The Ultimate Guide To Antioxidants

Antioxidants are a class of molecules that are capable of inhibiting a molecule from oxidizing, which is combining with oxygen. Your body naturally circulates various antioxidants, in order to control free radical chain reactions. Free radicals are molecules that are missing an electron. When a molecule is missing an electron, it attempts to acquire an electron from another molecule, which can damage that other molecule.

Antioxidants play a significant role in your health, as they can fight free radicals and therefore slow the aging process. Some antioxidants are produced by your body, but some are not. Unfortunately, your body’s natural antioxidant production declines with age. Antioxidants are, without a doubt, an essential part of optimal health.

Denham Harman was the first to discover the concept of free radicals in 1954, while researching an explanation for aging. Free radicals are naturally produced by your body as your body’s response to environmental toxins, exercise and when you have inflammation anywhere in your body.

There is some controversy that antioxidants may undo the benefits of exercise, since free radicals are formed during exercise and the body’s natural response to those free radicals is why we gain benefits from exercise. For this reason, some people opt to take antioxidants only on the days that they don’t exercise.

Free radicals can also badly damage your DNA and other cell structures. They can create a “snowballing effect”, as molecules steal from one another, each one becomes a new free radical, leaving a trail of biological damage. Antioxidants are electron donors. They can break the free radical chain reaction by sacrificing their own electrons to feed free radicals, but without turning into free radicals themselves.

When free radicals collect in cell membranes, this is called lipid peroxidation, which damages the cell membrane and can cause cell death.

Free radicals are linked to over 60 different diseases, including; cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cataracts and heart disease.

Important Benefits of Antioxidants Include:

1. Slowing down the aging process, inside and out
2. Repairing damaged molecules
3. Blocking metal radical production, such as with mercury and arsenic
4. Stimulating the expression of good genes
5. Stimulate your body’s own antioxidant production
6. Providing a protective shield against free radicals attacks
7. Killing cancer cells

There Are Different Types of Antioxidants:

There are lipid/fat soluble and water-soluble antioxidants. Both of these types of antioxidants are required by your body in order to protect your cells. The interior of your cells and the fluid between them are composed of water, while the cell membranes themselves are mostly made of lipids/fats. Each type of antioxidant has its own special function.

Some examples of lipid/fat-soluble antioxidants are vitamins A and E, carotenoids and lipoic acid.

Some examples of water-soluble antioxidants are vitamin C, polyphenols and glutathione.

Antioxidants also be categorized as enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants:

Enzymatic antioxidants benefit you by breaking down and removing free radicals. They can flush out dangerous oxidative products by converting them into hydrogen peroxide and then into water. The main enzymatic antioxidants are; superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase.

Non-enzymatic antioxidants benefit you by interrupting free radical chain reactions. Some examples are carotenoids, vitamin C, vitamin E, plant polyphenols and glutathione (GSH). Most antioxidants found in supplements and foods are non-enzymatic and they provide support to enzymatic antioxidants by doing a “first sweep” and disarming the free radicals. This helps prevent your enzymatic antioxidants from being depleted.

Antioxidants can also be classified in terms of their molecular size:

1. Small-molecule antioxidants work by mopping up or “scavenging” the reactive oxygen molecules and carrying them away through chemical neutralization. The main players in this category are vitamins C and E, glutathione, lipoic acid, carotenoids and CoQ10.

2. Large-protein antioxidants tend to be the enzymatic enzymes outlined above, as well as “sacrificial proteins”. One example of these sacrificial proteins is albumin, which takes on free radicals, to save crucial enzymes and DNA.

Antioxidants You Should Not Miss Out On:

1. Glutathione – Known as your body’s most powerful antioxidant, glutathione is found in every single cell in your body. It is called “master antioxidant” because it is intracellular and has the unique ability of maximizing the performance of all the other antioxidants, including vitamins C and E, CoQ10, alpha-lipoic acid, as well as the fresh vegetables and fruits that you eat every day.

Your body’s ability to produce glutathione decreases with aging. However, there are nutrients that can promote glutathione production, such as high-quality whey protein, curcumin, raw dairy, eggs, and grass-fed meat.

2. Alpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA) – Aside from its free radical scavenging abilities, this powerful antioxidant is also a great modifier of gene expression to reduce inflammation, a very potent heavy metal chelator and an enhancer of insulin sensitivity

3. CoQ10 (Ubiquinone) – Used by every cell in your body, CoQ10 is converted by your body to its reduced form, called ubiquinol, to maximize its benefits. It also helps produce more energy for your cells, provides support for your heart health, immune system, and nervous system, helps reduce the signs of normal aging and helps maintain blood pressure levels within the normal range.

If you’re under 25 years old, your body can convert CoQ10 to ubiquinol without any difficulty. However, when you get older, your body becomes more and more challenged to convert the oxidized CoQ10 to ubiquinol. Therefore, you may need to take a ubiquinol supplement.

4. Resveratrol – Found in certain fruits like grapes, vegetables, cocoa, and red wine, this antioxidant can cross the blood-brain barrier, providing protection for your brain and nervous system. Resveratrol has been found to be so effective at warding off aging-related diseases that it was dubbed the “fountain of youth.”

5. Carotenoids -Carotenoids are a class of naturally-occurring pigments that have powerful antioxidant properties. They are the compounds that give foods their vibrant colors. There are over 700 naturally-occurring carotenoids, and right now, you probably have at least 10 different kinds circulating through your bloodstream. Examples are lycopene, beta-carotene, lutein, canthaxanthin, zeaxanthin and astaxanthin. Astaxanthin – Although it’s technically a carotenoid and has a superb nutritional value. Wild Alaskan red salmon is a great source of astaxanthin, which is 65 times more powerful than vitamin C, 54 times more powerful than beta-carotene, and 14 times more powerful than vitamin E.

6. Vitamin C – Dubbed the “grandfather” of the traditional antioxidants, vitamin C has a wide range of astonishing health benefits.

7. Vitamin E – Natural vitamin E is a family of eight different compounds, four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. You can obtain all these vitamin E compounds from a balanced diet composed of wholesome foods. However, if you take a synthetic vitamin E supplement, you will only get one of the eight compounds.

Antioxidant Food Sources:

When it comes to obtaining nutrients, your diet, not supplements.

These are some of the best antioxidant-rich foods that you should incorporate into your diet:

1. Fresh, organic vegetables
2. Sprouts
3. Fruits
4. Nuts
5. Herbs and spices
6. Organic green tea

The scientists at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have created a scale for measuring an antioxidant food’s or supplement’s ability to neutralize free radicals, called the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) score. The higher a food’s ORAC score, the more powerful it is in fighting age-related degeneration and disease.

You can go to the USDA ORAC Values Database if you want to look up your food or supplement’s ORAC score. But be warned: some manufacturers are using deceptive practices to misrepresent ORAC values and deceive consumers.

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USDA ORAC Values Database