1. Fight Free Radicals With Antioxidants
Free radicals are unwanted guests floating around the inside of your body just waiting to knock you right off your feet. They can be caused by pollution, bad diet choices, smoking, drinking, stress and even thinking negative thoughts. Antioxidants, on the other hand, are very beneficial. They are eagerly in search of ways to soak up deadly free radicals before they conjure up a battery of problems inside your system. Antioxidants are found in colorful fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, nuts, seeds and some oils. They are also harmonious with thinking happy thoughts.
2. Balance Makes Perfect
It's a very simple equation: Too much of a good thing can be harmful. You might want to rethink your strategy if you are mega dosing on antioxidants. It is a good idea to get them into your system, but if you take too much for too long, it can cause toxicity. This is especially true in supplement form. Just like everything else in life, balance is the key.
3. Help Your Heart
Your heart doesn't like to work any harder than it has to. It has a huge workload delivering oxygenated blood throughout the whole body as it is. So instead of fighting it, help it do its job. Keep the high-fat meals to a minimum. Large amounts of fat eaten at fast paces cause a rapid increase of free radical activity. This goes for even one single high fat meal. So taking antioxidants is always a good idea to combat this negative feedback loop. It also helps to slow down, chew your food and try not to bite your tongue.
4. Don't Expect Bargaining Chips at the Dinner Table
Just because you are taking antioxidants doesn't give you the license to go on a free-for-all eating frenzy with everything under the moon. You are subjected to free radicals no matter what you do or what direction you turn. If you take antioxidants, you are helping to cancel them out, but if you use this as an excuse to smoke, drink excessively, and overindulge in hot fudge sundaes, then you're begging for trouble.
5. Get Antioxidants From Raw Chocolate
Chocolate is good for you. But you already know that, right? But the healthiest chocolate is raw. Raw chocolate is actually called raw cacao (pronounced ka-cow) and has one of the highest antioxidant values you can find. It doesn't get any darker and it doesn't get any healthier. Don't be fooled by the candy bar companies trying to tell you how high of a percentage their dark chocolate bar is. It still doesn't come close to raw. Raw chocolate is very bitter, though. It has no sweetness whatsoever, so it is best to add it to smoothies, cereal and oatmeal or eat it with agave syrup.
