How Do Antioxidants Work?Finally, here are the antioxidant facts!
How Do Antioxidants Work? Antioxidants are beneficial because they destroy free radicals in the body. They can also help with recovery from exercise, which may assist in the fat-burning process and therefore, help you lose weight. However, this effect is likely to be very mild at best! How Do Antioxidants Work? Free radicals are highly reactive molecular particles resulting from either normal metabolism within a cell or from harmful substances or contaminants in our environment. The damaging substances from our environment include chemicals found in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. They may come from pesticides, cigarette smoke, car emissions and smog. A molecule becomes a free radical when it loses one of its electrons. Due to its electron loss it becomes an unstable entity that is highly reactive. These free radicals react with or ‘oxidise’ any nearby stable molecules, taking one of their electrons to become stable themselves, thereby causing the previously stable molecule to become another free radical. This newly formed free radical then reacts with another stable molecule and so on and so on. This ‘domino-effect’ continues until the free radical is quenched by an antioxidant. This chain of free radical reactions causes serious damage to the cells of our body, which may lead to a reduced functioning capacity of these cells. Also, if they react with the DNA of a cell, cancer may develop! Free radicals also contribute to the aging process. The damage they causes in our body is similar to the rusting or oxidation of iron, the rotting of meat or the ‘browning’ of a cut apple. Foods containing antioxidants can help to slow down the aging process because the antioxidants act as 'free radical scavengers' as they circulate in the body ‘collecting’ or ‘mopping up’ free radicals and preventing them from damaging the cells. Antioxidants are produced by our body and may also be found in small amounts in the foods that we eat, particularly in fruits, vegetables and unprocessed oils. The best sources of antioxidants are the top antioxidant foods. We can also get them from various antioxidant supplements on the market.
Living in a civilised society means our body is constantly being bombarded with free radicals virtually every second of the day and the small amount of antioxidants our body produces or that we get from an average food intake certainly does not compensate for the free radicals entering our body from the environment. Accordingly, if we want to have our body cells functioning at optimum levels (and therefore assisting weight loss), if we want to recover faster from exercise, if we want to slow down the ageing process and if we want to resist disease as much as possible, then we must eat foods containing antioxidants as often as possible, particularly the top antioxidant foods. Since specific antioxidants scavenge specific free radicals, it is important to eat a variety of top antioxidant foods. Now that we have answered the question, how do antioxidants work? And you now know the antioxidant facts, it is imperative that you add foods containing antioxidants to your diet every day. One of the easiest ways to ensure you consume the top antioxidant foods every day is by simply having a teaspoon of BCN's Super 7 Blend. It contains a unique combination of 7 powerful superfoods and is loaded with antioxidants. In fact, the ORAC value of Super 7 Blend has been tested and is over 10,000 ORAC units per 5 gram serve (RDIs are around 3,000 - 5,000 per day). With a far better understanding of how do antioxidants work, using a product like Super 7 Blend just makes sense! Click on the link below to find out more about it:
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