What Are Antioxidants and Why Are They Important?

The science of antioxidants is relatively new, and scientists don’t fully understand them yet. At first it was believed that all antioxidants were the same, but new evidence indicates that different types produce different results in the body. However, they are all important to your overall health. Here are the answers to the most common questions about antioxidants.

What Are Antioxidants?

Antioxidants are nutrients found in food and enzymes produced by the body that slow the oxidation process of the body. When the body uses oxygen, it produces free radicals as a by-product. Free radicals are molecules with an unpaired electron. If you remember your physics class, unpaired electrons are volatile and sometimes dangerous things. Antioxidants are nature’s way of counteracting this destructive process.

Currently known antioxidants include:

Vitamin A

Vitamin C

Vitamin E

Selenium

Flavonoids

Lutein

Lycopene

Lignan

Coenzyme Q10

Glutatione

Caretenoids

Where Can I Find Antioxidants?

The best place to find antioxidants is fruits and vegetables. Eat several servings a day of a variety of fruits and vegetables. They can also be found in foods like red wine, dark chocolate, whole grains, garlic, fish, chicken, and red meat. Basically, if you eat it and it’s natural, it probably contains antioxidants, but eat them in moderation.

Ingesting antioxidants is the best way to stop the decay of internal processes and maintain good health. However, free radicals are also found in the environment. If your skin is showing early signs of aging, free radicals could be the culprit. In this case, a topical product containing antioxidants is the best solution.

How Do They Work?

It’s believed that antioxidants work in two ways. First, they stop a free-radical chain reaction. Once free radicals are produced, they seek out molecules to pair with. This pairing produces another free radical. The chain continues until an antioxidant bonds with it to stop the process. In addition, antioxidants can prevent a chain reaction from ever starting by pairing with free radicals as soon as they are created.

By pairing with free radicals, antioxidants can repair some of the damage they do to the body, and sometimes prevent it in the first place. Antioxidants can help prevent or reduce the damage from heart diseases, diabetes, cancer, illness, premature aging, menopause, and stroke.

Can I Take Too Many Antioxidants?

As with most enjoyable things in life, you can get too much of a good thing. If you eat a well-balanced diet, you shouldn’t need antioxidant supplements in order to reach the recommended daily allowance of most vitamins and minerals. Although exceeding the recommend dosage once-in-a-while won’t hurt you, repeated excessive doses of vitamin A and other vitamins can be toxic to the body and may actually cause much of the damage you’re taking antioxidant supplements to avoid.

How Do I Know How Much to Take?

Scientists have not yet determined a recommended daily allowance for antioxidants. For now, follow the RDA for vitamins and minerals for a person of your gender and caloric intake.