7 Most Useful Antioxidants for Skin

While it's quite true that there's nothing healthier than including fresh produce in your diet, there is actually another reason why doctors insist on a healthy diet of fresh fruits and vegetables. The answer may lie in antioxidant foods. Antioxidant foods are powerful scavengers of free radicals. The function of antioxidant foods is to hunt down free radicals and destroy them. 

Scientists point out that this might be because consuming antioxidant fruits in food may provide a combination of lesser-known but potent antioxidant substances, which may afford greater effect than that of any single nutrient or individual antioxidant supplement. In a recent issue of the Journal of Nutrition, the total antioxidant content of several antioxidant fruits, including fruits, berries, vegetables, cereals, nuts, and legumes, was analyzed. 

These compounds are inherently unstable since they have an odd number of electrons. To make up for their shortage in electrons, these free radicals will react with certain chemicals in the body, and in so doing, they interfere with the cell's ability to function normally. But just as the body naturally produces free radicals, it also has a means to defend against its harmful effects. 

This is actually the reason behind the physical changes that goes on not only inside but outside the body as you approach your years. When your cells finally use up their naturally allotted cell divisions, the result is death. It is an inevitable occurrence and there's not stopping it. There is however a way to retard it though. 

Electrons are those negatively charged particles that orbit the cluster of protons in an atom. When there are eight electrons in an orbit, it means that that particular orbit (or shell as it is called) is full which further means the atom is stable. Stable atoms tend not to enter into chemical reactions. 

Well, have we got good news for you? Free radicals are natural enemies of antioxidants. The function of antioxidants is to destroy harmful free radicals, counteracting the damaging of tissues and in effect, treating aging or causing its retardation. Antioxidants are commonplace in nature. In fact, antioxidants are abundant in more common vitamins such as retinol or Vitamin A, ascorbic acid or Vitamin C, tocopherol or Vitamin E, and selenium.