Antioxidants

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Few people would argue the fact that tea is good for you, and green tea is the best form of it for your health. One of the components of tea that make it so healthy, are the antioxidants.

Alright, so tea is packed with antioxidants. What exactly are they, and what have they done for me lately?

Oxidation is a normal process that takes place in the body. It causes damage to our cells, and it's believed that this cumulative damage is what causes aging and eventually death. It happens as a result of regular metabolism, but is accelerated by pollution, excessive exposure to sunlight, alcohol and smoking.

A free radical is a charged atom or a piece of a molecule. In order to re-establish its own stability, a free radical looks to steal an electron from its surroundings. This usually means from one of your own healthy cells. You end up with a little bit of DNA damage, or a protein becomes dysfunctional. It may not seem like much, but all these little damages add up. Antioxidants are chemicals that generously offer up their own electrons to the free radicals, thus sparing you the cellular damage.

Every time they neutralize a free radical, the antioxidant loses an electron and stops being able to function as an antioxidant. This is why you must continually resupply your body with the vitamins and other chemicals that act as antioxidants.

There are many chemicals that perform as antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, beta-carotine, and selenium. You can get these from all kinds of nuts, fruits, vegetables and meats. The specific kind of antioxidants found in tea are called phenols, and they can also be found in a variety of berries and grapes.

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