To grow old gracefully is a desire by many people. Some people try out many different synthetic products while others while others try natural ways of maintaining a youthful look. Taking care of your skin to have that healthy glow not only involves the outside but also the ingredients of the types of food you eat.
This common ingredient are called antioxidants. They have become so popular that manufacturers have included it in their beauty products from hand cream to supplement pills. How does antioxidants keep us younger so to speak?
These antioxidants are the substances that regulate the aging process in your body. They are naturally produced by our bodies so we have to ingest it from food containing this powerful substance.
Let’s talk about cellular metabolism. The cells produce energy for our body’s use by processing the necessary substances derived from food. A by product of this process are free radicals which are unstable molecules having unpaired electrons.
Molecules and atoms with unpaired electrons tend to balance itself by stealing electrons from nearby molecules. The molecule whose electron has been stolen now becomes a free radical and now does the same thing to another molecule. This creates a chain reaction and only stops when an antioxidant donates an electron to the free radical.
There are visible and invisible results when free radical chain reaction occurs. It could be the onset of diseases like diabetes, cancer, arthritis and neurological deficiencies begin to affect you. Free radicals not only comes up because of our cellular metabolism, it can also enter our body from the outside like the sun’s radiation, cigarette smoke, and exhaust fumes from automobiles. The more free radicals we absorb the greater the potential damage that can occur.
Antioxidants have been shown to be of great help in the free radical problem. Antioxidant substances combine with free radicals and neutralize them. Once they are neutralized, they can no longer do any damage. Scientists don?t have any idea of a recommended daily dose of antioxidants to check free radical damage and the diseases that come with age, but they do know that eating foods rich in antioxidants makes a huge difference in how we live.
Antioxidants can be found in the market and grocery stores. Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of antioxidants
Antioxidants in fruits and vegetables include:
* Vitamin A
* Vitamin A
* Vitamin C
* Lutein
* Lutein
* Beta-carotene
Certain minerals such as selenium and zine also has important functions in the body. They may not be classified as antioxidants but they boost the immune system in a way that fight against damage caused by free radicals.
Antioxidants are also found in nuts, berries, legumes, cold water fish, seafood, green tea and red meat. Acai and goji has the most amount of antioxidants among the berries. So, eating a varied diet of fruits, vegetables and the foods just named will increase the amount of antioxidants in your system and help reduce the incidence of disease. Ingesting fruits and vegetables in their natural form instead of juices brings the benefit of other nutrients found in the foods. Juices also contain a lot of sugar that is not needed by your body.
Food does more than satisfy off hunger. Natural substances found there can cause us to live longer and stay free of disease as we age.
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