In layman’s terms, free radicals are the toxins and poisons that age your body everyday. You are being exposed to free radicals every day, everywhere you go. They’re in the air you breathe, the food you eat, the water you drink. This is where antioxidants come in. Antioxidants are like “medicine” or a defense mechanism for your cells against these free radicals. They safely interact with the free radicals and basically cut off their domino effect before too much damage is caused.
A scientific explanation: In essence, a free radical is any molecular species capable of independent existence, that contains one or more unpaired electrons not contributing to intermolecular bonding, and is, in that sense, “free”. They are produced by oxidation/reduction reactions, in which there is a transfer of only one electron at a time, or when a covalent bond is broken and one electron from each pair remains with each atom. Thus, a free radical has an unpaired electron.
In the human body, oxidized free radicals are believed to cause tissue damage at the cellular level, causing damage to our DNA, mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell), and cell membrane, and have often been referred to as one of the causes attributed to aging, cancer, heart disease, and other human ailments harmful to one’s health. While the green tea ion of free radicals is a normal part of metabolism at the cellular level, things such as excessive alcohol intake, smoking, and various chemical exposures only serve to increase the amount of free radicals present in the body. To prevent free radical damage the body has a defense system of antioxidants.
Antioxidants - What exactly is an antioxidant?
Antioxidants are molecules which can safely interact with free radicals and terminate the chain reaction before vital molecules are damaged (as in Vitamin C), or seek out and scavenge free radicals ( as in Vitamin E ). This is where it can be noted that research has indicated that one of the main antioxidants found in green tea ( epigallocatechin 3-gallate a.k.a. EGCG ) has been found to be much more powerful than both Vitamins C and E. Compared to other known antioxidants, EGCG was found to be 100 times more effective than vitamin C, 25 times more effective than Vitamin E and twice as powerful as resveratrol at neutralizing free radicals.
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September 13th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
I enjoyed reading your article! You write with great insight and we share many similar ideas. You can read what I wrote about nutrition and learning at : http://www.learningsolutionsathome.com. Thanks and take care, Lucy Barlow