By now you’ve heard about the green tea’s antioxidant abilities, and how the quality of this antioxidant helps fight against dangerous diseases like cancer and heart disease. But what is an antioxidant? And why would anything that’s anti-oxygen be good for you or for your bodies health?
Antioxidants don’t work against oxygen. They fight against a chemical reaction called oxidation, this is the same process that turns bananas black and rusts metal. Oxidation is the interaction between oxygen molecules and the substances they come in contact with. When that substance happens to be living tissue, damage and disease can occur.
The harm caused by oxidation, is result of free radicals, highly reactive, unstable molecules that travel around the body wreaking havoc. Although free radicals can be generated by exposure to UV rays, toxins, cigarette smoke, microbes and other sources, the most common source is the oxygen molecule itself.
Oxygen usually travels through your body paired up with another oxygen molecule. In some cases this pairing splits into two individual oxygen molecules called singlet oxygen. When this occurs, electrons fall in short demand as there are now to many oxygen molecules. This destabilizes the molecule and in a way, throwing it off balance. In the attempt to try and fix itself it races through the body trying to find an other electron.
The single molecule does not just sit around waiting for another electron to become available, what this little bugger does is it goes around and find ones to steal. So what happens to the molecule that just had it’s electron stolen, well, it goes and steals it’s own from another molecule. This process of stealing back and forth causes damage to the cells and it often though to be a leading contributor to cancer, heart disease and aging.
What antioxidants do is fight against this constant stealing of electrons. Your inner body police, is the best way to look at it. How they work is they donate electrons to the free radicals so the urge to steel is gone. You body does produce a certain amount of antioxidants, but not nearly enough!
Among others, these include beta-carotene, vitamins C and E, the mineral selenium, and various phytochemicals such as lycopene and quercetin. But the catechins, especially EGCg, are among the most powerful and effective antioxidants of all.
