How to Get More Antioxidants Into a Diet
- 1). Know what an antioxidant is. An antioxidant, as the name suggests, is a nutrient found in natural food that fights the free radicals produced by the oxidation of cells in the human body. The oxidation of cells can occur for many reasons and from many sources, i.e. pollution, bad diet, and it is the antioxidant's job at the chemical and cellular level to keep this oxidation from happening. They are your body's little heroes, but they don't always just appear out of nowhere. They need some help from you and your diet. There are many different types of antioxidants that are beneficial in the human diet, including the well known Vitamins C and E, as well as lycopene, polyphenols and flavnoids.
- 2). Eat unprocessed plant foods with the deepest color. The darker the color in natural, unprocessed plant foods the more antioxidants it has. If the skin of a fruit or vegetable is edible, eat it. Everyone knows you peel a banana before you eat it, but for potatoes and apples, the skins are antioxidant rich. Just make sure you wash them first, and cook the potato. Black and red beans are another great source of antioxidants. Blueberries and pomegranates even more so. Foods labeled "whole grain" are less processed, meaning they keep more of the hull and skin of the seed of the original grain, and you get more antioxidants.
- 3). Drink juice that is one-hundred percent fruit and/or vegetable juice. Many juices found in the store are actually juice cocktails, meaning they are watered and sugared down. Look at the top of the FDA nutritional label on the back of the package to see what percentage the juice really is. It is better to drink a juice that is labeled "not from concentrate" because juice labeled as "from concentrate" has been more processed.
- 4). Snack well. Snacking doesn't have to mean you are eating junk food. Eat tomato paste and crackers rather than cheese and crackers. Tomato paste is ultra-rich in lycopene, even more so than tomato sauce. Eat the red skin on peanuts. Most people, when they shell a roasted peanut, will shell the red skin of the peanut too, but this skin is rich in polyphenols. Drink green tea instead of black (more polyphenols). Dip broccoli in dip instead of chips. Broccoli is one of the healthiest foods on the planet, and it makes for an especially nice substitute for the potato chip when dipping in that ranch dressing.
- 5). Don't depend solely on a daily multi-vitamin to get antioxidants into your diet. You can't eat a diet of processed junk foods and expect your once daily pill to wash away your nutritional sins. And don't mega-dose on varying expensive supplements. Mega-dosing on vitamins and minerals can lead to toxicity, or the water absorbed vitamins can end up being flushed uselessly out of your body leaving you with nothing but expensive urine. Doctors recommend taking one regular dose (100 percent RDA or less) multi-vitamin pill daily in addition to a healthy diet, not in place of one. It is best to take a once daily multi-vitamin on top of a meal for the most beneficial absorption into the body.
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