Here we meet again, our beloved readers. Just like our last article about free radical, this article is again about beauty & esthetic. Today we will be talking about the substance that help eliminate free radical, which is Antioxidants. Many of you must have heard about Antioxidants from commercials and advertisements.
But what is its function, where did it come from, and what is its benefit are the questions that we will give you the answer today.
Antioxidants is a compound that can prevent, suppress, or slow down oxidation. Just like iron that turns rusty, apple that turns brown, or vegetable oil that starting to have that rancid smell, the breathing we took for the metabolism of our body that further transformed into energy for the cells are also the cause of free radical that causing oxidation. These have bad effect to our body. Antioxidants has the ability to making the pair for or breaking down free radical and prevent oxidation. It helps slowing down the damage to the cells. Naturally, our body can produce antioxidants like Glutathione itself. However, the amount of antioxidants produced is not enough to destroy all those free radical occurred from both our own metabolism and external environment (e.g. grilled-roasted food, UV light, air pollution, etc.) Combining with the fact that only one kind of antioxidants is not sufficient enough to prevent all oxidation, it is necessary that we also receive the antioxidants that our body cannot produce by itself; such as Vitamin B, Vitamin E, beta-carotene, and Vitamin A, which contained in fruits and vegetables.
From the abovementioned benefit, antioxidants, both extracted from plants and synthesized up, have been used as an ingredient of supplements of various kinds. With the hope that these supplements would help curing and preventing various diseases, including anti-aging and beauty. However, studies show that antioxidants from these supplements are less beneficial to our body than those receive directly from eating fresh fruits and vegetables regularly (of course, it must be cleaned every time before being eaten). There are also other benefits from eating fruits and vegetables; such as those fiber that help with digestive system, increase the volume of feces, prevent constipation, take cholesterol out of our body, and help remove toxins that can cause certain cancers of our body as well.
