Antioxidants & Free Radicals: What’s the Buzz?

Antioxidants & Free Radicals: What’s the Buzz?
We keep hearing about how beneficial antioxidants are to our overall health. But what are antioxidants and how do they benefit our health? Here’s what I’ve found out through my research.
When you hear about using antioxidants to protect your health, it means that they are used as a preventative rather than as a treatment. Antioxidants work to prevent the build-up of chemicals and damaged cells within our bodies. These damaged cells, known as free radicals, have been linked to a number of age-related diseases and illnesses including cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, and immune dysfunction.
Free radicals are damaged cells that occur naturally. They are a physical result of aging. Free radicals build up over time from a variety of different sources: sun exposure, fried foods, pollution, and smoking are examples. Avoiding the sources that cause free radicals will limit their build-up. However, it’s impossible to completely avoid what occurs naturally as we age. We can choose to fight against them by making better, healthier lifestyle choices. Choosing to eat foods that are rich with antioxidants will help your body limit the build-up of damaged cells.  Free radicals cause damage to the body by placing extra stress on our body’s natural oxidation process. Oxidation is the body’s way of balancing the occurrence of free radicals or toxins. Antioxidants work by assisting the body with this natural oxidation process.
The best known sources of antioxidants are vitamins A, C, and E. Fruits and vegetables that are rich with color are full of these vitamins. Make sure to consume plenty of carrots, dark leafy greens, berries, green teas, cocoa, apples and oranges. Each has specific antioxidants that work to prevent disease and illness in different parts of the body. This fact makes it important that your diet includes a balance of healthy foods. For example, carrots are especially beneficial in keeping your eyes healthy, and cocoa is good for the heart. There are also great benefits to eating raw fruits and vegetables. They have not had their nutritional value broken down through cooking, making them a richer source of antioxidants.
We have more control of our overall health than many of us realize. It’s important to be aware of the choices you make that will affect your health and how you age. Many of us are always looking for the quick tip or secret to staying young, but the key to good health is not a mystery: make good choices.  Having plenty of antioxidants in your diet is one of the best ways to promote slow and graceful aging.
Resources:
www.webmd.com/food-recipes/20-common-foods-most-antioxidants
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/antioxidants/#introduction
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/vitamins-minerals/how-do-antioxidants-benefit-me.html