So what are antioxidants? What do they do? And why do we need them?
In scientific terms, (as written on Wikipedia), Antioxidants are molecules that slow or prevent the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals, which start chain reactions that damage cells.
Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing radical intermediates, and inhibit other oxidation reactions by being oxidized themselves.
In more understandable terms, free radicals bombard our cells. The free radical beats at the membrane of the cell and rips the cell open, either killing or damaging the DNA, which can cause a mutation or a tumor to begin.
A free radical is like a spark burning the membrane of an internal cell. Thus, you can imagine the damage it can do. Keeping the antioxidants at the highest possible level in our bodies will help slow the aging process.
Antioxidants keep the free radicals from damaging the cells.
Yes, you can get these from your diet if you eat 1 gallon of carrot juice, 15 oranges, 2 gallons of corn oil and 1 ½ pounds of raw halibut. Or you could eat 56 cups of raw carrots, 12 cups strawberries, 111 cups Brazil nuts or peanuts and the raw halibut (to get the selenium.) These have to be eaten quickly and at the same time. They act as a team and together they can enhance the protective effects for your body by 10-20 times.
We can see by this example that getting what we need from the food we eat could be an overwhelming exercise for our digestive system. This makes it important and actually necessary to supplement with a good product.
It truly comes down to the fact that we must take responsibility for our own health. We can not give that responsibility away to anyone else. If we want the very best health, we must take control.