Benefits of Antioxidants

In many health magazines and TV programs the word "antioxidant" is often used and then you are told several foods that contain these elements. It is true that they are very good for your body, but we are not told too often all of the specific benefits that antioxidants can bring to your overall well being. Its benefits range from cancer prevention to obesity control and everything in between, so here's a list of the most common benefits this nutrients have.

One of the side-effects of breathing is that the oxygen in our organism creates free radicals in our body. Free radicals are unpaired electrons that are highly reactive, thus they can interact with chemical reactions going in your body causing cellular damage.

Antioxidants reduce the effects of these free radicals and protect your cells from damage. This is extremely important, because free radicals often attack the DNA in our cells. This can lead to a mutation that may cause the damaged cell to reproduce uncontrollably at a high rate, which is the definition of a cancer.

Another effect that antioxidants have is that they can help your body to regulate glucose. Glucose is a simple sugar that acts as the source of energy to the cells in our organism. The problem arises when the quantity of glucose in your blood cannot be regulated by your organism; this is called diabetes. A diet rich in antioxidants can help you to prevent diabetes and regulate your glucose levels.

They can also help you to improve your immune system. A strong immune system is essential to your body because it allows you to fight against all kinds of diseases and infections. Antioxidants also tend to increase the functionality of your metabolism. This will help you to absorb all the nutrients more efficiently and to reduce your weight.

Since antioxidants help you in your metabolism, cell function, and in controlling your glucose levels, there are many side-effects. Your likelihood of suffering a heart disease will be lower because antioxidants can lower your cholesterol. By protecting your cells against damage, they will degenerate more slowly, this means that you will look and feel young for a longer time and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer would be less likely to occur.

These are just some of the benefits antioxidants have. The most important benefit they do for your body is to protect and repair your cells, everything else are direct side benefits because by being healthy at a cellular level, our body is less likely to deteriorate.