My Antioxidant Definition and some antioxidant rich foods:

It’s difficult to come up with an antioxidant definition that is not full of scientific mumbo-jumbo that will bore you to tears and have you quickly clicking the back button on your browser. So here is a my way of explaining what an antioxidant is.

Ordinary metal rusts over time because of a process called oxidation. This is not unlike what happens inside our bodies as little molecules called free radicals travel around our bodies looking for cells to rob a charge from. When a free radical steals a charge from a cell it seriously damages that cell. This process leads to some pretty serious conditions.

Like rusting metal once it gets started it is difficult to reverse. However there is no need to despair because there is a rust primer for our bodies and that rust primer is an Antioxidant. Antioxidants go around the body looking for free radicals and when they find them they donate a charge to them. This means that the free radicals go away happy and they stay away from the all important cells.

Cells that have been robbed of a charge by free radicals can mutate and become cancerous. So you can see the importance that we have some understanding of an antioxidant definition and even more importantly that we eat antioxidant rich foods.

Antioxidant Rich Foods
Antioxidant rich foods are essential to maintain a healthy body and a strong immune system. Almost all members of the alliaceae family (basically the onion family) are high in antioxidants, such as shallots, scallions, leeks, chives, and especially garlic. So for foods high in antioxidants are also very tasty given that they probably contain garlic and some form of onions. (This is making me hungry as I type!) Want to learn more about food high in antioxidants?

It’s also good to vary the source of your antioxidants for optimum effect.

Antioxidant Drink
Orange juice is high in vitamin C and vitamin C is high in antioxidants (Vitamins A & E are also high in antioxidants). Here is an interesting little experiment for you to try. Cut a slice off a fresh apple. Once the air (or more importantly the oxygen) makes contact with the white surface of the apple oxidation occurs. In other words free radicals start attacking cells in the apple and they start steeling a charge from them. You can witness this happening as the apple slowly turns brown as each cell dies.

Now here's the interesting bit. Cut another apple but this time pour some fresh orange juice all over it. Now what will happen is that the antioxidants in the orange juice will donate a charge to the free radicals and they won’t attack the apple cells and the apple won’t go brown.

Now that is similar to what happens inside your body each time you drink some orange juice or take any foods high in antioxidants, but guess what... Blueberry juice has even more antioxidants that orange juice does. Tomato juice is also high in antioxidants as are blackberry and cranberry juice.

I hope my antioxidant definition gives you some insight into what an antioxidant actually is as well as bringing home the need to eat the right foods. Processed foods are almost always very low in antioxidants so try to make time to prepare your own fresh dinners, and enjoy them (I'm off to enjoy mine now!)