The Run Down on Antioxidants

Everything You Need to Know About Antioxidants for Optimal Health

With the current craze that our culture is going through concerning nutrition and energy stimulants, suddenly every juice box has become a chemistry classroom, throwing around terms like antioxidants, B-12 vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, glycemic indexes, etc. We have all developed a basic understanding for these things (or so we think), which basically comes down to: “antioxidants come from healthy fruits, like berries, and they are good for you.” Raise your hand if this is the current extent of your knowledge… You’re not alone! In fact very few people actually know what an antioxidant it, let alone what it does to your body or why it is good for you. Read on to learn about what you are actually buying into.

What Antioxidants Do Physiologically

When a cell converts oxygen into energy, tiny molecules called free radicals are created as a bi-product. When produced in normal amounts, free radicals work to rid the body of harmful toxins, thereby keeping it healthy. When produced in toxic amounts, however, free radicals damage the body’s cellular machinery, causing tissue damage and cell death – a process called oxidative stress. Antioxidants help prevent this oxidative stress. Vitamins E and C, as well as beta-carotene, are a few of the common and powerful antioxidants that function to inhibit the production of these harmful free radicals. Antioxidants like Quercetin, found in things like apple peels, red grapes, and Blueberries, can also aid the production of mitochondria in cells, which is what gives your muscles energy. A few energy drinks out there, like FRS, offer concentrated supplements of Quercetin. When you exercise, you use a lot of oxygen, and often experience a good deal of oxidative stress, so you need the help from antioxidants to keep your cells protected. This means that you should try to consume a good amount of antioxidants either before or during aerobic exercise. Consuming antioxidants after exercise will have mild effects, but essentially the damage has already been done. Try eating a handful of berries or the skin of an apple 20-40 minutes before your next run, and take notice to the effect on your energy levels. 

Long Term Benefits for your Brain

Oxidative stress is not only harmful for your muscles, but also for your brain. Antioxidant rich diets increase vitamin E in the brain and stimulate the process of learning and new motor skills. Antioxidants also have powerful potential for reversing age-related brain impairment, especially that concerningmemory and motor coordination. Additionally, antioxidants protect your brain against strokes. In studies done led by Dr. David G. Amen and the Amen Clinics, one of the world’s leading brain research organizations, lab rats fed diets rich in blueberries experienced significantly less damage to brain cells during an induced stroke than those eating a regular diet. The rats eating blueberries lost 17% of their hyppocapul brain cells after the stroke, while the control group lost 42% of their brain cells. This means that maintaining high levels of antioxidants in your diet can have a profound effect on your brain’s defense system against dangerous events like strokes.  

Where to Find (and where NOT to find) Antioxidants in Foods

Here’s a brief breakdown of the foods that naturally contain powerful antioxidants. The list is ordered in terms of how potent the antioxidants are in each food, with the strongest first and the weakest last, but when they are fresh, all of these foods can do wonders for your body and brain:

Blueberries, Cranberries, Blackberries, Strawberries, Spinach, Raspberries, Brussel Spouts, Plums, Broccoli, Beets, Avocado, Oranges, Red Grapes, Red Bell Peppers, Cherries, and Kiwis.

You may be asking why certain tropical fruits like Acai berries, Goji berries, or Pomegranate seeds, which are so heavily advertised these days as being “packed” with antioxidants, are not listed here. Make no mistake, these types of berries are undoubtedly packed with antioxidants, but they are often so heavily processed and treated so that they can be transported internationally and stored over time that they usually lose the majority of their antioxidant content in the process.

This concept especially applies to juices, teas, powders, and store-bought smoothies. When you buy, for example, an Acai berry juice at your local supermarket, the juice will usually contain about 5% of the original antioxidant content that the actual berries it was made from originally contained. This is because when you juice anything you not only strip it of all the antioxidants found in its fibrous skin, but also begin the process of oxidation, which quickly vitiates the nutritious content as time passes. The same thing applies to Green Tea. Green Tea leaves contain a massive amount of antioxidants, but by the time they have been dried, processed (often converted all the way to powder), bagged, and shipped around the world, they contain a tiny vestige of the antioxidant punch they once packed. I am not suggesting you should steer clear of these juices and teas entirely - they do contain some antioxidants, and they aren’t necessarily bad for you - what I am saying is that you will get a much better bang for your buck financially and nutritionally if you try instead to eat whole, fresh, antioxidant-rich foods like berries and dark green vegetables.

By Max Cougar Oswald