Antioxidants are essential if you want to feel your best and have a healthy body. Antioxidants are created by your body and can also be obtained from the food you eat, depending on what it is. Fresh fruits and vegetables are overflowing with antioxidants, so try to go for those! Antioxidants are important because they fight free radicals, which are things that your body naturally creates by breathing. Free radicals harm the body as they interact with other molecules by causing oxidative damage that can result in the development of a wide range of illnesses and diseases. The antioxidants in your body fight off these free radicals, but the problem is that there are usually way more free radicals than there are antioxidants, which is detrimental to the body’s health over time. The main reasons that your body would produce more free radicals than antioxidants are due to external factors, such as excessive exposure to UV rays, Pollution, Smoking, an unhealthy diet, excessive exercise, and certain medications/treatments. To counteract this, you should definitely consume foods loaded with antioxidants as often as you can. This will ensure that your body has all the antioxidants it needs to fight off the free radicals. Antioxidants repair damaged molecules by donating hydrogen atoms to the molecules. There are several different types of antioxidants, and Flavenoid antioxidants are able to form a barrier of protection against free radicals by attaching themselves to one’s DNA, while other antioxidants initiate apoptosis, a process that causes some types of cancer cells to self-destruct. That sounds like a laudable reason to devour antioxidant-rich food to me. For more specific information and a list of foods with the highest amount of antioxidants, check out this article! https://draxe.com/top-10-high-antioxidant-foods/
Sources:
http://www.nutrex-hawaii.com/benefits-of-antioxidants
https://draxe.com/fighting-free-radical-damage/
Photo source:
http://www.eatthis.com/why-you-need-fruits-vegetables
About the Author
Andrew Fullington
Student - Spring 2017
