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What Is Antioxidant
The Definition of Antioxidant
Understand the serious damages oxygen can do
to your body and how natural anti-oxidants
can neutralize the potential damages.
What is oxidation?
Our entire being, every
cell in our body, needs oxygen to help release energy from the food we
eat. Whether it be from proteins, carbohydrates or fats. In
the process, it creates a byproduct called "oxidation".
While oxygen is essential to life
itself, oxidation is the "dark side" of oxygen that most people
don't know about. Oxygen is chemically reactive and under
normal biochemical reactions, can become unstable. It oxidizes
neighboring molecules, causing them to be unstable.
This is the same process that causes
iron to rust or a cut apple to turn brown, just by its mere exposure
to oxygen. In the same
manner, oxygen can cause "rusting" in our body which is the
root cause of many degenerative diseases.
If oxidation can rust on
such a strong material like iron, just imagine what harm it does to our
vulnerable body. But thank God, there is provision to counteract
this corrosion.
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What is free radical?
Oxidation is a molecule
that has one electron missing, causing it to be unstable. It is
also called a free radical. A free radical is corrosive.
Like a bad guy, it goes around vandalizing and causing cellular damages
in the body resulting in toxic effects.
These free radicals if
left roaming rampant in the body without control, will result in cell
deterioration and destruction, and ultimately resulting in all kinds of
diseases. Some of the diseases which are the direct result of this
enemy are, strokes, arterial inflammation, arthritis, macular
degeneration, Alzheimer's, and many more. The cancer-causing free
radicals are called carcinogenic.
What is anti-oxidant?
Anti-oxidants are
molecules that has several electrons that can be easily detached without
being unstable. It donates an electron to the free radical that
has one electron missing, thus neutralizing it and rendering it
harmless.
The body that God gives us
can produce its own anti-oxidants. However, if the body is being
constantly attacked by free radicals faster than the natural production
of anti-oxidants, destruction sets in.
To aid our body in keeping
its "anti-oxidant tank" full, so that we can easily counteract
oxidation, we can supply our body with foods that are rich in
anti-oxidants.
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What creates free
radicals?
In our modern living,
especially in the city, we will be constantly attacked by free radicals
every where we go and in every thing we do.
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Air pollution
Air pollution like cigarette smoke, vehicle exhaust, barbecue smoke,
chemical fumes, toxic garbage fumes, all contain ozone, nitrogen
dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and other hydrocarbon
molecules that generate a huge amount of free radicals. These
exposures are associated with asthma, bronchitis, heart attacks and
even cancer.
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Pollution of food and
water
Thousands of different chemicals contaminate our water supplies.
In addition, there are heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and aluminum
that are dangerous to our brain, causing Alzheimer's disease or
dementia. Our food is not doing any better with all kinds of
pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, food preservatives, chemicals and
untold other dangerous substances that all pose potential health
risks.
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Environmental
Turn every corner and you will be faced with all kinds of free radical
producing sources. Dust, dirt, parasites, bacteria, viruses,
yeast, fungicides and even the stale air in our homes fill our lungs
with this destructive matter.
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Excessive sunlight
Moderate sunlight is essential and supplies the needed vitamin D
to our body. Excessive exposure to both UVA and UVB can increase
free radical production in the skin, causing oxidation of the skin
cells that leads to skin cancer. The sunscreen you use mostly
protect you from UVB, allowing you to stay longer in the sun and not
getting sunburned. But it does very little to protect you from
UVA that causes more damage.
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Poultry products
Antibiotic residues and numerous veterinary compounds are commonly
found in commercial poultry products. They are found in chicken,
beef, pork, turkey, farm-raised fish and dairy products.
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Medications and drugs
What chemotherapy and radiation therapy does to the body is to
increase oxidation in the body to kill the cancerous cells. What
it also does is killing the normal cells along with it. Any
drugs that enter our body, whether orally or injected are considered a
foreign substance. Our body works extra hard to metabolize and
eliminate it, putting an increased stress that causes oxidation.
This is why, there is usually a "side effect" from any drug that you
take.
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Excessive stress
Emotional stress can increase the level of free radicals in our body.
Death of a loved one, a divorce, financial problems, work and personal
pressures can all add to the complication of oxidation in our body.
Your body may be able to tolerate a short stressful period, but a
prolonged and excessively stressed period can cause serious damages to
your health.
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Excessive exercise
Moderate exercise is necessary and even beneficial to your body.
But people who exercise excessively runs the risk of increasing the
oxidation level in their body. Over-exercising without balancing
with anti-oxidants increases the free radicals significantly and is
harmful and damaging.
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What foods are rich in
anti-oxidants?
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There are thousands of
anti-oxidants that we can obtain in the form of phytonutrients, which
are found in nature's whole foods, in fruits and vegetables.
As long as you add a few
servings of foods rich in anti-oxidants in your daily diet, your body
would know how to make full use of each of them. The anti-oxidants
will move around in your bloodstream, like the SWAT team, looking for
free radicals and neutralizing them, rendering them harmless.
The rule of thumb is to
eat an assortment of "rainbow" colored fresh fruits and
vegetables. The deeper the color, the richer the anti-oxidant
content. Some examples:
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Red
Red apples, cherries, grapefruit, red grapes, raspberries, red plums,
strawberries, tomatoes, watermelon.
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Dark green
Asparagus, green capsicums, broccoli, cucumbers, green grapes,
green beans, kale, leeks, mustard greens, peas, spinach.
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Light green to yellow
Alfalfa sprouts, green apples, avocados, bananas, yellow
capsicums, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, kiwi fruit, lemons, lettuce,
limes, onions, pineapple, zucchini.
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Orange
Apricots, orange capsicums, cantaloupe, carrots, mangoes, oranges,
papaya, pumpkin, sweet potatoes.
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Purple
Beets, blackberries, blueberries, red cabbage, cherries, currants,
eggplants, purple grapes, red onions, purple plums.
If you have been following
me, you will see that it is impossible to avoid oxidation and free
radicals while we are still in this world. We cannot be fearing
what is out there as it will deprive us of living a normal life.
The best thing for us to
do is to constantly keep our anti-oxidants at an optimum level to keep
our body's immune system and defenses in tip-top condition.
Studies after studies have
shown that individuals with the highest intake of fruits and vegetables
has a significantly decreased risk of developing many of these
degenerative diseases.
Not only can these fruits
and vegetables prevent diseases, it may actually even repair damages
that have already invaded the body by reversing cell damages. This
site holds your hand as you walk this journey to a healthier new you.
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