What Is Antioxidant And How Does It Affect Us

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The best way to keep healthy--eat antioxidant foods

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We are familiar with the term "sanitation", not "health care". I know that there is the Ministry of Health, the health center, the health bureau, and the toilet. The so-called "sanitation" means "protecting life", which is a conceptual term from the West. The so-called "health preservation" is the maintenance of life, the former is for "effect" and the latter is for "cause". A few days ago, at a high-level "International Forum on Antioxidant Nutrients and National Health" held in Beijing, many international and domestic nutrition experts agreed that eating antioxidant foods to prevent diseases is the best way to maintain health.

What is the strongest antioxidant? Strictly speaking, there are thousands of antioxidant compounds in food that can fight cancer, heart disease, eye disease, and even diabetes. Foods with strong antioxidant power include plums, blueberries, kale, strawberries, grapes, oranges, shrimp, crab, salmon, etc. Nuts and grains are also rich in antioxidants. People should try to get them from whole foods. So what is the strongest antioxidant? After decades of research and comparison by scientists, it was finally discovered that natural astaxanthin (ASTA), which exists in shrimp, crab shells, and salmon, is by far the strongest antioxidant, and its antioxidant strength is equivalent to 1,000 of vitamin E. times, equivalent to 60 times the anthocyanins in blueberries, so it is widely respected.

The word "antioxidant" is definitely not an unfamiliar word for you who are familiar with beauty and maintenance. And when you open the instructions of those skincare products and beauty products, most of them will also see the antioxidant. Although everyone understands that anti-oxidation is actually a good thing, what exactly is anti-oxidation? Why do we need anti-oxidation? How can we achieve anti-oxidation? Today, I will tell you the answer!

To understand what antioxidants are, we must first talk about free radicals. We learned when we were children that the units of matter are atoms and molecules, and we have many normal oxygen molecules in our bodies, each of which has a pair of electrons, and belongs to good citizens with stable families. The normal metabolism of the human body can cause the oxygen molecule to lose an electron, and this oxygen molecule with an unpaired electron is a free radical. Free radicals are like extremely lonely and destructive bachelors, very actively grabbing electrons from other molecules from the cell membrane to pair themselves with, and this process is oxidation. But when a free radical grabs an electron from the cell membrane, another new free radical is created and a chain reaction begins. This chain reaction of competing for electrons will erode the cell membrane, resulting in the loss of cell integrity, and become the source of various diseases and body aging. Therefore, free radicals are also known as the source of aging and the source of all diseases.

Antioxidants are ingredients that can scavenge free radicals. Free radicals are a regular product of metabolic processes, and the body produces its own antioxidants to counteract free radicals. However, a series of internal and external factors can lead to excessive free radical production, thereby accelerating aging and even leading to disease.

The factors that lead to the generation of free radicals include aging, sunlight exposure, stress, environmental pollution, staying up late, computer radiation, cooking fumes, and so on. Another common factor is smoking, including secondhand smoke. The large number of free radicals produced by smoke is more harmful to the human body than the notorious nicotine, ranking first among the three major killers in smoke (the other two are nicotine and tar). These factors mentioned above will increase the number of free radicals in the body, thereby disrupting the body's own balance of antioxidants and free radicals. Excessive amounts of extremely unstable free radicals can accelerate the aging of the human body by damaging cell membranes and healthy DNA, including skin aging, such as dullness, yellowing, pigmentation, fine lines, and even sagging. In addition, too many free radicals can lead to a series of diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, blood disease, stroke, and so on.

Studies have shown that the total glycosides of Cistanche tubulosa can significantly increase the activity of SOD in the brain and kidney tissue of mice, and high doses of total glycosides of Cistanche can simultaneously increase the activity of SOD in the heart and liver tissue, and can effectively remove various in vivo activities. Oxygen-free radicals, and have a protective effect on DNA damage caused by free radicals.

The phenglycerol compounds in Cistanche tubulosa have a strong ability to scavenge free radicals, and their reducing ability is higher than that of vitamin C. They can also improve the activity of SOD in mouse sperm suspension, and have a certain protective effect on sperm membrane function.

The water-soluble polysaccharide in Cistanche tubulosa has a good antioxidant capacity, and studies have shown that it may become a drug for preventing skin diseases and aging diseases.

The echinacoside in Cistanche tubulosa has the ability to scavenge free radicals significantly and has the ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species, prevent the degradation of collagen-induced by free radicals, and also have a good repair effect on thymine free radical anion damage.