How Antioxidants Improve Your Health--and How to Eat More of Them!

Antioxidants have become somewhat of a buzzword, and many of us know we should eat more of them—but not everyone understands what they are. As a heart center, we are often asked how antioxidants improve health, and we frame it like this – antioxidants’ major role is to fight harmful, volatile molecules called free radicals.

Free radicals are substances that originate from food processing, smoking, air pollution, and other unhealthy sources that damage our bodies at the cellular level. These unstable molecules inflict oxidative damage on the body, which can cause cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cardiovascular disease, age-related degeneration, and other conditions. Free radicals also occur naturally in the body, although naturally occurring free radicals exist in such small quantities that a reasonably healthy diet and exercise can counteract them. It’s the unnatural quantities of free radicals that cause widespread damage, which is why antioxidants play such an important role in fighting chronic diseases, like those that send patients to our heart center.

How to Get More Antioxidants

So, simply put, you need antioxidants to fight damaging free radicals. However, this simple math of ‘free radicals + antioxidants = health’ isn’t as easy as it sounds. Consuming antioxidants in large quantities can actually damage the body. For example, high doses of vitamin E can increase the risk of prostate cancer.

Taking antioxidant supplements in high doses isn’t the answer, due to several potential risks. The safest way to neutralize free radicals with antioxidants is to incorporate antioxidant-rich foods into your diet. The specific items you should consider are foods rich in vitamins C and E, selenium, and carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, lycopene, and lutein.

The following foods are rich in antioxidants, and can be easily added to any balanced diet:

Berries

Berries, like raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries, are chock-full of the antioxidant proanthocyanidins—an antioxidant known for helping prevent and fight heart diseases and cancers. These little fruits can be added to any diet by tossing them into a smoothie, cereal, oatmeal, or yogurt. They also make a great snack on their own.

Walnuts

Walnuts, like many nuts, are rich in antioxidants like selenium. They are also a crunchy snack that you can easily add to your diet—either by mixing them in a salad or eating a handful. Don’t eat too many though, as walnuts are still high in fat.

Spinach

The leafy green spinach plant is rich in antioxidant carotenoids and many other beneficial vitamins and nutrients. Now, before you refuse the somewhat metallic taste of this leafy green antioxidant, remember that it can be added to a diet by camouflaging it with other foods. For example, throw some spinach into a salad comprised of standard lettuce, toss a few spinach leaves on a pizza, or bake it inside some chicken with goat cheese. Other foods camouflage the flavor, and cooking the spinach releases more lutein.

Fish

Fish are scaly antioxidizing rock stars, in addition to being a lean source of protein and minerals. While most types of fish have the health benefits of antioxidants, the best options are: sardines, mackerel, salmon, wild rainbow trout, shark steak, and herring. There’s no sneaky way to introduce these to your diet if you aren’t a fish aficionado, but there are fish-oil capsules you can purchase as an alternative.

Green Tea

Many people know that green tea is healthy—the healthiest way to consume caffeine—but don’t know that a lot of its healthy punch comes in the form of catechins (also found in many berries, red wine, and cacao). The catechins in the tea help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, while fighting against a plethora of diseases.

Spices

While this item is more of a category, there are ample antioxidants to be found on your spice rack. Cloves, cocoa, garlic, cinnamon, oregano, turmeric, and ginger are all great antioxidizing spices that can be added to almost any meal. Fresh spices tend to have more antioxidants, especially garlic—which has 1.5 times more antioxidants than dry powder.