Why you need more antioxidants

Do you know why antioxidants are so important to our health? Read on to find out how antioxidants can help you and how to get more of them in your daily diet.

Countless studies show that people who eat plenty of antioxidant-rich foods lower their risk of heart attacks, cancer, and various other chronic and potentially debilitating diseases. Antioxidants can even help stem the complications of diabetes and help protect the joints from damage.

While the "antioxidant revolution" of the 1990s touted antioxidant supplements as the answer, today we know that getting antioxidants from food is far more effective — and less risky (in some cases, taking antioxidant supplements has been linked with an increased risk of disease). Your body produces fewer antioxidants with age — yet it needs more of them than ever. So eat up!

• Cancer
• Cataracts
• Dementia
• Diabetes complications
• Heart disease
• Macular degeneration
• Osteoarthritis
• Wrinkles
• Alzheimer's disease

Our bodies are constantly bombarded by destructive rogue molecules that are unstable because they're missing a pair of electrons. These molecules, by-products of every bodily process that involves oxygen (which is most of them), are known as free radicals. Antioxidants are the riot police, neutralizing these unstable molecules by "donating" a pair of electrons, thus taking away their power to do harm in the body. Countless different vitamins, minerals, and plant chemicals act as antioxidants.

Just as your body makes antioxidants to fend off illness, plants produce chemicals that protect them against disease. These chemicals act as antioxidants in humans, making plant foods the best sources. Scientists have developed a way to measure the amount of free radicals a food can neutralize; they call this measure a food's Total Antioxidant Capacity.

• Spices such as cinnamon, cloves, oregano and turmeric
• Coffee and tea (especially green tea)
• Cocoa powder
• Grapes, blueberries, red berries (raspberries and strawberries)
• Walnuts and Brazil nuts
• Leafy greens
• Sweet potato, squash, carrots
• Whole grains
• Beans
• Fish