Antioxidants...We Need TheseOur Silent Fighters
- Seek and Destroy
- Anti-oxidants have one important purpose in your body and that is to destroy free radicals. Free radicals are a by product of chemical reactions that occur naturally within your body and have the potential to cause cell damage in the form of both disease and premature aging. Anti-oxidants function as the cellular policemen against free radicals stealing your health and beauty.
- Free radicals are constantly produced by your body because they are the result of chemical reactions that continuously occur. Additionally, external pollutants contain free radicals as well. This means it is important to consume anti-oxidants daily in order to combat the cell destruction that can be caused. Many vitamins and mineral have anti-oxidant capabilities, but the most important ones are the vitamins A, C, and E and beta-carotene, lycopenes and selenium.
- Eat Your Fruits & Veggies
- So what do you include in your diet to make sure that you are getting an adequate supply of anti-oxidants and won’t be aging any faster than nature and genetics intended? Remember your mother telling you to eat all you vegetables every single night at dinner? Remember her telling you to eat some fresh fruit instead of those cookies you wanted? Well, not surprisingly, it turns out that mom was right. Anti-oxidants are abundant in fruits and vegetables.
- The lycopenes that are so key to squelching free radicals in your body are highly concentrated in tomatoes. It is theorized that the high quantity of tomato consumption in Mediterranean diets is a key component in not only heart health, but general well being. Which is a great excuse for having a plate of pasta swimming in tomato sauce, or adding sundried tomatoes to any sandwich.
Rather than memorizing a long list of anti-oxidants and what foods they are in, the best way to go about making sure that you are getting enough in your diet is fairly simple. Follow your mother’s advice and the advice of chefs. Make every meal as intensely colorful as possible. This gives you the broadest range of vitamins, phytonutrients and minerals possible. Include the greenest spinach and kale, deeply colored summer berries, bright orange carrots and sweet potatoes, juicy red tomatoes and peppers. If you can literally eat a rainbow of vegetables and fruits everyday, with at least three different colors in every meal, and one cup of green tea per day, you will get all the anti-oxidants you need.