You don’t need to be a chemistry or biology scholar to understand Antioxidants. Antioxidants are nothing but molecules that fight free radicals in your body.
To understand antioxidants you need to understand free radicals. Free radicals are compounds that can harm if their levels become too high in your body. They’re linked to multiple illnesses even serious threats like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Body has its own antioxidant defence system to keep free radicals in check.
Food contains antioxidants, particularly fruits, vegetables, and other plant-based, whole foods. Several vitamins, including vitamins E and C, are powerful antioxidants. Antioxidants are obtained by the body through food and supplements. Free radicals are constantly formed in the body. Without antioxidants, free radicals would cause serious harm very quickly, even may lead to death.
Free radicals are not always villains, they also serve important functions that are essential for health. For example, your immune cells use free radicals to fight back infections. As a result, your body needs to maintain a right balance of free radicals and antioxidants. When free radicals go beyond antioxidants, it can lead to a state called oxidative stress. Oxidative stress for longer can damage your DNA and other important molecules in your body. It may also cause cell death.
Damage to your DNA increases your risk of cancer, and some scientists have theorized that it plays a main role in the aging process. The main reasons are odd lifestyle, stress, and environmental factors to promote excessive free radical formation and oxidative stress, including:
Air pollution
Cigarette smoke
Alcohol consumption
High blood sugar levels
High intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids
Radiation
Bacterial, fungal, or viral infections
Antioxidants are necessary for all living beings to survive. The body produces its own antioxidants, including the cellular antioxidant glutathione. Plants and animals and forms of life have their own defence against free radicals and oxidative damage. Therefore, antioxidants are found in all most all whole foods of plant and animal origin. Adequate antioxidant intake is important. In fact, your life depends on the intake of certain antioxidants like, vitamins C and E.
Types of antioxidants
Antioxidants are generally of two types i.e. water-soluble and fat-soluble.
Water-soluble antioxidants work in the fluid inside and outside of cells, whereas fat-soluble antioxidants work primarily in cell membranes.
Important antioxidants include:
Vitamin C. This a water-soluble antioxidant, an essential dietary nutrient.
Vitamin E. This fat-soluble antioxidant is essential for protecting cell membranes from oxidative damage.
Flavonoids. This is a plant antioxidant, and has many beneficial health effects.
The Rich Sourced Antioxidant Vitamin C
Several of the food and supplement recommendations are geared towards increasing your intake of antioxidants; particularly vitamins A, C, and E. Wine and dark chocolate are known for their antioxidant properties. For this blog, we’ll focus on vitamins C and its role as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.
Several of our food and supplement recommendations aim to increase intake of antioxidants, specifically vitamins A, C, and E. For this blog, we’ll focus on vitamins C.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin that cannot be stored in the body, so you need to consume adequate amounts of vitamin C in everyday consumption. Excess vitamin C is excreted each day. Interestingly, most animals can make their own vitamin C with the exception of humans, like monkeys, pigs, bats, and some fish.
Vitamin C is primarily found in fruits and vegetables. Some of the best sources are citrus, guava, indian gooseberry (Amla), bell peppers, dark leafy greens, kiwi, broccoli and strawberries. The daily vitamin C requirement for the day is 75-90mg for adults. Vitamin C is also commonly found in multivitamins, specific Vitamin C supplements and processed foods. Because vitamin C is water-soluble, it is rare to have health complications due to high intakes.
TUSKCA VITAMIN C obtained from Amla, it is a powerful natural antioxidant. Tuskca Vitamin C 1000 supports immune system health and general health and wellbeing. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that can strengthen your body’s natural defenses.
Studies show that consuming more vitamin C can increase your blood antioxidant levels by up to 30% (Source: Inside Tracker). This helps the body’s natural defenses fight inflammation .Studies have shown that vitamin C may help lower blood pressure in both those with and without high blood pressure.Vitamin C supplements can help improve the absorption of iron (non-heme iron) from the diet.
Vitamin C and inflammation
Vitamin C is considered an antioxidant due to its properties, which essentially eliminates the threat of free radicals. Our body is naturally equipped to combat this production of free radicals, but if the body becomes overly stressed, the levels of these free radicals can significantly increase, termed oxidative stress, and result in cell damage. Studies have shown that vitamin C can significantly lower a risk of oxidative stress.
In a study conducted on healthy individuals, supplementation with 1000mg of vitamin C per day for two months reduced levels of CRP by 25% in individuals with levels above 1.0 mg/L.2 A CRP level greater than 1.0 mg/L signifies an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease and, at times, is used to assess treatment of cardiovascular disease when other symptoms are present, such as high blood pressure and high LDL cholesterol.
It is possible to eat 1000mg of vitamin C daily through food and vitamin C supplements. Individuals that eat roughly 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables, such as vegans and vegetarians, can reach 1000mg. According to one study, any combination of foods and supplements that resulted in higher vitamin C intake was inversely related to elevated CRP levels. Eating 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day will not suffice; instead, supplement your intake with a supplement.