Antioxidants are substances that may protect your cells against the effects of free radicals. Free radicals are molecules produced when your body breaks down food, or by environmental exposures like tobacco smoke and radiation. Free radicals can damage cells, and may play a role in heart disease, cancer and other diseases.
Antioxidant substances include
Antioxidants are found in many foods, mainly in fruits. These include fruits and vegetables, nuts, grains, and some meats, poultry and fish.
Original source: www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/antioxidants.html
Antioxidants and Cancer Prevention: Fact Sheet
Key Points
- Antioxidants protect cells from damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals.
- Laboratory and animal research have shown that antioxidants help prevent the free radical damage that is associated with cancer. However, results from recent studies in people (clinical trials) are not consistent.
- Antioxidants are provided by a healthy diet that includes a variety of fruits and vegetable,
What are antioxidants?
Antioxidants are substances that may protect cells from the damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals. Free radical damage may lead to cancer. Antioxidants interact with and stabilize free radicals and may prevent some of the damage free radicals might otherwise cause. Examples of antioxidants include beta-carotene, lycopene, vitamins C, E, and A, and other substances.
Original Source: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopic
Antioxidants: Beyond the Hype
The body’s trillion or so cells face formidable threats, from lack of food to infection with a virus. Another constant threat comes from nasty chemicals called free radicals. They are capable of damaging cells and genetic material. The body generates free radicals as the inevitable byproducts of turning food into energy. Others are in the food you eat and the air you breathe. Some are generated by sunlight’s action on the skin and eyes.
Free radicals come in many shapes, sizes, and chemical configurations. What they all share is a voracious appetite for electrons, stealing them from any nearby substances that will yield them. This electron theft can radically alter the “loser’s” structure or function. Free radical damage can change the instructions coded in a strand of DNA. It can make a circulating low-density lipoprotein (LDL, sometimes called bad cholesterol) molecule more likely to get trapped in an artery wall. Or it can alter a cell’s membrane, changing the flow of what enters the cell and what leaves it.
Original Source: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource
Drink It For Life 