Articles | Introduction to Antioxidants

What are antioxidants and what do they do? The body is one big place for cells, vitamins, nutrients and free radicals to play in. So much could happen inside the body, and you never know when diseases would develop and when even your own cells would decide to attack your own body. If you can provide defenses for your body, wouldn't you?

What does it mean when something has an antioxidant property? When something is called an antioxidant, it means that something could fight off free radicals. These free radicals go around the body as unstable molecules, and they could potentially damage body cells. Antioxidants are known to take out these free radicals and give the body a cleaner slate.

When it comes to health, talking about an antioxidant is almost the same with talking about a phytochemical. What are phytochemicals? These are substances from many different plants and they could potentially act as an antioxidant. Vitamins A and C are actually good examples of vitamins with antioxidant properties and this are the reason why fruits and vegetables are good food choices. But, phytochemicals are not the only ones that could act as an antioxidant. Some specific nutrients could act like them too. Fish has antioxidants in the form of Omega-3 fats.

Many foods have antioxidant properties, which makes them quite popular to people who want to cleanse their bodies of free radicals. Nuts, oils and seeds such as almond, Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds and olive oil are rich in Vitamin E, which makes them quite good food choices. Fruits like mangos, oranges, cantaloupes, apricots and peaches are also good, as well as the juices that one makes from them.

Aside from cleaning the body from free radicals that could potentially damage cells, there are also other benefits to eating food with antioxidant properties. As it is consistent with many different sources, foods like these could actually help reduce the risks of heart attacks, certain cancers, diabetes and many more. It contributes to better health by giving a person better vision and immune system, and let us not forget the benefits that it has to the prostate and the urinary track. Aside from these things, it is also considered generally healthy to have a certain amount of these substances and chemicals that could act as an antioxidant. However, there is such a thing as too much antioxidant, especially from taking food supplements.

Did you know that antioxidants aren't even proven by scientists yet? While there are certain theories as to how they work and what makes them so, science has still yet to explain just how these things are beneficial to the body. They believe that they work almost as similar to hormones. However, this is something that most people accepts and believes: antioxidants are very good to the body. They have many benefits, and they bring about no known harm to healthy and regular people. With the right amounts of these chemicals, vitamins and nutrients, a person could really go on and live as healthy as a person could get.