Antioxidants

Antioxidants are chemicals that reduce the rate of oxidation. Oxidation is what happens in our bodies (in our cells) all the time, its called aging :)

Researchers have found a high correlation between oxidative damage and the occurrence of disease.

Research suggests that consumption of antioxidant-rich foods reduces damage to cells and biochemicals from free radicals. This may slow down, prevent, or even reverse certain diseases that result from cellular damage, and perhaps even slow down the natural aging process. This is the basis for the free-radical theory of aging.

Some studies suggest that by destroying free radicals and reducing cellular damage, antioxidants in the diet can have positive health effects, such as preventing macular degeneration (studied in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study); maintaining the immune system; potentially preventing neurodegeneration due to oxidative stress; preventing DNA damage; and lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease.

So its important to keep a good amount of antioxidants in our diets, especially when:

• You probably eat outside a lot and are not able to incorporated enough of the right and fresh things in your diet.
• You exercise a lot. Whenever you do endurance exercise like running long distance or weight training you are increasing the cell damage in your body.

Just by paying attention to what you eat and adding a few really simple things in your diet, antioxidant intake can be increased. It will help keep diseases away, improve your general health condition including your skin. Read on...

Physical exercise
During exercise, oxygen consumption can temporarily increase by a factor of more than 10. This leads to a temporary large increase in the production of oxygen free radicals, resulting in increased cell damage contributing to muscular fatigue during and after exercise. The body uses antioxidants to reduce the amount of such damage. The inflammatory response that occurs after strenuous exercise is also associated with increased occurrence of free radicals, especially during the 24 hours after an exercise session. In this phase too, antioxidants in the body reduce the damage.

Here are some good food sources of the four most studied antioxidants.
Vitamin C -- Important sources include citrus fruits, green peppers, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, strawberries, raw cabbage and potatoes.
Vitamin E -- Important sources include wheat germ, nuts, seeds, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, vegetable oil and fish-liver oil.
Beta-carotene -- Carrots, squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, kale, collards, cantaloupe, peaches and apricots are particularly rich sources of beta-carotene.
Selenium -- Good food sources include fish, shellfish, red meat, grains, eggs, chicken and garlic.

Green Tea: Health benefits:

• Preventing the degradation of cell membranes by neutralizing the spread of free radicals (which occurs during the process of oxidation).
• Increases fat oxidation (helps the body use fat as an energy source) and raises metabolism.
• Lowering LDL cholesterol (in high doses in lab tests)

The benefits from green tea are pretty amazing, read it again...

Most of the data here is collected from the wikipedia page on Antioxidants.