Antioxidants? Free radicals? Xango, Noni, Pom, or Goji? Oxygen radical absorbance capacity? Unless you've got a background in biochemistry, it might as well be alphabet soup! Let's see what sense we can make of the terminology and the science behind the antioxidant trend in natural supplements.
We've known for years that fruits and vegetables with dark pigments, or a high content in vitamins and minerals, have healing properties. Cell biology provides us with a new understanding of why.
Our bodies are bombarded daily with health hazards and irritants in the form of air pollution, synthetic drugs, chemicals in our water, and additives in the foods we eat. Many of these toxins are free radicals which can damage the membranes of our bodies' smallest units: our cells. Free radicals are molecules that contain a charge thanks to an unpaired electron, which gravitates towards oxygen and other atoms which it can readily bind to. The lipids in our cell membranes contain oxygen atoms which are exposed and can easily be "stolen" or snatched up by the charged radicals, spawning even more free radicals in the process. A chain of effect from one free radical molecule can tear apart the membranes of several cells before it is halted.
With the integrity of the damaged cell membrane goes the ability of the cell to function and even to exist. The cellular membrane is the site of all communication between the various systems of our body. Newer science describes the membrane as the actual "brain" of the cell, discarding old notions of the nucleus as the most important feature. The cellular membrane, more than any other part of our microscopic selves, controls who we are.
Free radicals can ravage that membrane. Moreover, radicals don't result only from pollution and synthetic toxins - they are a normal bi-product of digestion and cellular metabolism. No matter how healthy your diet and living space, your body still has to deal with free radicals and the damage they can do to your nervous system, eyesight, skin and organs, and overall vitality.
The solution to the free radical problem, thankfully, is simple. It's all in the foods we eat.
Foods containing dark pigments, such as beets, dark green leafy vegetables, and most notably berries, have been shown to contain a high concentration of antioxidants - chemicals which absorb the damage of the free radicals upon themselves, so that our bodies and our cellular membrane are not affected. Vitamin C and other vitamins and minerals are potent antioxidants. They are most effective, by far, in their natural form - namely, straight from the fruit.
Among the most potent antioxidant fruits are raspberries, blueberries, and pomegranate.
According to the Tufts University ORAC test - a survey which measures the ability of a food to absorb the damage of free radicals, or the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity - the highest ranked antioxidant fruit is the variety of wolfberry grown in the Ningxia province of China. The highest ranked edible antioxidant of all is cloves, and clove essential oil
Check out or comment on the discussions on this topic: Curious About Clove and Antioxidant Foods.
