Natural vs Synthetic Vitamins Part 1, Antioxidants

Antioxidant antiaging therapy is actually a combination of different therapies used to slow and/or reverse human aging. With the possible exception of longevity medicine, antioxidant antiaging is one of the fastest growing segments of medicine. How antioxidant antiaging works As you process food for energy, your body produces substances that are highly unstable. 

Fruits and vegetables it seemed contain chemical substances that act on specific, harmful molecules inside our bodies to stop them from damaging our cells. Because these substances work on oxygen by-products called free radicals, they have since come to be known as natural antioxidants. A natural antioxidant protects the body against free radicals. 

Because it is the nature of free radicals, which is basically an atom with an unpaired electron, to achieve stability, they will try to do so by capturing the needed electron from other molecules. When the free radicals steel electrons from a stable molecule, that molecule will become a free radical itself, beginning a chain reaction. 

But for the sake of those who have only just stumbled on the term, free radicals are those unstable chemical substances that are highly reactive and are by-products of the process of oxidation in the body. Free radicals at a minimum can be good for the body since their function is to steal electrons from atoms of other molecules, but only if the molecule they're stealing the electrons from are foreign molecules in the first place. 

Since then, scientists and researchers have sought to understand the body's oxidation process and free radicals contribute in its acceleration. It seemed that these so-called free radicals are rogue oxygen molecules that are highly unstable and which have harmful effects to the body. There is growing evidence that the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), including free radicals, is behind the aging process and initiation of age-related disease. 

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. According to their findings, the overall best sources of antioxidant fruits under the berry category are dog rose, sour cherry, blackberry, strawberry, raspberry, crowberry, blueberry, and black currant.