The focus of vitamin research right now is on how antioxidant supplements might help lower the risk of heart disease. The antioxidant supplements E, C, and beta-carotene, which is a form of vitamin A, may be good for your health. But most of the information we have about how antioxidant supplements improve health isn't complete. And only about 30% of Americans take antioxidant supplements in some form.
But what are antioxidants, and why are they so important?
There are two kinds of antioxidants. They could be minerals or vitamins. They keep oxygen from reacting with other chemicals in cells. These kinds of reactions, called oxidation, could cause damage to cells, which could lead to heart disease or cancer.
Antioxidants can be found in many different foods, but fresh fruits and vegetables have the most of them. If you eat a healthy diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables, you might have a lot of antioxidants in your body. This could mean fewer free radicals, which are molecules that damage cells, and a healthier you.
When antioxidants start to work, they kill the free radicals or break the chain. Here is what happens when your body has a lot of free radicals. Because they are very unstable, free radicals tend to take electrons from molecules that are stable. This makes the stable molecules unstable, which in turn makes them become free radicals. This turns into a long chain that will keep going until it is broken. This is where antioxidants come in. Their only job is to break the chain of free radicals and make them harmless.
During the neutralization process, the antioxidants are also neutralized. So, they also start to turn brown. So, the body needs a steady supply of antioxidants to keep fighting these harmful free radicals and stopping them from making more of themselves.
Most of us probably aren't getting enough antioxidants from the foods we eat these days because of the way we eat. And keep in mind that the body needs to keep getting new antioxidants all the time. This is where supplements with antioxidants come in.
Because your body might not get enough antioxidants because you don't eat enough fruits or vegetables, you need an alternative source like antioxidant supplements.
Supplements with antioxidants are that source. Even though antioxidant supplements can't replace antioxidants that are already in your body, they can help increase the number of antioxidants in your body.
