When people speak of health and diet, any more these days you often can't enter too far into this conversation without the term antioxidants coming up. So, for those of us without a medical degree, what is the down and dirty on why antioxidants are so important?
The simplified version...
Our bodies are full of things called free radicals. In the human body, these free radicals often come in the form of 02. So where do free radicals come from? Free radicals are the by-product of many normal processes in the body. (They are introduced in large amounts through environmental factors such as cigarrette smoke and radiation among others.) These free radicals want to become OXIDIZED. As these free radicals cruise around the body, they cause damage to cell walls along the way. In the extreme, this damage can become irreversable and lead to conditions such as CANCER or heart disease.
So...the bottom line...
Antioxidants help clean up the free radicals roaming through our bodies. If left unchecked, these free radicals can lead to heart disease, cancer or other health conditions.
This information was gleaned from a website called Go Ask Alice at http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/0830.html. Go Ask Alice is maintained by Health Services at Columbia University.
(Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, and I don't even play one on TV. This information is taken from a reputible source but is not intended to be a medical diagnosis.)
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1 comment:
Way to Go Chris.
Well presented, good choice of layout and content.
Fantastic Picture, Shirley says.
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