Antioxidants Are Keeping Free Radicals At Bay

The news these days has been filled with talk of antioxidants and how you can never get enough of them. Unfortunately, most people still don’t have a clear picture of what they do and how they benefit the human body, so they still don’t make much of an effort to get enough antioxidant-rich food into their bodies. It can help to motivate people to get enough of the right nutrients into their bodies if they understand why their bodies need that nutrient and how it can specifically help them to stay healthy. It can also help to make it easier for them to get what they need.

The reason that it’s important to get enough antioxidants in your diet is because there are plenty of free radicals wandering around your body, wreaking havoc wherever they go. Free radicals are unstable molecules that possess unpaired electrons. Their instability causes them to go around the body, stealing the electrons they need in order to stabilize themselves. Whatever molecule has its electron stolen becomes a free radical in turn and steals an electron from another molecule in order to replace the one that it lost. This vicious cycle continues ad infinitum, causing damage and wear on the body’s cells as the process repeats itself over and over again.

Antioxidants can stop this vicious cycle by bonding with the free radical itself, preventing it from oxidizing and causing damage to other cells. While certain oxidation processes are necessary for the body to function properly, the kind of unmitigated damage that a free radical can do in a body is uncontrolled, and can lead to significant damage of cells, and may even contribute to serious conditions such as cancer, stroke, neurodegenerative disease, and coronary heart disease. It’s absolutely necessary to stop this type of out-of-control oxidation process.

Fortunately, antioxidants are found in many common foods and even drinks. Green tea has become more popular in recent days because it is antioxidant-rich. Even coffee contains them. So-called “superfoods” such as blueberries, olive oil, and soy continue to rise in popularity as awareness of the benefits of this important type of nutrient. But if you’re afraid that you’re not getting enough of what you need, then it may be a good idea to look into an antioxidant supplement that you can take in order to make sure that you get enough of this important substance in your body.