A free radical -- a molecular structure with an unpaired electron -- is a necessary component of the body. The difficulty with an unconnected, or unpaired electron, is that it is very reactive. Free radicals can be very dangerous to our body's cells if they combine with certain chemicals.

Oxidation factors can be categorized in three ways. Those found in foods, those in our environment, and those resulting from body stress.

Other

I must stress how important it is to avoid, or reduce your intake of, foods that promote oxidation. Personal habits and lifestyle choices can expose us to more of the dangerous effects of oxidation than is necessary.

Eliminating food with high fat content helps not only with anti-oxidation but it can be tremendously important in lowering the risk of developing adult diseases. The vast body of research linking high fat diets to cancer, heart disease, and stroke has led the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association to suggest that Americans restrict their daily consumption of fats to 30% of their total calorie intake.

The traditional American diet is high in animal fat especially most fast foods. The best choice you can make for your health is one that replaces animal foods in favor of vegetables. Unfortunately, even vegetables pose some risk.

Until recently, most chemicals that we are exposed to on a daily basis did not exist. This includes the 120 million pounds (545 thousand tons) of insecticide being used in America each year. That works out to 10 pounds per person annually1x Chemicals like these, used in such quantities, clearly do not promote good health.

Further, if you read the contents of virtually any packaged food you'll note that they contain artificial color, color enhancing preservatives, and a variety of stabilizers and emulsifiers. When looking at labels, it helps to know that the noted "allowances" do NOT refer to the safety of these products to your body, rather they are stated for the manufacturers' benefit.

The obvious conclusion: Avoid artificial foods whenever possible. How? When buying vegetables select organically grown produce. If this is not possible, wash the vegetables thoroughly with a soap that does not contain stabilizers and emulsifiers. To my knowledge, Ivory soap is safe. You can peel fruit, but most of the nutrients are contained in the skin.

When you purchase foods examine all of the ingredients. Companies are required to label their products' chemical components. Some examples are the coloring added to enhance food appearance or Sodium Benzoate 0.5% which is used as a preservative. However, food additives are not the only chemicals that are toxic to our bodies1x

We may plug our nose when the garbage starts to smell, but odor is not harmful; hair spray is1x What you use to kill ants or mosquitoes is also toxic. So are furniture sprays and chemical cleaning materials.

Eating natural anti-oxidants, or foods that support anti-oxidation, are the best ways to prevent oxidation. Most fruits and vegetable contain bioflavonoids.

Bioflavonoids prevent oxidation and come from live plants. "Bio" pertains to life, while "flavonoid" refers to yellow color. All plants that are yellow, red, or orange contain an anti-oxidant component. Carrots, berries, green tea, red wine, orange peel, and ginko all share these benefits.

Another way to support anti-oxidation is the combination of vitamins C and E. The suggested 1000 mg. of daily vitamin C intake can be done in a single dose, two doses of 500 mg., or three doses of 300 mg. each. Four hundred to eight hundred IU of vitamin E is also a good daily amount.

Read the labels of any vitamins that you take to make sure they don't contain chemicals. If the company is confident about their product, they will note that their product contains no additives, i. e., No Preservatives, No Sugar, No Yeast, No Starch, No Lactose, and No Artificial Coloring.

Anti-oxidants play an important role in preventing heart attack, cancer and other debilitating diseases including arthritis, and they also known to delay aging. The more anti-oxidants we consume, the healthier a life we can expect to live1x

Next time we will discuss how to read food labels . . .