Are You Getting Enough Antioxidants?
Learn about the best antioxidants to use for anti-aging.
You’ve probably heard about antioxidants as they pertain to good nutrition. But these nutrients are also an essential part of any anti-aging effort. Why? Because antioxidants combat oxidative stress and inflammation at the cellular level.
Oxidative stress essentially means the body has too many free radicals. Free radicals are compounds that lack an electron and are looking to steal one from the molecules in your body. When this happens, the affected cell or molecule is destroyed, and has to be regenerated sooner than it should have been—in other words, accelerated aging occurs. While free radicals can come from environmental toxins like cigarette smoke and radiation, the vast majority of them are created as natural byproducts of processes in the body, such as inflammation.
4 Benefits of Antioxidants
There are actually four slightly different ways that antioxidants protect your body from free radicals to slow the aging process:
- Antioxidants prevent free radicals from forming inside your body.
- Antioxidants intercept and neutralize free radicals that have already formed in the body or entered the body from the environment.
- Antioxidants can clean up after an inflammatory response. This stops the chain reaction that would otherwise occur as an inflammatory response to a free radical generates still more free radicals.
- Antioxidants travel through the body on constant alert for toxins and free radicals.
So Do You Have Enough Antioxidants?
If you don’t eat a healthy diet with the recommended 4 daily servings of fruits and 5-6 servings of vegetables, chances are you are not getting enough antioxidants to provide optimal defense against oxidative stress.
Getting More Antioxidants from Your Diet
Changing your diet is a good way to improve overall nutrition and get more antioxidants. Common types of antioxidants found in food include:
Polyphenols: This is actually a very large category of antioxidants that includes flavonoids. You can find these antioxidants in raisins, grape skins, cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, green tea, black tea, red wine, broccoli, and greens. In many cases, cooking can decrease polyphenol content so try to eat more raw fruits and veggies.
Antioxidant Vitamins: Vitamins C and E both have antioxidant properties. Citrus is an excellent source of vitamin C, while vitamin E can be found in nuts, vegetable oil, and leafy greens. These vitamins are also commonly included multi-vitamins.
Carotenoids: Carotenoids such as beta-carotene are found in various red, orange, and yellow fruits and veggies like sweet potatoes, apricots, peaches, carrots, pumpkin, and tomatoes. In addition to fighting existing free radicals, carotenoids prevent lipid peroxidation from generating free radicals.
Supplementing Antioxidants
If you want to really optimize the free-radical-fighting processes in your body, we offer the following supplements:
Glutathione: Sometimes called the “master antioxidant,” glutathione is extremely valuable in that it fights free radicals from within cells. It helps regulate and regenerate immune cells to help fight chronic inflammation as well. Though glutathione can be found in a few foods—most notably avocado—many people find it more convenient to take glutathione as an injectable nutrient therapy.
Alpha Lipoic Acid: This antioxidant not only fights free radicals and supports the immune system on its own; it also enhances the effectiveness of other antioxidants in the body. Renew Youth™ offers a high-quality, third-party-tested Alpha Lipoic Acid supplement for your convenience.
Want to Learn More?
If you would like more information on antioxidants and other tools you can employ in your anti-aging efforts, please contact us at 800-859-7511.
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