What are Free Radicals?
Free Radicals and Antioxidants are a little bit like Felix Unger and Oscar Madison in the movie, “The Odd Couple”, which was about two men who moved into a New York Apartment together after their divorces.
Felix Unger, the rather compulsive “neat nick” was always running around cleaning up after Oscar Madison, the world’s biggest slob. Sometimes Oscar ruled the roost. Their apartment was total chaos, while other times, Felix had the upper hand and the place was spotless.
Their trials and tribulations living together. Getting their lives back on track and not killing each other made a great movie. It also a great television series that ran for a number of years quite successfully.
And they are a terrific analogy for explaining what Free Radicals & Antioxidants are for humans.
In the human body, Oscar Madison would be the “Free Radicals”, racing around all the cells of the body wreaking havoc and creating decay, chaos, and aging one, often far beyond their years, while Felix Unger would be the “Anti-Oxidants” frantically running around cleaning up all that decay, chaos and aging.
In today’s world, however, there are not enough “Felix Ungers”. Antioxidants being consumed to defeat all the damage done by the “Oscar Madisons” (Free Radicals). Thus, Felix is losing the battle as Oscar happily turns the “apartment” into a beat up, dilapidated, old home long before its time.
What Causes Free Radicals?
Here’s a “not too scientific” explanation. Free radicals in the body are produced in large quantities when the body is exposed to harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun, X-rays, and gamma rays from radioactive material. They also occur from cigarette smoke, car exhaust, and industrial fumes. Ironically enough, breathing in pure oxygen promotes free radicals as well.
As you can see when you read that explanation, you are getting free radicals just by living on the earth. You’re getting even more if you live in the city. Where there’s lots of car exhaust, or if you spend any amount of time in the industrial zones. And of course, if you’re sucking in cigarette smoke or pure oxygen to boot, then you’re loaded.
But that’s not the only things that increase the free radicals running around in your body hurting you in so many different ways. There’s also processed foods, excess sugar or alcohol, pollution, stress, and pesticides to name a few more.
Those free radicals age you, they cause your body to slowly decay. They’re often associated with cancer and other deadly diseases. Free radicals are not your friend. You need to constantly fight their insidious takeover of your body and your quality of life.
The Benefits of Antioxidants
Mother Nature is pretty cool. She gives us the thing we need to fight back the free radicals. It’s too bad that so much of what she gave us has been compromised by “us humans”.
Where do you get antioxidants from?
Raw foods and pure water are two of the most common resources, for getting antioxidants. Too bad that the raw foods have been compromised by pesticides and poor soil. Also that the “pure water” resources are not as plentiful today as they once were. That makes the job of getting enough antioxidants harder to accomplish. Then add how easy it is to get and eat processed food. But how hard it is to get and prepare and eat foods high in antioxidants (and you have to consume a variety too). It can be seen that the deck of cards is stacked in favor of the free radicals.
How Can You Get More Antioxidants?
Start by finding out what foods high in antioxidants, here’s a list of the best antioxidants:
Here’s some: Goji berries, Wild blueberries, Dark chocolate, Pecans, Artichoke, Elderberries, Kidney beans, Cranberries, Blackberries, Cilantro, Clove, Cinnamon, Oregano, Turmeric, cocoa, Cumin, Parsley, Basil, Ginger Thyme, Black Raspberry, garlic, cayenne pepper and green tea.
Now here’s the kicker. You need to have a good variety of all these foods to get enough antioxidants to fight those free radicals.
Thankfully, there’s something you can get now, that you couldn’t get before which really helps you get in as easy a way as possible those antioxidants. It’s the Soul Rain nutrition drink produced by Rain International. The Soul Rain nutrition drink is the fast and easy way to get antioxidants. Even when you are on the go, this is well worth looking into.
Oh, and did I mention any of the benefits you can experience when you’ve got enough antioxidants in your body to help turn the free radical tide?
Here are a few:
- The signs of aging slow down, (skin, eyes, tissue, joints, heart, and brain)
- More youthful skin
- Reduced potential for cancer
- Longer life span
- Protection against heart disease and stroke
- Potential for less risk for cognitive problems, such as dementia or Alzheimers
Nice, eh? Hopefully, you’ll make things easier by doing what I did and grab yourself a sample pack of the soul Rain here nutrition drinks real soon. I think your free radicals will be really mad at you for giving them all those antioxidants, but then hey, that’s a good thing, too. In the end, Oscar always felt better after Felix had cleaned house!
