Your Nutritional and Vitamin Supplement Information Resource

posted by Ronald on Jan 16

Yesterday, I wrote a short bit about antioxidants and their importance in eliminating toxins from your body.  You may have also heard of free-radicals and you probably heard of free-radicals when reading about antioxidants.  But just what are free-radicals?  That’s a subject that is a bit beyond the scope of this forum, so for now, the understanding that too many free-radicals in your system is bad should be enough.  You should know that your body produces or accumulates more free-radicals as you get older.  Therefore, as you get older, you must increase your intake of antioxidants which in turn will reduce the amount of free-radicals in your body and reduce the damage to your body from them.

The vitamins C and E, are thought to protect the body against the destructive effects of free radicals. 

Vitamin E - The most abundant fat-soluble antioxidant in the body is one of the most efficient chain-breaking antioxidants available. Vitamin E is the primary defender against oxidation in your cells.  Remember that oxidation of your cells is bad.  It is also believed that Vitamin E may protect against cardiovascular disease by defending against LDL oxidation and artery-clogging plaque formation (LDL and plaque would naturally lead us into a high-low cholesterol discussion).

Vitamin C - The most abundant water-soluble antioxidant in the body acts primarily in cellular fluid. Vitamin C is particularly important in combating free-radical formation caused by pollution and cigarette smoke. No, taking Vitamin C does not give you permission to smoke!  It means that Vitamin C can help reverse some of the effects if you live in a pollution-filled environment (like a big city) or if you’ve quit smoking and are on your way to a healthy lifestyle.  Vitamin C also helps return Vitamin E to its active form so the combination of the two - Vitamin C and Vitamin E - are effective against free-radicals.

From this short intro to free-radicals (bad for your system) and antioxidants (good for your system because they reduce free-radicals in your body) it should be evident that a good source of Vitamin C, Vitamin E and foods that are rich in antioxidants are important.  You can read more about a good source of antioxidants and green food nutrition here.