How Free Radicals Can Affect Your Health
Eating and drinking your way to health.
Free radicals are a very important consideration when you are looking at ways to improve your internal health.
What are they?
Free radicals are unstable molecules that are floating around the system that take from or join to other molecules. This can result in damage including aging of the skin, damage to tissues, and could contribute to a variety of diseases.
A certain amount of free radicals are necessary to maintain good health as they gobble up pathogens and bad bacteria, however too many can create severe problems to our health and wellbeing.
Top 10 free radical producers
1. Radiation - X-ray exposure, electrical equipment (computers, mobile phones, T.V’s, microwaves)
2. Alcohol
3. Smoking
4. UV sun rays
5. Stress
6. air pollutants
7. industrial chemicals
8. polyunsaturated fat
9. pesticides
10. preservatives
The good news is that there is a way to neutralise them. Antioxidants. These are predominantly found in vitamin A & E. Lycopene is an antioxidant that is considered as a potential cancer prevention agent. It is found in mostly naturally red and pink fruit and vegetables such as papaya, pink grapefruit, tomatoes and watermelon.
Top 10 free radical ‘scavengers’
1. Green Tea
2. Fruits
3. Meditation
4. Herbs – e.g. turmeric, curry, cloves, nutmeg
5. Water
6. Garlic
7. Ionizers
8. Vegetables
9. Exercise and fitness
10. Sesame oil
Whilst you can gain vitamins from supplements it is better to get them from natural foods as the body absorbs them more easily. There is however an argument that some natural foods are genetically modified, grown in toxic soil and are covered in pollutants which compromises their ‘natural’ status and in fact cause more free radical molecules. Therefore it would be prudent to consider your options and weigh up the pro’s and cons when purchasing food and perhaps opt for organic varieties.
