The power of Antioxidants

Something we so commonly lack due to our modern day diets and it is essential we have these in our diets.

So, what is an Antioxidant?

An antioxidant is a molecule located within our bodies as well as food, which helps to prevent cell damage by fighting off free radicals. These free radicals can cause illnesses/diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Your body does produce it’s own free radicals, however, we still need more antioxidants to fight off these free radicals, and the way we can add more antioxidants is in foods. Foods such as fruits, vegetables, plant-based foods, meat and whole foods in general.

What are free radicals?

A free radical is a molecule located in our body formed from cell metabolism. Our body has to produce its own antioxidants in order to balance out the amount of free radicals to antioxidants. However, if our body fails to produce enough antioxidants and if we fail to consume enough antioxidants, then the free radicals will cause a lot of damage to our body such as serious health problems and potentially death. Furthermore, if our bodies produce more free radicals than antioxidants, this will then put our body into oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is a long period of stress which damages your DNA and your body as a whole - it essentially causes your cells to die.

The damage oxidative stress causes increases the risks of cancer, and the factors causing oxidative stress are the following:

1. Air pollution

2. Toxins

3. Not enough oxygen

4. Too much and too less antioxidants

5. Poor diet and lifestyle

6. Excessive amounts of alcohol

7. Excessive amounts of smoking

However, free radicals also have provide a positive affect on the body is the form of fighting off infections (immune cells recruit free radicals). So, we need to have the correct balance of free radicals and antioxidants to have a much healthier body and state of mind

Foods containing antioxidants:

Foods use antioxidants in order to help the food to survive for longer. You can mainly find foods with antioxidants rich in Vitamin C, E, plant-based and animal-based foods. Berries and dark chocolate have high amounts of antioxidants, but I would say to make sure that your dark chocolate percentage is over 70%

Furthermore, coffee also has a vast amount of antioxidants, however, this is the case because a lot of people lack antioxidants from whole healthy foods so they get most of their antioxidants from coffee (providing the fact that they drink coffee). Furthermore, if you were to drink coffee, you should make sure it’s organic (ingredients) and it would help to know what is being put into the coffee when it is being made. If your able to, then make your coffee as home with organic ingredients and make sure to consume the coffee in a mug or glass or any type of drinking bottle that isn’t plastic, because we know that plastic does a lot more harm than good and plastic if found in a majority of things which we use and consume today which is causing us to have a lot more health problems than what we actually should have (this is a topic i will speak in depth about another time).

Red meat and fish also contain good amounts of antioxidants, but fruit and vegetables contain the most amount of antioxidants.

Dietary antioxidants:

Antioxidants are either water or fat-soluble, water-soluble works within the fluid and fat-soluble acts in the cell membranes. Vitamin C is a water-soluble; Vitamin E is a fat-soluble and flavonoids are a plant antioxidant. Furthermore, turmeric and and extra virgin olive oil also conatin good amounts of antioxidants as well as being anti-inflammatory. Turmeric and extra virgin olive oil

Foods high in antioxidants:

1. Blue berries

2. Strawberries

3. Dar chocolate

4. Bananas

5. Raspberries

6. Red cabbage

7. Kale

8. Beetroot

9. Turmeric

10. Garlic

11. Rosemary

12. Sage

13. Parsley

14. Lemons

15. Broccoli

16. Sweet potatoes

17. Carrots

18. Oranges

19. Pecans

20. Beef

21. Poultry

22. Fish

23. Pecans

24. Spinach

Just remember that when you are going to buy these foods, try to make sure that they are raw organic whole foods. The foods commonly found and consumed in supermarkets tend to have so many more ingredients added into them which make us unhealthy, a lot of foods in supermarkets high amounts of ultra-processed calories/ingredients. So if you are able to, then i would suggest to shop are your local farmers market or your local producer, again this depends on different situations especially if you have access to one near-by. And if you still have to shop in a supermarket, then just keep an eye out for the foods that your buying and the ingredients in them, we are looking to buy the food not the product - we’re looking to buy the singular ingredient or a less ingredients as possible.

Final Thoughts:

You should be consuming antioxidants on a regular basis, but only in their natural forms such as meats, fruit, veg foods right in Vitamin C and E (the list I provided above). This is a much better way of consuming the right amounts of antioxidants compared the taking supplements that have higher doses. At the end of that day, we’re trying to balance out our antioxidants and our free radicals that our bodies provide. We don’t necessarily want more of one than the other, especially when it come to free radicals. So, eat healthy foods to help to cleanse your body and to keep that homeostasis in check.

Finally, Finally, don't take this an any literal health care advice, this is just my opinion after doing some research on the subject matter. Do your own research and decide the best steps to take for oneself. After doing my research and consuming foods rich in antioxidants, I can say myself that i have felt so much better. Also, just the thought about consuming food and improving your body physically, it goes a lot further than that, it affects you spiritually and has a much greater meaning.

Health is Wealth!