by Kelley Herring
Lines on your face? Skin feeling less taut? Blame it on oxidation.
Oxidation is what causes the rust on your car and the browning of a fresh-cut apple. Although it’s effects are less visible immediately, this process happens to all of the cells in your body as well, over time.
As oxygen interacts with cells of any kind - the apple slice or, in your body, the cells lining your respiratory tract or that make up your skin - oxidation occurs. As oxidation happens, cells change. Some may die, others mutate or get replaced with fresh new cells.
While oxidation is a natural process that goes on every hour of every day, some of the cells in our body will get damaged and turn into free radicals—rogue cells that rob other molecules. This robbing often causes damage to DNA —the root of many disease processes.
Although it is impossible to escape the effects of oxidation, Mother Nature’s kitchen cabinet offers a cornucopia of antioxidant-rich foods and nutrients that help to combat free radicals.
Antioxidants - including vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and a colorful array of phytonutrients - help repair, prevent, or limit oxidative damage to our cells caused by free radicals.
Get more antioxidants by:
- Enjoying more fruits and vegetables
- Opting for organic foods that naturally produce more antioxidants
- Choose the Antioxidant Superfoods like red beans, black beans, cocoa, blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries, artichokes, raisins, and prunes.
Crank Up Your Antioxidant Artillery!
You probably already know that eating antioxidant-rich foods is a good way to fend off the free-radicals that contribute to physical aging and chronic disease.
But an even better way is to fuel your body’s internal antioxidant artillery, including your body’s “master antioxidant and detoxifier”: glutathione.
Learn which foods you need to eat to crank up your body’s manufacture of this life-saving compound on p. 5 of Your Guide to Antioxidant Superfoods.
Click here to learn more...
