Health - What Are Antioxidants and Free Radicals And Why Should You Care?

I don't know about you but I've always been a bit confused about anti-oxidants and free radicals. They are those things you hear about but never really quite get to grips with unless you are concerned about your health.

What are they anyway? Well, the free radicals are the baddies and the anti-oxidants are the good guys.

We all know the human body is an amazing machine. Millions of processes take place all the time and we never even think about them. As long as the body gets oxygen, food and water, it just gets on with things.

However, as much as oxygen is an essential part of life, it can also create some harmful side effects in the body when it's carrying out its work. It produces oxidant substances and just as metal rusts because of oxidation, these oxidant substances cause cell damage, which ultimately lead to varying health symptoms.

Sun, pollution, stress, alcohol, cigarettes and unhealthy food also produce oxidants, commonly known as free radicals. If your body is exposed to these, and it's highly likely it will be; they attack healthy cells. Your immune system gets weakened and you are more susceptible to things like cataracts, cancer, arthritis and heart disease, to name a few.

So where do the anti-oxidants come in?

Well, "anti" means against, so anti-oxidants reduce the effects of oxidants and also help repair damaged cells. Antioxidant power has the ability to neutralise oxygen free radicals.

As most of us live in a nutritionally devoid fast food society, in polluted atmospheres, it's hardly surprising we suffer so many health complaints.

Health professionals recommend we eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day BUT nutritionalists say you need to eat at least 10 servings a day to get the recommended ORAC units.

ORAC is short for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity and is a standardised measurement of the total antioxidant power of a substance. These ORAC's mop up the damage caused by free radicals in your body, and Nutritionists recommend we consume around 5000 ORAC units per day.

That's a lot of units, and bearing in mind most people don't even eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day it's not hard to see why these free radicals have such a bad effect on our health.

If you want to significantly impact antioxidant activity in the body and reduce free radical damage you need to take action. There are some foods, which are considered "antioxidant superfoods", such as Raw Cacao (Chocolate), Coffee Berries, Acai Berries, Goji Berries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Strawberries, Pomegranates, Noni berries, Olives, Mangosteens, and Dunauella Salina, but you need to eat an awful lot of them to do any good.

I have concerns over my health due to the mercury poisoning caused by my dental amalgam, and am obviously keen to improve my compromised immune system. It was therefore a great relief to find a product, which provides 4000 ORAC units in just one serving and is full of anti aging oxidants. That means I don't have to devour pounds of fruit and vegetables, or drink gallons of juice every day to combat those pesky free radicals. It makes life so much easier.

So now you know about anti-oxidants and free radicals, the question is - Do you care enoughabout YOUR health to do anything about them?