Denton County Living Well Magazine Summer 2015 | Page 36

The Power of Antioxidants Free radicals Our bodies are machines that work all the time converting food into energy. From these natural processes and the chemical reactions involved, free radicals are generated. But free radicals are not just generated in the way mentioned. According to Harvard University, they can also be generated in the food a person eats, the air they breathe, and by the sunlight’s action on the skin and eyes. In summary, they are just cells that are damaged during all these natural and other processes and then are called free radicals. Once they become damaged, they hunt for healthy cells and try to injure them by attacking their DNA. After this kind of attack––called free radical damage––the injured cell can cause a basis for disease. Not just one cell is damaged, many are! It’s a chain reaction. A common example is cigarette smoking, which produces lots of free radicals. Thankfully, the body has a free radical defense system. It involves the help of antioxidants. These are substances that act as defenders with certain chemical behaviors and properties (Harvard, 2015). Up to a certain point they can deal with huge radical attacks but sometimes the body cannot stop and that is when we can develop diseases. Since we can absorb (to a certain point) these defenders from food, then it is a good idea to add them to o \