Getting your Antioxidants!

You may have heard that fruits and vegetables contain many antioxidants, but how many of us know what antioxidants are, what they do, and why we need them?

An antioxidant is a molecule capable of inhibiting the oxidation of other molecules. Well, that doesn't mean much if we don't know what "oxidation" is.


An apple slice turns brown. Fish becomes rancid. A cut on your skin is raw and inflamed. All of these result from the natural process of oxidation.  Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons or hydrogen from a substance to an oxidizing agent. It happens to all cells in nature, including the ones in your body, whenever oxygen interacts with cells of any type.


Oxidation produces some type of change in those cells. They may die, such as with rotting fruit. In the case of cut skin, dead cells are replaced in time by fresh, new cells, resulting in a healed cut. This birth and death of cells in the body goes on continuously, 24 hours a day. It is a process that is necessary to keep the body healthy. It is a very natural process that happens during normal cellular functions, but there is a downside. While the body metabolizes oxygen very efficiently, 1% or 2% of cells will get damaged in the process and turn into free radicals.


"Free radicals" is a term often used to describe damaged cells that can be problematic. Normal cell functions produce a small percentage of free radicals, but those free radicals are generally not a big problem. They are kept under control by antioxidants that the body produces naturally. External toxins, especially cigarette smoke and air pollution, are "free radical generators". Cigarette smoke is a huge source of free radicals and reaction is often stimulated in the lungs. Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol also triggers substantial free radical production. Oxidative damage in skin cells is caused by cumulative sunlight.


They are "free" because they are missing a critical molecule, which sends them on a rampage to pair with another molecule. These molecules will rob any molecule to quench that need. When free radicals are on the attack, they don't just kill cells to acquire their missing molecule. If they simply killed a cell, it wouldn't be a problem because the body could just regenerate another one. The problem is, free radicals often injure the cell, damaging the DNA, which creates the seed for disease.


When a cell's DNA changes, the cell becomes mutated. It grows abnormally and reproduces abnormally -- and quickly. A single free radical can trigger a whole damaging, and rapid, chain reaction. These attacks can overwhelm the body's free-radical defense system made up of antioxidants that the body produces naturally. In time, and with repeated free radical attacks that the body cannot stop, that damage can lead to a host of chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease.

Antioxidants work to stop this damaging, disease-causing chain reaction that free radicals have started. Each type of antioxidant works either to prevent the chain reaction or stop it after it's started. For example, the role of vitamin C is to stop the chain reaction before it starts. It captures the free radical and neutralizes it. Vitamin E is a chain-breaking antioxidant. Wherever it is sitting in a membrane, it breaks the chain reaction.


In the 21st century, people need to get more antioxidants in their diet to offset all these assaults. When you follow the USDA's advice to eat multiple servings of fruits and vegetables, you're compensating for the effects of environmental toxins. Your body simply doesn't produce enough antioxidants to do all that.

Our bodies need a Natural Antioxidant Defense Network, for lack of a better term. Just like a country needs a military system, the human body needs defense workers at all levels -- lieutenants, corporals, generals, staff sergeants - in the form of antioxidants. That's why the body needs a variety of fruits and vegetables, in order to get a mix of vitamins and minerals, such as vitamins A, C, E, and beta-carotene, to neutralize this free radical assault. Each type works in different tissues of the body, in different parts of cells.


When you have appropriate amounts of different antioxidants, you're doing what you can to protect yourself.

Post Title : Getting your Antioxidants!

Getting your Antioxidants!,

vegetables,

Getting your Antioxidants!