When wellness experts talk about guarding your wellbeing against disease, you often hear words banded about like “antioxidant” and “free radical”, but what exactly are they talking about, and is it worth listening to all the hype? Let’s settle this once and for all; can antioxidants really prevent or cure heart disease, cancer and other diseases?
Free radicals are a normal part of your body chemistry, occurring when you liver breaks down drugs and other chemicals, exercise, radiation, inflammation and some foods. The reason why they are a concern is because they have a small electrical charge, which has the ability to damage the DNA of your normal cells. When you have free radicals in your body in excessive amounts, you can increase your risk of cancer and heart disease, and, potentially, neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s.
Another word for free radicals is “oxidants” and so you can begin to see how the relationship between them and antioxidants might work. Antioxidants neutralise free radicals, and so you would hope that getting plenty of them in your diet would help you to keep the oxidants in check. However, with the chemicals in your food and environment, the stresses of modern life, and an infamous western diet with its emphasis on high (bad) fats, sugar and empty calories, it’s hard to get enough antioxidants to beat all that free radical damage.
So how do you get enough antioxidants to neutralise your body’s free radicals? Firstly, you need to consume a variety of antioxidants as some only neutralise the charge of specific free radicals. There are many vitamins, minerals, herbs, foods and chemicals which have antioxidant activity, and fresh, colourful, organic fruits and vegetables is the best place to begin. This is partially why it’s recommended you get your five-a-day.
After this, evidence indicates that a multivitamin is worthwhile for getting the antioxidant power you need. It’s best to get one with an even 100% of the RDA for ingredients, rather than 20% of this and 2000%. You can also try additional antioxidant supplements, as these are likely to add benefit as well, but there’s no use going over board as high doses of supplements are often not useful, and potentially damaging to your wellness.
How to Get Enough Antioxidants in Your Diet
