Antioxidants Hype or Truth

Good day,

Today I want to talk about a key buzzword in the health and fitness industry, "ANTIOXIDANTS". You can now buy a product in almost every food category at your local super market that claims to have antioxidants in them. Great, so what does this mean for you, the average consumer? How do antioxidants affect your health? Where do they come from? Are they real and do they work? These are some of the questions that I will answer in today's post. So, lets start with the question, are they real and do they work? The answer is YES they are real and YES they work!
Here is a brief description of how they work and affect your health. Antioxidants are natural compounds that help protect the body from free radical damage. OK, now you are asking what the heck is a "Free Radical". Well, a  free radical is an atom or group of atoms that cause damage to cells. So, Antioxidants = GOOD and Free radicals = BAD. Simple enough so far right? Some of the damage that free radicals do include, impairing the immune system, heart disease, cancer and possibly the aging process itself! Free radicals are formed by exposure to the sun, toxic chemicals such as those found in cigarette smoke, polluted air and household chemicals; and various metabolic processes, such as the breaking down of fat into an energy source.
Now, lets talk about where antioxidants come from.There are number of phytochemicals (found in plants) and nutrients that act as antioxidants including Vitamins A, C, E, beta-carotene and other carotenoids, flavanoids and the mineral Selenium. Certain herbs have antioxidant properties as well.
Although many antioxidants can be obtained from food such as sprouted grains, fresh fruit and vegetables it can be difficult to get enough from our foods because our polluted environments are constantly generating free radicals. We can use supplements to bridge the gap but need to be careful not to focus on one type of antioxidant as they work synergistically together. It is better to take smaller doses of several different antioxidants.
Here is a list of common Antioxidants:

• Alpha-Lipoic Acid
• Bilberry
• Burdock
• Coenzyme Q10
• Turmeric
• Flavanoids
• Garlic
• Ginko Biloba
• Glutathione
• Grape Seed Extract
• Green Tea
• Melatonin
• Methionine
• N-Acetylcysteine (NAC)
• Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NADH)
• Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins (OPC's)
• Selenium
• Silymarin
• Superoxide Dismutase
• Vitamin A and the Carotenoids
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E
• Zinc

Cheers,

bounce life