Boost Your Body’s Defense with the Benefits of Antioxidants
Perhaps the easiest and one of the most important steps in boosting your body’s defenses to maintain your health is supplementing your diet with antioxidants. The benefits of antioxidants are increasingly clear, specifically these two powerful antioxidants: vitamin E and vitamin C.
Many ailments are caused by free radicals damaging cells within your body. Free radicals are highly toxic particles that are produced by oxygen reacting with various fat molecules. These free radicals then damage other fat molecules or cellular elements to initiate a chain reaction.
Antioxidants have been shown to neutralize free radicals, and also to prevent their production. Antioxidants simply put out the free-radical fire, and can keep it from even starting.
Information and Solutions
Beta-carotene
Beta-carotene is the most famous member of a family of nutrients called carotenoids, which includes over 600 protective compounds. This plant pigment, which gives an orange glow to cantaloupe, carrots and sweet potatoes, provides more than just color benefits. It also helps keep your immune system functioning in tip-top shape.
Lycopene
Laboratory studies have shown that lycopene is the most powerful carotenoid when it comes to combating certain types of free radicals. And population studies have shown that people who eat a lycopene-rich diet have a better long-term health profile than those that don't.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E, once derided as snake oil by the medical establishment, is currently considered the most important antioxidant nutrient when it comes to a healthy heart.
*More about Vitamin E
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is one of our most potent antioxidants. And like most antioxidants, it prevents the generation of free radicals that can cause damage.
If you want to achieve the full antioxidant benefits of Vitamin C, don’t count on getting it from food alone—you must supplement your diet. It is impossible to select food that would give 400 mg.of vitamin C (the recommended daily allowance.) The bottom line is, you won’t get the optimal benefits of antioxidant from food alone.
*More about Vitamin C
Green Superfoods
Green superfoods are nutritional antioxidant gold mines. These “greens” are processed whole food concentrates that both nourish and protect you with their nutrients and phytochemicals—indoles in cruciferous vegetables, carotenoids in orange/yellow vegetables, antioxidants in deep greens, and a wealth of other elements.
*More about Green Superfoods
Alpha Lipoic Acid
Known as the "Universal Antioxidant," Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) neutralizes free radicals. A naturally occuring nutrient, it also works to boost the activity of other beneficial and vital antioxidants, including vitamin C, vitamin E, and CoQ10.
*More about Alpha Lipoic Acid
CoQ10
This powerful antioxidant protects your cells from damaging free radicals. Known as the heart's energy fuel, CoQ10 enhances your overall energy level, stamina, and immune system health.
*More information on CoQ10 Supplements
There are extraordinary health benefits from taking the right supplements to combat aging. For a full list of Dr. Whitaker’s top recommendations on antioxidants click here.
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