Understanding Antioxidants

Fruit, vegetables, and cereals in your diet have additional benefits compared to taking antioxidant fruits supplements. 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. 

By reducing exposure to free radicals and increasing the intake of antioxidant enzyme rich foods or antioxidant enzyme supplements, your body's potential to reducing the risk of free radical-related health problems is made more palpable. The human body produces several types of antioxidant enzymes. The antioxidant enzymes include superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and glutathione peroxidase. 

Antioxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase prevent oxidation by reducing the rate of chain initiation. This time, instead of waiting for the free radicals to make a long chain of free radicals, antioxidants scavenge initiating radicals and destroy them before oxidation is set in motion. 

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. 

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. If they are healthy molecules, well that's a different story all together. 

It seemed that in most major trials designed to see whether taking extra beta-carotene antioxidant supplements could ward off cancer, beta-carotene didn't do a good job at it. Worse, beta-carotene antioxidant supplements and pills seemed to increase rates of cancer for smokers in two large trials. And so, studies began to look towards other sources of antioxidants as possible antioxidant supplements.