There are a lot of fancy science words when it comes to our nutrition. Anthocyanin, phytochemicals, selenium, and perhaps the most famous one: Antioxidant. You have no doubt heard the term floating around, probably in conjunction with how good they are for your health, how they might prevent cancer, or how certain foods are rich in them.
What are they really though, and how do they prevent heart disease? How can eating dark chocolate really be good for you? The short answer is that there are these things called Free Radicals in your body and they are bad. Antioxidants are chemicals used by your body to get rid of them. It does get a little more complicated than that though, so let’s dive in.
Oxidants, Free Radicals and Cell Damage
Oxidants are oxidizing agents, which you would better know from the process of oxidizing steel. We call that oxidized steel rust, and it is a bad thing. The same damage that oxidants cause to the steel is damage that it can cause to your body, hurting your cells and causing things like inflammation, disease, and nerve damage. These oxidizing agents are known as Free Radicals, atoms that float around your body causing havoc.
They occur naturally over time as a byproduct of other cell functions like generating energy for you to use. Unfortunately, these free radicals accumulate and cause oxidative stress, which is bad. Oxidative stress can damage your very DNA, and is a known cause of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and has been linked to cancer.
Your body is not defenseless against these free radicals though. Antioxidants, like their name suggests, are the tools to combat oxidants. That means that in order to provide your body with the tools it needs to fight heart disease and other ailments caused by the free radicals, you have to eat food that contains them. While science is still arguing about how many antioxidants you should consume in an ideal situation, most studies agree that a varied diet which includes antioxidant-rich foods will lower your chance of heart disease, cancer, and other aging-related risks.
Which Foods Are High in Antioxidants?
The most famous food that has high antioxidant content are blueberries, but there is so much more. First off nearly any berry, not just blueberries, including strawberries and raspberries. In fact, berries are among the healthiest foods on earth in addition to being delicious, so there’s no reason not to be adding them into your routine. The aforementioned dark chocolate is another good contender, so it is everyone’s favorite superfood kale.
In general, you can find antioxidant-rich foods anytime you find a vibrant color. Orange fruits, purple beets, red cabbage, and grapes all fit the bill and give you a variety of colors to accent your diet. You may notice that most of these foods are simply solid nutritional choices, often topping any nutrition density list. All these foods are also very high in vitamins, minerals, and other micro-nutrients that your body uses on a daily basis to keep you healthy and alert in addition to the disease defending antioxidants.
The reason for this is simple and can help us understand exactly what antioxidants are. Antioxidants are actually a group of different chemicals that all help your body manage free radicals, and the two most common items in the group are ones you are likely very familiar with: Vitamin C and Vitamin E.
Does That Mean Antioxidant Is Just A Buzzword?
Upon learning that Antioxidant is just a label to describe a variety of vitamins you might be tempted to dismiss the term as marketing jargon with no real substance. There are many companies that do use the term that way, simply as a new way to present information that everyone already knew in what seems like a new and exciting breakthrough.
When you see a bag of oranges, which are notorious for being high in Vitamin C, that proudly claims oranges are high in antioxidants that isn’t new or even useful information. Everyone already knows that Vitamin C is good for you and you should eat more foods that contain it.
However, none of that means it isn’t useful to know what antioxidants are or what foods contain them. Since the term applies to a group of nutrients it can be an efficient way to describe what you can find in a high nutrient dish. Understanding the term also gives you some background on why these vitamins are useful. Beta-carotene is useful because it is an antioxidant and antioxidants fight free radicals, so next time you see a health study about bet-carotene you can understand why it is important.
The scientific community and the world at large are only just beginning to understand how much impact eating antioxidants can have on health, it is undoubtedly something you are going to see more and more as time goes on.
For other health benefits related to fasting, please continue reading at Trusted Nutrition’s 5 Health Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting For Your Body
