The focus of vitamin research these days is how antioxidant supplements can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Antioxidant supplements E, C, and beta-carotene (a form of vitamin A) have potential regarding health promotion. However, most data available about such health-promoting properties of antioxidant supplements are incomplete. And only up to 30 percent of Americans are taking some form of antioxidant supplements.
What exactly Antioxidants are, and How important they are
Antioxidants come in two forms:
- Vitamins
- Minerals
They help prevent the reaction of oxygen to other chemicals in cells. Such reactions called oxidation could lead to cell damage which may result in cancer and heart disease.
Antioxidants can be found in many different foods, but they are far more common in fresh fruits and vegetables. A healthy fresh food diet could cause high levels of antioxidants in your body, which could only mean one thing less free radicals (those harmful molecules that cause cell damage) and a healthier you.
Antioxidants Do To Radicals
When antioxidants start to work, The free radicals are destroyed or the chain is broken. You see, here's what happens if you have many free radicals in your body. Because they are highly unstable, these free radicals have the tendency to steal or get electrons from stable molecules and in so doing, Make those molecules also unstable, turning them into free radicals. This becomes a long chain and will go on and on until such a chain is broken. This is where antioxidants come in whose sole purpose is to break the chain and neutralize free radicals.
During the process of neutralization, the antioxidants are neutralized themselves. Hence, they also become oxidized. That is why the body needs a constant source of antioxidants in order to keep combating these harmful free radicals and stop them from multiplying.
Antioxidant Supplements
With the kind of diet, most of us have these days, it's very likely we might not get enough of the antioxidants from the foods we eat. And remember that the body needs to replenish its levels of antioxidants constantly. Here is where supplements with antioxidants come in.
Because the body may not be getting enough antioxidants because you don't eat enough fruits or plenty of vegetables, therefore, you need an alternate source such as antioxidant supplements.
Antioxidant supplements are that source. And while antioxidant supplements can’t very well take the place of natural antioxidants, they can, however, aid in increasing the level of antioxidants in your body.