Focus Friday: Antioxidants

Focus Friday will be my new sub genre of this blog, with topics of focus from all parts of life such as food, mood and cats!
That's if I remember to blog every Friday...
Todays topic is Antioxidants!

Let's start with the basics
According to Google the almighty, the definition of an antioxidant is "A substance that inhibits oxidation".

Ok so in what? 
Food and our bodies.

In layman's speech our bodies weak cells split sometimes and we are left with what we call free radicals which contribute to various illnesses and ailments, this is accelerated by pollution in the environment, UVA rays from the sun and smoking (amongst others).
This is where antioxidants come in to the equation, they interact with these naughty free radical 'cells' and connect with them, stopping the damage of other vital molecules in the body.
So they may help to protect us from these factors mentioned before.

(Psst they also help with premature ageing caused by sun damage, just take a look at Sir Patrick Stewart back in the day and now.)

Where can I find Antioxidants?
Good question, now Antioxidants are pretty common in many everyday foods and vitamins. For a start foods rich in vitamins A,C and E are abundant in them so if you like citrus fruits, strawberries, broccoli and bell peppers the chances are you are getting a good dose already.
Other sources are:

• Goji Berries
  
• Wild Blueberries
• Pecans
• Kidney Beans
• Tomatoes
• Green Tea
• Grapeseeds
• Pomegranite
• Matcha Green Tea
• Acai Berry

So maybe swap that third cup of tea at the office for a cup of green tea? or the next time you reach for the milk chocolate  swap it for the darkest you can find.
I'm sure our bodies will thank us for it.

Ok so that concludes this weeks Focus Friday, if there's anything you'd like me to go into depth about next friday then feel free to drop me a message or email on leeaaronharley@gmail.com.
Keep it clean!




Credit
normsfarms.com 
boldsky.com