An apple a day . .

. . . keeps the doctor away. This old adage is has never rang truer. There is an incredible amount of research that supports this saying. One of the key things an apple provides is Antioxidants. What do antioxidants do? Let me try to explain.

Have you ever left an apple core lying around after you ate the apple? What happened to it? It turned brown right? Why did it turn brown? OXIDATION!

Believe it or not, the same thing happens to humans. As we use oxygen to create energy, we produce a by-product called FREE-RADICALS. While our cells use oxygen efficiently through the process of oxidation, it always causes some type of change. In the case of the apple it simply turns brown and rots. In the case of humans damaged cells are replaced with new ones. However, about 2% of our cells will become damaged in the process, turn into free-radicals, and they can start a chain reaction process of harming more cells.

Uncontrolled free-radical activity has been linked to cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, arthritis, and strokes.

Most of the time our body controls these free-radicals by producing natural antioxidants. However, today we are all faced with external toxins in our environment that generate even more free-radicals. Air pollution, cigarette smoke, pesticides, excessive amounts of alcohol, processed foods, hydrogenated oil, fried and browned food, and preservatives all contribute to free-radical generation. Physical and emotional stress are also to blame for increased free-radicals as well as UV radiation from the sun.

Fortunatley there are many products on the market to day that can add to your antioxidant level. Of course they are not all created equal and I wil be discussing the pros and cons of the differnt options in future posts.