1. Expensive Radicals
The purpose of antioxidants is to destroy free radicals in the body. These are little, nasty, pesky mutated cells that like to clump together to cause a battery of diseases, illnesses and precursors to illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and high cholesterol. Free radicals are caused from a poor diet high in saturated fat, smoking, drinking, too much stress and overindulgence in refined goodies in solid or liquid form. They may be free, but when it comes to your health, they are very expensive.
2. Exercise Causes Free Radical Damage...Right?
This question is like a see-through mirror. Here’s the deal. If you exercise regularly, your body adapts, your immunity goes up and free radical damage goes down. That’s great. But there is a caveat to this rule. If you are not a regular exercise enthusiast and you do a high intensity workout, you will actually increase free radical production. But don’t think exercise is bad for you. You just might want to welcome some antioxidants into your belly when you first start training. This will lend a hand in keeping free radicals at bay.
3. Don’t Be Fooled by “Healthy” Soda
Hey, here’s a great idea. Let's put antioxidants in soda and fool people into thinking that drinking it can actually be good for you. Sorry, not on my watch. Soda is one of the worst substances you can possibly put into your body, whether it’s diet or regular. Adding age-defying antioxidants is a complete insult to intelligence. Soda CAUSES free radical damage! No matter how many antioxidants are in it, they are all being canceled out.
4. The ORAC Chart
In plain English, this is a listing of how powerful an antioxidant is. There is a very good chance that you will encounter this word on a label or see it in an advertisement for some type of fruit, vegetable or juice, so you should know what it is. It stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. In other words, it is an antioxidant's ability to soak up free radicals. The higher the ORAC value, the better it is. Just be careful when buying “antioxidant formulas.” They always claim to be high on the ORAC chart, and often they are; but read the ingredient labels to make sure there are no artificial preservatives or high fructose corn syrup.
5. Eat Like a Fruit Bat
The best and smartest thing you can do to increase your antioxidant levels is eat lots of foods that contain the key antioxidant vitamins. It is really just common sense. The main antioxidant vitamins are E, C and beta carotene, which is a form of vitamin A. The fruit bat tends to eat lots of fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts, which happen to be good sources of antioxidants. Make sure to busy your diet up with these foods, and it will reward you for your efforts.
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