Here in the UK people often talk about 'getting your 5 a day' and eating/drinking products that are high in antioxidants. But what are antioxidants really and what do they do?
Antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, phytochemicals.. it sure is easy to feel confused!
To make it simple, an antioxidant can be any nutrient that effectively fights off or neutralizes free-radicals in our body and protects our cells from oxidation.
Oxidation of cells happens when there are too many free radicals in the body, due to stress, cigarette smoke, pollution, alcohol etc.
Excessive cell oxidation can eventually lead to disease, including some types of cancers and heart disease. An antioxidant is normally a vitamin, mineral or a phytochemical.
There is no nutrient that is only called an antioxidant, it is always something else too.
For example, vitamin C acts as an antioxidant in the body, and is therefore an antioxidant!
Other examples of antioxidants are vitamin A, vitamin E, zink, selenium and flavonoids. Phytochemicals, such as lycopene in tomatoes, have an especially effective antioxidant effect.
The body actually also produces a peptide in the liver called glutathione, which is a very powerful antioxidant. But the production of this substance in the body declines with age, making it more important to get this antioxidant from food instead. Glutathione is present in most fruits and vegetables.
When a juice manufacturer advertises a juice as "high in antioxidants", it just means that the juice contains lots of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals.
Don't buy these products thinking that they give you the same benefits as eating whole fruit though.
Store bought juice or smoothies contains so much more sugar than whole fruit, and if the juice is processed or heated in any way to help it stay fresh longer, it sadly enough has lost a lot of its "antioxidants" on the way.
Getting 5 fruits a day is for sure a good recommendation.
But to me, it does not really matter if you eat 4, 5 or 6 fruits a day, as long as you really do eat them every day.
Now 5 fruits a day might sound like a lot to some people. But it should not be that hard to eat those 5 fruits per day if you do it like this:
-Have some fruit for breakfast
-Have a fruit as a snack a little later
-Have a fruit smoothie in the evening
In my experience, this is the best way to up your fruits intake.
If you don't have a blender to make your own smoothies with, you can eat a daily fruit salad instead :)
And if you need ideas, check out the "Recipes" section to the left.
Thanks for your question Ferd!
Sources: -Victorian government Australia. http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Antioxidants -Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptide -The Regional Cancer Center. http://www.trcc.org/antioxidant.html
