What Are Antioxidants and How They Stop Free Radicals From Attacking Your Body

What are antioxidants? Antioxidants is a big word you hear all the time, and you are never sure if it is a good thing or not. Here is our attempt at explaining and maybe demystifying this word.

Also, you will find out just how beneficial making smoothies can be in packing your system full of these wonderful little guys.

Your body functions because you breathe oxygen to make it go, just like a car needs oxygen and gas to make it run. When your body "burns" oxygen it creates various by-products.

You give off carbon monoxide(exhaling). One of the by-products is a molecule that has been oxidized.

What is Oxidation?

Oxidation occurs when a substance reacts chemically with oxygen, and forms a new molecule. Most people know it as "rust".

Oxidation is like metal rusting when left outside in wet weather. The molecules of the metal combine with oxygen to form iron oxide.

And, if left unchecked, will eventually destroy the metal, or render it useless. If caught early, it can be treated and scrubbed clean.

Free Radicals refers to the formation of oxidized molecules in you body. This is a natural process that is occurring in your body all the time. You can't stop it. But, you can slow it down.

Free radicals are also created by the effects of your environment, such as chemicals, smoke, pollution and so on.

Like rust, free radicals have a damaging affect on your body. They are considered an unstable molecule. They would prefer to be stable, or lazy.

So they look for healthy molecules in your body. They want to steal things important things from your cells like enzymes and proteins. If they are successful, then they can be lazy. (oh those couch potatoes!)

When they do attack, they damage your healthy cells, maybe even kill them. If this process goes on long enough, and you lose cells faster than they can be repaired or replaced, you end up will illness, disease, aging and so on.

Scientists have discovered that plant nutrients from fruits and vegetables have qualities that help your body reverse the oxidation of your cells. They call these qualities, or substances Antioxidants.

Antioxidants are substances that attach to free radicals, giving the free radicals what they need to be stable, and viola, the free radicals have been neutralized!

And, they get to be lazy at last.

Of course there is much, much more going on than this simple explanation. But, we are not here to debate that! We really just wanted to keep it simple. There is a great book we'd like to share with you, called SuperFoods RX.

You would do well by purchasing and reading this book. It will change the way you think about foods you eat! The author does a great job answering the question "what are antioxidants?

Kind of like their own antibodies!

You read so much about how one plant can do this for you and another plant can do that for you...it's because of the properties specific to that plant. Pretty nifty huh?

The very properties of plants that allow them to live and thrive can be transferred to other organisms as well. These nutrients, when broken down into micro nutrients, are what feed our bodies and allow it to flourish.

Although your body can produce its own antioxidants, scientists now believe that your body absolutely needs a diet rich in antioxidant foods for long term health and well being.

Some of the more common sources of antioxidant fruits and vegetables are blueberries, tea, spinach, tomatoes, and orange squash.

The answer to the question "What are antioxidants?" turns out not to be so scary after all! We just need to know that a good variety of antioxidant fruits and vegetables are readily available!

And of course, you've got to feel great by knowing the making smoothies is one of the best ways to infuse your body with all the antioxidants.

By breaking down foods into very small microscopic pieces, you are making it easy on your digestive system, allowing more of the nutrients to be absorbed.

Click here for more information on superfoods and what are antioxidants and related foods.

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