What are Antioxidants and do we need them?

Fruit and vegetables are filled
with antioxidants

We often here different nutritional professionals, magazines and websites talk about the essential role of antioxidants, how they are important for us and how we need to fill our diets with them. With so much emphasis put on our need for them, we never see ‘antioxidants’ listed on the back of the packet or box as an ingredient or as part of the nutritional breakdown. Without ever seeing if a food or drink contains antioxidants it can be difficult to find what foods contain them. We might be trying to find foods rich in antioxidants in the supermarket and finding it hard, but is it really worth the effort? Do we really need antioxidants, or is it another fad part of dieting designed to help sales or organic and strange foods. Those questions are answered herein our guide to antioxidants…

What are Antioxidants?

The first question you must answer before finding what foods are high in antioxidants is what are they? For the answer to this, you need to look at your biochemistry. Your body is a walking, talking, thinking chemistry set inside a skin coating. All the time your cells are facilitating chemical reactions, creating energy, making enzymes, building new cells and sending nerve impulses. All this activity has chemical side effects, and one of these is oxidation. This process occurs in cells, where as we create energy and our cells function and causes the creation of free radicals. Free radicals are atoms and molecules which are lacking in electrons, causing them to travel around the body to find some. This can cause damage to body tissues. As such, we take in products in our diet which can remove these free radicals before they can damage us. It is these products that we call antioxidants.

More about Free Radicals

Free radicals are naturally occurring, and we cannot escape some of their effects. Your body constantly creates them in cells, and our day to day lives put is in line to pick up a lot more from the environment. The sun, smoking, alcohol, pollutants and many other things send out ions all the time, and they enter the body. It is a fact of life that you will interact with free radicals, in fact, if you didn’t you would cease to be. The effects of free radicals are not exact, as the ions will move throughout the body to find electrons to bond with. This means they can affect any of the cells in your body, but there is no need to be unduly concerned. We have our inbuilt systems to defend against the free radicals, though our knowledge of nutrition means we are now very aware of it, and how we can help it.

What Can Free Radicals Do?

Free radicals have the effect of damaging the body. This is a natural process, and is what causes part of your general process of aging. This cannot be helped, and you have to get used to it. There is evidence though of some more sinister effects of free radicals which suggest they might cause:

·         Cancers

·         Cataracts

·         Impaired brain function

·         Reduced immune system function

·         Heart Disease

·         Stroke

It must be noted that these effects are only suggested, and have not be confirmed by any medical study as any direct cause, as there are always a number of factors involved in such diseases. Nevertheless, antioxidants can help reduce the potential impact.

How do Antioxidants Work?

We take in antioxidants in our diet, and they perform the role or removing the free radicals. They do this by either breaking the chain of reactions that is caused by the taking of electrons by providing new electrons, or antioxidant enzymes alter the reactions and cause them to stabilise. The process is not so exact, and just like medicines, not all of them work on every free radical. As such we need to get a range of them in our diets.

 What are the Antioxidants?

‘Antioxidants’ is just the term for the group of vitamins, minerals and chemicals which reduce the number of free radicals. The main types of antioxidant are vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene), vitamin C and vitamin E as well as minerals like selenium, manganese and zinc. Vitamin E and A are fat soluble, meaning they travel in fats. As such having fats in your diet is essential, and you should never leave them out. Vitamin C and beta-carotene are water soluble, and so you need to take these in regularly as they are excreted daily. Selenium, manganese and zinc are trace elements that are important for creating antioxidant enzymes which are separate in function to vitamin E, C and beta-carotene.

Do I Need All Antioxidants?

The answer is yes, in parts. You need to have the right amount of each of the antioxidants to ensure good quality removal of free radicals. There is such thing as too much, particularly with vitamin E, as it’s fat soluble, it is stored in the body. This means you can have too much, and it can nullify the potential benefits. A balanced high quality diet should mean that you never have to take supplements, and should be able to access a good amount of nutrients to protect from free radicals and have better overall nutritional health.

Where Can I Get the Antioxidants?

There are a number of natural sources of each of the antioxidants, some of which are highlighted below. There are many more sources so always check your packets to see what is in different foods.

Vitamin E – vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, avocado, liver, green leafy vegetables.

Vitamin C – potatoes, citrus fruits, green vegetables, tomatoes, broccoli.

Beta-carotene – mango, peppers, carrots, apricots, sweet potato, pumpkin.

Selenium – Meats, whole wheat products, Brazil nuts.

Zinc – dark chocolate, cocoa, meats, seafood, eggs, whole grain products.

Manganese – fruits and vegetables, whole grains, tea.

Conclusions

All the evidence for antioxidants isn’t in yet, but certainly, the protection that it affords against free radicals is excellent. The foods you can eat are wide ranging and you may well get a lot of antioxidants already without knowing it. Try our blogs about 12 superfoods, parts one, two and three  to see you you’re already enjoying healthy amount of antioxidants already.

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Happy Eating!