🛡️🧬What is an Antioxidant ? Its Sources & Benefits to our Health:

🛡️What is an Antioxidant? Its Sources & Benefits to our Health:

Discover what antioxidants are and how they help protect your body from harmful free radicals 🛡️✨ Learn about the best antioxidant-rich foods, their health benefits, and how they support immunity, heart health, glowing skin, and overall wellness.

🤔What is an Antioxidant?

Antioxidants are substances that can prevent or slow damage to cells caused by free radicals, unstable molecules that the body produces as a reaction to environmental and other pressures.

Sources of antioxidants:

Sources of antioxidants can be natural or artificial. Certain plant-based foods are thought to be rich in antioxidants. Plant-based antioxidants are a kind of phytonutrient, or plant-based nutrient.
The body also produces some antioxidants, known as endogenous antioxidants. Antioxidants that come from outside the body are called exogenous.

Examples of antioxidants:

Antioxidants are said to help neutralise free radicals in our bodies, and this is thought to boost overall health. Examples of antioxidants that come from outside the body include:

  • Vitamin A
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin E
  • Beta-carotene
  • Lutein
  • Lycopene
  • Selenium

Flavonoids, catechins, polyphenols, and phytoestrogens are the types of antioxidants that we found in plant-based foods.

✨Other specific antioxidants:

There are some other specific antioxidants which we can obtain by including specific foods in our diet, such as:-

  • Vitamin A: Dairy products, eggs, cod liver oil, yellow vegetables, etc.
  • Vitamin C: Most fruits and vegetables, like berries, oranges, green & red peppers, broccoli, spinach, etc.
  • Vitamin E: Nuts, vegetable oils, and green leafy vegetables, etc.
  • Beta-carotene: Brightly colored fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, peas, spinach, mangoes, sweet potatoes, apricots, etc.
  • Lutein: Green leafy vegetables, corn, papaya, oranges, egg yolk, etc.
  • Lycopene: Pink and red fruits and vegetables, including tomatoes and watermelon, guava, papaya, pink grapefruit, etc.
  • Selenium: Rice, corn, wheat, whole grains, nuts, eggs, cheese, seafood, soy products, chickens, eggs, shellfish, etc.

🤨Debate related to it:

Although certain levels of antioxidants in the diet are required for good health, there is still considerable debate on whether antioxidant-rich foods or supplements have anti-disease activity. Again, if they are actually beneficial, it is unknown which antioxidants are health-promoting in the diet and in what amounts beyond typical dietary intake.

🧠Final Thought:

Free radicals are linked to a variety of diseases, which include heart disease, loss of vision, asthma, diabetes, inflammatory joint diseases, dementia and cancer, but it is not sure that an increased intake of antioxidants will prevent these diseases. Antioxidants from artificial sources may increase the risk of some health problems, too.

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