Free Radicals - What Are They? And How Antioxidants Help
Don’t you just hate it when people start spouting words and phrases at you about health and just expect you to know what they are talking about!
The first time someone said free radicals to me i thought they were talking about the closing down of the prison at Guantanamo Bay!
But being inquisitive by nature I started to do my own research about free radicals and how the effects of antioxidants in foods can limit the damage that these substances do to the body.
A free radical is an atom or molecule in the body that has ‘lost’ one of its negative particles (electrons). Because of this the atom or molecule has become positively charged and reactive.
Because of this positive charge the ‘free radical’ atom or molecule starts being attracted to or repelled from other charged molecules in the cell and effectivelt starts bouncing around causing damage to your bodys cells.
This oxidation process occurs all around us. It is what turns Iron into rust. So when it occurs in the bodys cells it is thought to be a part of the ageing process of the cells of the body and thus the ageing process per se.
The theory of free radical and ageing was first put forward by Dr Denham Harmon MD PhD
Enter the ‘Antioxidants’. These are foods and vitamins that stop the free radicals from ‘oxidzing’ sensitive biological molecules in the body and therefore help to slow the ageing process and damage caused by the free radicles.
Antioxidants include Vitamin C & E and can be found in a number of food groups that have been commonly nicknamed the Superfoods.
The antioxidant nature of these superfood groups can be measured by a value (ORAC - Oxygen Radical Asbsorbtion Capacity) . If you look below - or click here - to the previous article you will find a table of ORAC values for various foods.
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