Antioxidants – Nature’s Super Power

Antioxidants are always being touted as a MUST for your diet.  But what they do and their importance to our diet and our bodies is a bit confusing.  Here’s the lowdown on nature’s super powers.

Every day, our bodies are exposed to oxidation and free radicals.  Free radicals are unavoidable.  They are spawned from the environment – pollution, cigarette smoke, radiation, herbicides, pesticides, gas fumes, toxic chemicals, etc, etc.  But it doesn’t stop there….free radicals can also be formed from derivatives of our bodily functions – metabolism, stress, and some are produced by the immune system to neutralize viruses and bacteria.  The most common form of free radicals in the human body is oxygen (I know…that sounds so strange since we couldn’t live without it).  The oxygen molecules moving around inside our bodies become electrically charged and try to steal electrons from other molecules, which can lead to DNA damage or extensive molecular destruction.