Antioxidants Facts

Background


Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains contain many components that are beneficial to human health. Research supports that some of these foods, as part of an overall healthy diet, have the potential to delay the onset of many age-related diseases. These observations have led to continuing research aimed at identifying specific bioactive components in foods, such as antioxidants, which may be responsible for improving and maintaining health.Antioxidants are present in foods as vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, and polyphenols, among others. Many antioxidants are often identified in food like cherries , tomatoes,carrots, mangos, saffron, blueberries, blackberries, and grapes by their distinctive colors.

Health Effects

Research continues to grow regarding the knowledge of antioxidants as healthful components of food. Oxidation, or the loss of an electron, can sometimes produce reactive substances known as free radicals that can cause oxidative stress or damage to the cells. Antioxidants, by their very nature, are capable of stabilizing free radicals before they can react and cause harm, in much the same way that a buffer stabilizes an acid to maintain a normal pH. Because oxidation is a naturally occurring process within the body, a balance with antioxidants must exist to maintain health.

How Antioxidants works

An apple slice turns brown. Fish becomes rancid. A cut on your skin is raw and inflamed. All of these result from a natural process called oxidation. It happens to all cells in nature, including the ones in your body.

To help your body protect itself from the rigors of oxidation, Mother Nature provides thousands of different antioxidants in various amounts in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and legumes. When your body needs to put up its best defense, especially true in today's environment, antioxidants are crucial to your health.

How Antioxidants Help Prevent Oxidation

This birth and death of cells in the body goes on continuously, 24 hours a day. It is a process that is necessary to keep the body healthy. "Oxidation is a very natural process that happens during normal cellular functions," researcher Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, professor of nutrition at Tufts University in Boston, tells WebMD.

Yet there is a downside. "While the body metabolizes oxygen very efficiently, 1% or 2% of cells will get damaged in the process and turn into free radicals," he says.

"Free radicals" is a term often used to describe damaged cells that can be problematic. They are "free" because they are missing a critical molecule, which sends them on a rampage to pair with another molecule. "These molecules will rob any molecule to quench that need," Blumberg says.

When free radicals are on the attack, they don't just kill cells to acquire their missing molecule. "If free radicals simply killed a cell, it wouldn't be so bad… the body could just regenerate another one," he says. "The problem is, free radicals often injure the cell, damaging the DNA, which creates the seed for disease."

When a cell's DNA changes, the cell becomes mutated. It grows abnormally and reproduces abnormally -- and quickly.

Free radicals trigger a damaging chain reaction, and that's the crux of the problem. "Free radicals are dangerous because they don't just damage one molecule," Blumberg explains. "One free radical can set off a whole chain reaction. When a free radical oxidizes a fatty acid, it changes that fatty acid into a free radical, which then damages another fatty acid. It's a very rapid chain reaction."

These external attacks can overwhelm the body's natural free-radical defense system. In time, and with repeated free radical attacks that the body cannot stop, that damage can lead to a host of chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease.

Multivitamins and vitamin supplements can provide the body with an antioxidant boost. Yet getting too much of some supplements, like vitamin E, can be harmful. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts contain complex mixes of antioxidants, and therein lies the benefit of eating a variety of healthy foods, says Blumberg.


Benefits


Consumption of antioxidants is thought to provide protection against oxidative damage and contribute positive health benefits. An increasing body of evidence suggests beneficial effects of the antioxidants present in grapes, cocoa, blueberries, and green tea on cardiovascular health, Alzheimer’s disease,stroke and even reduction of the risk of some cancers



Antioxidant rich foods

Some of the foods that are rich in antioxidant are listed below.

Fruits: Acaiberries ,blueberries, cranberries, strawberry,blackberries,red or black grapes.

Vegetables: Broccoli,Cauliflower,beans, garlic,tomato,carrot, spinach.

Nuts: Walnuts,almonds, pecans and hazelnuts.

Spices: cinnamon, oregano, and ground cloves.

Whole grains,Cocoa,Green tea.