Archive for the 'Anti Aging' Category

Super Antioxidant

Monday, October 27th, 2008

If you are looking for a super antioxidant then you don’t need to think further than a tiny grape-like fruit that grows in the Amazon rain forests and which possesses a powerful amount of natural antioxidants and is rightly considered amongst the most powerful natural antioxidants in the world. This grape-like fruit is known as Acai berry and it is considered a super antioxidant because it contains ten times the amount of antioxidants found in any other grape and about twice the amount of antioxidants found in blueberries.

The Acai berry also has a number of other powerful ingredients including being rich in fiber, iron, protein, and vitamin E as well as having plenty of fatty acids as well as omegas.  No wonder, it is considered a super antioxidant and it also contains a great amount of trace minerals as well.

The Acai berry certainly qualifies as being a super antioxidant and if you are able to take just a bite of it your body would be able to stabilize the amount of free radicals present within and that in turn will help to prevent possible damage that would otherwise have been caused by free radicals and which could have taken the form of heart diseases as well as lead to premature aging of the skin.

In fact, by consuming the super antioxidant rich Acai berry your body would get a shot of the antioxidant known as anthocyanin that is a certain type of phytochemical that is normally found in red wines and which is known to benefit a person’s cardiovascular system; so much so, that you would be less at risk of developing blood clots and also benefit from better blood circulation as well as not have to worry about contracting atherosclerosis.

Another benefit to taking the super antioxidant Acai berry is that it contains oleic acid that promotes the health of the heart and it is also effective in preventing cancer, and in addition, it is also especially effective in preventing breast cancer.

However, Acai is relatively unknown product and it is up to you to find out more about why this super antioxidant is making people sit up and take notice of it so much. In fact, Acai has more than just super antioxidant properties because it also helps in improving stamina and your sex drive too will get a boost and that is why it is also known as the Amazonian Viagra.

For most people, eating antioxidant foods will do a lot of good and as everyone knows it is possible to prevent common diseases by consuming a diet that contains plenty of antioxidants, and fortunately these antioxidants are readily found in many of the foods that we consume in our daily diets.

Thus, by eating antioxidant rich foods and by also including a super antioxidant like Acai, you can do a lot to prevent common diseases as well as benefit from a glowing and youthful looking skin.

Antioxidant Levels in Food

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

Most people are already aware of antioxidants and what they have to offer us, but if you are not, here is some important information you are going to want to be aware of. Whether it is an antioxidant supplement that you are taking or you are just eating regular food, there are certain foods in which there are high levels of antioxidants.

Antioxidants are substances or nutrients that are found in certain foods, some more than others, and which can prevent or slow the oxidative damage to our body. When our body uses oxygen, there is a process that takes place, known as the oxidation process. This process, after a while, can end up doing damage to the body, but antioxidants help to slow this process off and make us healthier as a result.

Antioxidants work to kill off the free radicals and hence prevent and repair damage done by them. There are many different health conditions that antioxidants can help to prevent, including heart disease, macular degeneration, diabetes, cancer, and liver disease.

If you really want to maximize your health and get yourself as healthy as possible, you are going to want to learn about antioxidant levels in foods and which foods contain the most antioxidants. Antioxidant levels in food are very important, as there are certain foods that are chalk full of these things.

Carrots, squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, kale, cabbage, collards, spinach, apricots, and all bright colored fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants. Flax seed, oatmeal, barley, rye, grapefruit, watermelon, and tea are all high in antioxidants as well.

Of all the antioxidant levels in food, the highest are found in the cocoa bean. Antioxidant levels in food refer more to nothing more than chocolate, well dark chocolate. No other type of chocolate contains antioxidants as dark chocolate does. Until now it was thought that tea, in particular green tea, contained the most antioxidants, but now we know that it is dark chocolate.

Research also shows that the cocoa butter in the chocolate helps by coating the teeth and thereby helping to protect them by preventing plaque from forming. The sugar in the chocolate can contribute to cavities if you eat too much of course, and you can also gain weight if you do not eat dark chocolate in moderation. As long as you eat all of these foods in moderation and make sure that you include some from all the different food groups, you will be giving yourself the nutrition you need to strive.

Herbal Tea Antioxidants

Saturday, October 25th, 2008

Herbal tea is all the rage these days and many people are jumping on the bandwagon. So are herbal tea antioxidants worth looking into? The answer is yes; research has shown that different herbal teas can provide you with antioxidants that are important in warding of harmful and life threatening diseases. Besides providing you with important antioxidants you can also receive plenty of other benefits.

Not all herbal teas will give you the antioxidant dose that you need to fight off cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and even the prevention of blood clots. You have to be careful about the teas that you drink so that you get the right amount of herbal tea antioxidants. Herbal teas are a great supplement to an antioxidant diet.
Green tea has been on the market for some time and the health benefits have long been trumpeted by health food stores. Green tea is a great source of herbal tea antioxidants. If you smoke or sun yourself all day then this could be a great way to counterbalance these bad habits.

Free radicals are released into your body everyday by environmental factors such as pollution that no one can really help. Even being exposed to second hand smoke can put you at the risk of free radicals. Free radicals really need to be filtered out of the system as left alone you put yourself at risk for cancer, and other degenerative diseases.

White teas are also a good source of herbal tea antioxidants. In fact white teas are thought to have more antioxidants than super green tea. It even has less caffeine and can help you lose a few pounds. It has been found that regular consumption of green and white tea can speed up your metabolism and help you lose weight.

Redbush and honey bush tea or more commonly known as Rooibus tea is a tea from South Africa. This is another source of herbal tea antioxidants. You can reduce pre-cancerous cells or they can be eliminated when you regularly consume this herbal tea.

Another plus of this distinctive tea is that it is completely caffeine free. You can also get good amounts of iron, fluoride, and Vitamin C from this wonderful tea. The antioxidants that are found in this tea are thought to be unique and will help you to keep healthy and slow down the aging process. All that in one little cup of tea!

Best Antioxidant Food

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Learning about what the best antioxidant food is and what these best sources of antioxidants have to offer you is very important if you want to achieve optimum health. There are quite a few different types of food that are considered as being the best antioxidant food, and which will be discussed here in more detail.

One of the best antioxidant food choices is berries. All sorts of berries in fact, everything from strawberries and blackberries to blueberries and raspberries, are full of antioxidants. These antioxidants are able to help prevent and repair the stress that comes from oxidation, a natural process that occurs during normal cell function.

Another best antioxidant food is green tea. You may think of green tea as only being a drink but this is actually not true. You can get green tea extract for instance, which can be included in a variety of foods and you may even want to take green tea supplements which offers you the benefits of green tea extract but in pill form so it is as easy and convenient for you to take as possible.

There are many other options as well when it comes to finding the best antioxidant food, and that includes broccoli, tomatoes, red grapes, garlic, spinach, tea, carrots, and soy products. All of these are chalk full of antioxidants and will offer you the benefits that you are looking for here.

These foods, known as the super foods of choice, are foods that you should definitely be including in your diet on a regular basis if you want to achieve optimum health. A healthy, balanced diet that includes plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, with as much variety as possible, will offer you the most complete nutrition and leave you in the best overall health possible.

The best idea if you are just getting started here will be for you to make a list of the best antioxidant food, namely that discussed here, so that you can incorporate it into your meal planning and really get the best nutrition possible.

This will not only ensure that you are eating enough of the right foods but also help your grocery planning and make the process quicker and easier for you. Meal planning is an important process for anyone interested in improving their health, because it ensures that you know what you are eating and are getting enough of the right foods.

Antioxidant Enzymes

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

Key among the ingredients in any antioxidant formula is the antioxidant response elements that help regulate how well the antioxidants perform their job. In addition to the complex mechanisms that help the products remove free radicals from the body’s system the role of antioxidant enzymes is to insure they work as planned. As the body goes through countless chemical actions every day, there are certain parts of the cells that break down and release radicals into the system. These free radicals, with the use of antioxidant enzymes would float around, drawing on healthy cells for their livelihood, leaving destruction in their wake.

The antioxidant enzymes also produced naturally by the body, help regulate the natural antioxidants as the reign in the potential for terror created by the existence of the free radicals. While new products are introduced nearly every week that claim to help rid the body of the harmful effects of free radicals, without the inclusion of antioxidant enzymes to regulate how they work, the products will not work as efficiently as designed.

While no product reproduced in a laboratory can replace the body’s natural system to keeping everything running smoothly, the use of antioxidant supplements as well as supplements of antioxidant enzymes offers humans a better chance of maintaining as well as improving their health.

The body is a very complex and wonderful thing as it has the ability to keep every system running efficiently. However, there are things that can go wrong and the existence of too many free radicals can lead to cell destruction and when systems resultantly fail, the remaining cells can use a little help. The use of antioxidant enzymes has been studied over the years since the need for antioxidants was established.

The use of any antioxidant product will most likely have certain benefits but more importantly, they should also include antioxidant enzymes to make them work better and perform as they were designed. Some of the most common antioxidant enzymes include glutathione reductase, catalane and dismutase, ingredients often included in many antioxidant formulas.

These antioxidant enzymes are used in formulas as antioxidant response elements to help the antioxidant round up the free radicals, group them together and help make them more water soluble for faster, more efficient expulsion from the body. By using formulas that include the enzymes along with the antioxidants, the product will be able to perform more effectively.

Foods Containing Antioxidants

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

If you are already aware of the multitudinous benefits that antioxidants offer and would like to start adding some foods containing antioxidants into your diet, first and foremost you should be applauded for taking such a huge step in the right direction for your health. Antioxidants are not only going to help you now but in the future as well, and make sure that you are always in the most optimum shape and health.

The first step, before you can really understand which foods containing antioxidants you should introduce first, you are going to have to get more of a grasp on antioxidant levels in food and which have higher levels than others.

Most fruits and vegetables are foods containing antioxidants, but of course some are going to have higher levels than others. You are not going to be able to eat every single fruit and vegetable a day, which is why it is so important to recognize which foods containing antioxidants have the highest levels.

The food with the highest antioxidant count is actually not a fruit or a vegetable, but rather dark chocolate. Dark chocolate, unlike milk chocolate, is packed full of antioxidants and offers the body an array of different health benefits.

Then there is the fruit and vegetables. Berries are particularly full of antioxidants, and this includes strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and every other type of berry that you can think of.

Peanuts are other foods containing antioxidants that you will want to start including in your diet, and you can do this in a number of ways. You can buy a jar of peanuts to snack on throughout the day, or you can spread some peanut butter on toast – either way you will still be getting a ton of antioxidants that are great for your body.

Keep in mind that these are just a few of many examples of foods that contain antioxidants and which will be worth adding into your diet. Just take it slow and introduce the foods into your diet in moderation, so as to not overdo it.

You can overdo anything and in this case you would end up doing your body more harm than good, in one way or another. Dark chocolate for instance, although it is the highest antioxidant food it is also packed full of sugar and calories and so by eating a lot of it you will be putting a lot of garbage into your body as well.

Antioxidant Tablets

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Antioxidants are important if you are serious about preventing certain illnesses. A healthy diet has always been considered the way to go when it comes to being healthy in general. Everyone is advised to include at last five servings of fruit and vegetables in their daily diet.

The reason that fruit and vegetables are so important is that they provide the body with antioxidants that can fight free radicals that could otherwise increase your risk of developing certain diseases. Recently many people have claimed that antioxidant tablets are a good way to include antioxidants in your diet. So, do they work?

The idea of using antioxidant tablets is a new one and studies are being conducted to test the effectiveness of antioxidant tablets in combating cancer, heart disease, strokes, and high blood pressure. At the moment there is not enough evidence to suggest that antioxidant are completely effective at preventing any of these diseases.

This is based largely on a study that was published showing that two test groups, one taking antioxidant tablets and another taking placebos, showed no difference in terms of lowered risk of the diseases antioxidants are supposed to prevent.

From this study it would appear that antioxidant tablets did not lower the risk of disease as people who took the tablets had just as much chance of developing the same diseases as the group of people on placebos. This doesn’t seem like encouraging news but not all hope is lost.

Before you flush your antioxidant tablets down the toilet stop to consider the findings. It is only one study that has been published. Other studies are still ongoing and could soon prove that there are significant benefits to taking these supplements.

On the other hand there is no harm in taking supplements. You could well be benefiting from the supplements. If you believe that taking supplements are important then keep taking them and make sure that the rest of your diet also includes healthy amounts of antioxidants. Fruits and vegetables are your best source of antioxidants, as well as green, black, and certain herbal teas.

An antioxidant a day could truly keep the doctor away. The evidence to suggest that antioxidants are key to preventing cancer, strokes, heart diseases, lowering blood pressure, and other degenerative and age related diseases is very strong. People who want to have a good quality of life in their later years would do well to have plenty of antioxidants in their day to day diet.

Tea Antioxidant Levels

Sunday, October 19th, 2008

Everyone worries about how to stay healthy and how to protect themselves from the polluted environment that we live in today. One of the ways that you can safeguard your health is to make sure that your daily diet contains lots of antioxidants. Antioxidants are compounds that will help you prevent many degenerative diseases that can result from free radicals in the environment attacking our body’s cells.

Eating fruit and vegetables everyday is one way to get a good dose of antioxidants; it is also the traditional way that people have received their daily dose of antioxidants. Now it appears that drinking a daily cup of tea might give you even more antioxidants. So how do you get your tea antioxidant levels up and free radicals down?

Are Packet Teas Good for You?

You might already drink tea everyday in the form of iced teas. So do ice teas give you the same tea antioxidant levels as freshly brewed tea? It really depends how you make your iced teas. If you make your iced tea up from a packet then chances are you are not getting the same amount of tea antioxidant levels then you would if you made your own iced tea.

Different brands of convenience ice teas have different levels of tea antioxidant levels. Some have barely anything and are not beneficial to your health while others have enough antioxidant levels to make a difference in your health. Research brands a little to find the level of antioxidants in each packet. Alternatively, just make your own the night before so that you can drink iced tea while on the go.

Hot or Cold

Some people believe that drinking hot tea is better than cold tea. The idea is that the hot tea releases more antioxidants. However there really is no difference between drinking freshly brewed tea and tea that has been sitting in your fridge the night before. So you can be assured that you are still getting a powerful punch of antioxidants whether you drink your tea hot or cold.

Types of Teas

The types of teas you drink are also important in determining the tea antioxidant levels in your diet. Herbal tea is popular but there has not been enough research about herbal tea antioxidants. Though antioxidants can also be found in herbal teas.

Green tea is thought to be the best green tea to prevent cancer while black tea is supposed to help prevent heart disease. The verdict is that it doesn’t really matter what type of tea you drink, black or green there are plenty of antioxidants to be found in tea.

Antioxidant Food List

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

So it is time to get out and do your grocery shopping again. There has never been a better time than now to switch up your basic grocery list and start adding a few new food items. You are going to want to start getting foods containing antioxidants, but before doing so you should learn a bit more about these antioxidants and what health benefits they have to offer you.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants are substances that are found in fruits and vegetables and certain other foods, and which offer a plethora of health benefits. They are able to protect human cells from the oxidative process and as well they are able to provide the body with a stronger immune resistance to flues and viruses, reduction of incidence of all cancers, and more.

Antioxidant Food List

Now that you are more aware of antioxidant foods you are ready to start making your antioxidant food list. You will want to include some dark chocolate for one, and surely you are pleased with this. The cocoa bean is actually known for containing more antioxidants than any other food in the world, and so by eating a bit of dark chocolate here and there you will be supplying your body with these incredible substances.

There are tons of ideas that you can go with when it comes to the dark chocolate. For instance you could melt some of the dark chocolate in a pot and dip strawberries in it to serve to guests, or you could just chomp on a few pieces for self indulgence. Just make sure that you do not overdo it, because just as with the other foods on the antioxidant food list, you will end up doing yourself more harm than good.

Next on your antioxidant food list you should include broccoli. Maybe you are already a broccoli fan, maybe not, but you will be after you hear this. Broccoli is recognized as being one of the foods with the highest antioxidant count, so even by eating just a few pieces you will be doing yourself a world of good.

Yet another item to be included on any proper antioxidant food list is fruit. Berries, to be exact, should be on the list, because all berries are packed full of antioxidants. Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and any other type of berry that you can think of, will be great to include on your next grocery list.

White Tea Antioxidants

Monday, October 13th, 2008

There are many articles now singing the praises of tea. It has been found recently that tea contains more antioxidants than fruits and vegetables. So it seems simple, drink tea and feel better. This is where things get a little complicated; there are so many teas available now that it can be difficult to decide which one has the most health benefits.

Besides the traditional black tea that we have all been familiar with for a long time there are now many varieties of teas on the market. Green tea has now become quite commonplace but there are more different types of tea everyday. From oolong to herbal, what’s the best tea to drink?

White tea is relatively new to the market. It is also more expensive than other teas that have been on the market for longer. So what sets white tea apart from its darker cousins? For starters white tea has higher levels of white tea antioxidants. This is due to more than one factor.

White tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant, the same plant that other teas come from. The difference is that white tea leaves are picked before they fully open. The name is derived from the white hairs that are still present on the leaves and buds of the plant at this stage of development.

The higher levels of white tea antioxidants is because of how little processing the leaves go through. Just like green tea white tea is not fermented. White tea had higher levels of white tea antioxidants than even green tea, previously thought to be the best tea when looking for high tea antioxidant levels.

If you don’t like the taste of green tea then white teas could be the right brew for you. Besides having plenty of white tea antioxidants, white tea tastes sweeter and lighter. The distinctive taste is winning over many fans.

Another benefit of drinking this tea besides the high level of white tea antioxidants is the lower level of caffeine. If you are looking to cut down on caffeine in your diet but still want to indulge in a cup of tea then this would be the ideal tea.

The cancer fighting properties of white tea are also remarkable. It is thought to be more effective than even green tea when it comes to inhibiting cancer causing enzymes. You can have real peace of mind when you drink a cup of white tea.