It should be if your are out for super healing because these are the nutrients known as antioxidants found in carrots, red peppers, broccoli, and other red, yellow, and green vegetables as well as nuts, beans, and whole grains.
There are more than 1,500 recognized antioxidants and related phytochemicals in everyday common foods that do an uncommonly good job of combating fee radicals in the body. Free radicals damage living cells and contribute to a continuing roll call of complaints, including interference with DNA programming, premature aging, heart disease, AIDS, arthritis, cancer, cataracts, allergies, and diabetes. Here is how the antioxidant force can be with you when you eat.
Perhaps the most celebrated of the free radical foes are the carotenoids, of which there are approximately 40, including alpha and beta carotene and lutein. The carotenoids are especially potent in blocking cancer, fighting allergies, and slowing the aging process.
The most powerful members of the antioxidant family are probably the pycnogenols, which are 20 times more potent than vitamin C and 50 times more active than vitamin . Pycnogenols protect against capillary damage, bruising, and improve your overall immunity to hear disease and cancer. Best sources are onions, green peppers, red wine, green tea, and selected herbs.
Beyond what it does for the common cold and the flu, the vitamin antioxidant ascorbic acid can slow the onset of Parkinson's disease, reduce the risk of hardening of the arteries by increasing the amount of protective high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in your bloodstream help prevent cataracts by guarding the eyes against oxidation, help lower blood pressure, and protect against a wide spectrum of cancers.
Vitamin E is a fat soluble vitamin antioxidant and important immune system stimulant that helps alleviate fatigue and provides tissue oxygen to accelerate the healing of wounds, burns, and skin disorders such as acne and eczema. In partnership with the mineral selenium, it neutralizes free radicals that accelerate cellular and cerebral aging and raise the risk of cancer.
Four Antioxidant Eaters' Tips
Your best source for all the antioxidants known and unknown are whole foods - five or six servings a day of fruits and vegetables at the top of the lists. Supplements can not provide the unknown protective factors which work in synergy with recognized free radical fighters.
Fresh raw fruits and vegetables are a more potent source of antioxidants than frozen. If you must cook, short and fast does minimal damage, and always steam (don't boil), bake, or broil - do not fry. Long cooking, no instant whole grains and dried beans deliver more antioxidants than instant or fast cooking types.
The deeper the color (orange, red or purple, yellow, green) the higher the antioxidant level in any food or drink.
