What You Need to Know About Antioxidants & Free Radicals
5 Ways to Get Antioxidants in Your Diet
People are always talking about getting antioxidants in your diet. They assume you know what antioxidants are. Antioxidants are chemicals produced from foods that prevent or limit damage caused by free radicals in your body. Free radicals are oxygen rich molecules that have an uneven number of electrons. This uneven number of electrons allows these molecules to bind easily with other molecules and cause large chain chemical reactions called oxidation. Oxidation can be beneficial but when an imbalance between free radical activity and antioxidant activity occurs, damage to your body can occur. Antioxidants are incredibly beneficial to good health. Some of the benefits of antioxidants in food include cancer prevention, reverse, or slow aging, enhance your immune system, increase your energy, and improve heart and other organ health.
Now that you know about antioxidants and their beneficial properties, it’s time to start consuming fruits and vegetables, the primary sources of antioxidants. Experts recommend a minimum of 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily but say getting 7–10 servings is best.
There are 5 ways to easily get more antioxidants into your diet.
1.Breakfast
Many people have breakfast on the run, but it does not have to be unhealthy. Throw some strawberries, 100% juice and yogurt into a blender; pour your delicious mixture into a cup and head out the door. You can do this at night and have your fruit smoothie ready to go in the morning. You’ve just added one to three servings of fruits to your daily intake. Or throw some berries onto your cold or hot cereal.
2.Snacks
An easy way to get more antioxidants in your diet is by eating a handful of raisins or nuts like walnuts or pistachios for a snack, or some fresh red grapes? Dip some strawberries in yogurt. You’ll feel decadent, but the berries provide the color you’re looking for. Need crunch? How about some baby carrots dipped in hummus?
3.Lunch and dinner
I’ve mentioned this before. Add a salad to each of your lunch and dinner meals can add loads to your overall health and well-being. Get rid of the boring green salad. Kick the boring green salad up a notch by adding some red pepper slices to your green salad, some tomatoes to the Greek salad, or tart cranberries. Try a different salad like a broccoli salad for lunch or be adventurous and mix up a rice salad with a mélange of fresh vegetables like string beans, tomatoes, peppers, and red onions.
4.Dessert
Replace high fat, and high carbohydrate desserts with berries, with or without whipped cream or dark chocolate. What a delicious way to end your day of healthy, antioxidant-rich eating.
5.Beverages
Replace your soda with tea or coffee, both of which boast antioxidant compounds. Have a glass of wine with dinner, or for a real change of pace, pour a glass of chai tea.
