Recently I’ve been hearing a lot about antioxidants. I saw the word pop up in online articles and that sparked my interest.

Sometimes you see a word like 20 times and you still don’t know what it means. That was the case with me and the word antioxidants.

Are they healthy or bad for you?

I did some research and in this article I will sum up the information I came across. Now I know what antioxidants are and I won’t forget it easily! Also, I hope that you enjoy reading this article and learn something new.

Before you start reading you should know that I am not a biologist or whatsoever. I am not an advisor, so if you have any health issues, don’t come here for advice. I am just a lover of health and writing, so here are those two combined. Love you <3

Let’s start with the first question.

What are antioxidants?

Antioxidants are really important for your body. They protect tissues and the DNA in cells against free radicals.

Before I continue, I will explain what free radicals are. Free radicals are molecules with oxygen in their structure. They also have an uneven number of electrons in them. As a result of this, they can easily react with other molecules. They are important for a lot of chemical processes in our body.

However, they can also be of harm in the body. It can result in oxidative stress, which in return can possibly cause cardiovascular disease, cancer and long-term damage to the nervous system.

That’s where we come back to the antioxidants…

Since antioxidants protect your body against those free radicals, it’s very important to have them in your body. Later you will see where you can find those crucial antioxidants.

The benefits

Let’s now focus on the potential benefits of antioxidants and why they are important. As I already mentioned earlier, they help protect your body against free radicals.

Antioxidants can help prevent cardiovascular disease, cancer and long-term damage to the nervous system. There are also signs that free radicals help the aging process, therefore antioxidants could help slow this down.

Balance is key!

Now you might think about getting as many antioxidants as possible in your diet.

But…

This is actually not healthy for you.

Those free radicals can be good for you. As stated before, they are useful in tons of chemical processes.

But they are also of importance for our immune system. Immune cells use the free radicals to kill unwanted bacteria.

For the fit girls and healthy freaks under us, there is another benefit of having a balance between antioxidants and free radicals.

Free radicals help clean up damaged proteins in the muscles. This is a situation that occurs after working out and therefore very important. We do want to grow our muscles, right.

So don’t worry too much thinking one is bad and the other is good.

We need both!

Where the antioxidants are hiding in…

Even though we need free radicals for tons of chemical processes in our body, we don’t need too much of it.

So we need antioxidants in our body.

You know… to balance everything out in our body 🙂

But…

Where can I find them?

Very, very good question. I will now list some substances/ingredients in which you can find antioxidants.

Vitamins

Antioxidants are not specific nutrients such as vitamins or minerals. A substance is an antioxidant when it has an antioxidant effect. This effect can be investigated and scientists have done so.

Research has shown that vitamins E and C have an antioxidant effect. Vitamin E and C can be respectively found in spinach and almonds & broccoli and strawberries.

Carotenoids

Research has also shown that the antioxidant effect can be found in carotenoids such as beta carotene and lycopene. Now I will respectively list some food sources in which you can find these nutrients: potatoes and carrots & tomato and watermelon.

Minerals

But… There’s more!

In certain minerals, researchers also found the antioxidant effect. The two trace elements are called selenium and zinc.

You can find selenium in eggs, meat and milk. Zinc can be found in cheese and fish.

Do you need supplements?

Now you might think:

Run to the pharmacy for some supplements!

But no! This might not be the healthiest thing to do.

Research shows that taking supplements with antioxidants in it can do more harm than good. As a result of the increase in antioxidants in the body, the pro-oxidant-effect can take place. Lot’s of negative effects can take place because of this. I will not go into this for now. You can google it if you are interested in it 🙂

“The best and healthiest way to take in your daily dose of antioxidants is by eating some fruits and veggies!“

Hi, Love!

Let me know (in the comments) if you learned something new <3 I love reading comment from you guys!

Let today or tonight be an enlightening time and may you connect with nature. Take a deep breath and get in touch with your energy. Just be in this moment!

You can leave your name and email below, if you want to stay in contact with me. And if not, I hope you will have an amazing life full of love and joy!

May our souls meet again!

-xx- Nella

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