine (with its high levels of antioxidants) with meals.