How Do Antioxidants Work To Help You Lose Fat?
How do antioxidants work and how do they help you lose fat? How would you like to lose your fat, have more energy, less pain, better sleep and better moods? When you understand how antioxidants work and how to have more of them working for you, then you can have all of these wonderful affects. Antioxidants are chemical compounds or substances that inhibit oxidation or damage to the cell. Free radicals are what cause the oxidation that can be damaging.
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Free radicals | - An atom or group of atoms that contain at least 1 unpaired electron. If one is unpaired another molecule can bond with it creating a chemical reaction. They can cause oxidative damage. Not all free radicals are bad but if there is excessive free radical formation, damage to cells and tissues can occur. Exposure to radiation, to toxins in the environment, even a poor diet can contribute to oxidative stress. A diet high in saturated fat and especially cooking the fat at high temperatures can produce free radicals. Free radicals can damage the cells and the immune system and lead to diseases like cancer heart disease.
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Antioxidants are the good "armies" that work in our bodies to combat aging and disease by neutralizing free radicals. They are essential to your health, well being and longevity. They detoxify your organs and protect your trillions of cells from being weakened and destroyed by the free radicals that cause serious damage.
How do antioxidants work? Think of the antioxidants as good soldiers who have extra electrons to contribute to the cell. They donate them to the free radicals which disables and neutralizes them making them harmless. The good soldiers transform the bad guys, the free radicals! Because antioxidants have this capacity you can have far more vitality in your life!
Two Main Types of Antioxidants
Exogenous antioxidants - To carry this analogy a little further there are 2 types of antioxidant "soldiers." There are antioxidants in foods. The exogenous ones come from the outside and are found in plant foods, for example vitamins C and E. It's great to eat the top antioxidant foods, as many fruits and vegetables with lots of antioxidants as possible, but know that they have a more limited capacity to neutralize free radicals - 1 antioxidant molecule will neutralize 1 - 5 free radical molecules. Vitamin E has 3 extra electrons to contribute which means that one molecule of vitamin E can neutralize just 3 molecules of free radicals. Vitamin C has 5 extra electrons to donate. If you have lots of toxins it's like being in a war zone with just a hand gun with only 1 -5 bullets.
Endogenous antioxidants - As you might guess the endogenous antioxidants are made by the body. In fact, the body's master endogenous antioxidant is called glutathione and what it does for the body is far more potent than antioxidants we get in foods. Glutathione or GSH has 1 million extra electrons to donate and can neutralize 1 million free radicals! It can actually initiate cell regeneration. When asking how do antioxidants work you can differentiate between these 2 types of antioxidants. The glutathione "army" is much more powerful.
| Even if you don't have a medical condition that would prevent you from detoxing well, the fact is that your body's ability to make glutathione, the endogenous antioxidant, declines as we age. Glutathione levels drop 1 - 2% per year beginning at age 20.
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The exogenous antioxidants need the endogenous ones in order to neutralize any free radicals and of course their capacity for doing so is far less. Glutathione, compared to vitamins for example which neutralize a handful, has the capacity to neutralize millions of free radicals. You need both armies but the inside one led by glutathione is much more powerful.
How Do Antioxidants Work in Helping You to Lose Fat?
When you learn how antioxidants work one of the more intriguing processes to consider is their relationship to your goal of lifetime fat loss. Antioxidants can help you to lose fat because toxins are stored in the fat cells! If you aren't making enough antioxidants then your body could hold on to the fat to prevent your body from being flooded with toxins. Your body fat stores environmental toxins and these toxins can slow your metabolism.
Free radicals not only impair the liver and thyroid and damage the cell mitochondria but they also affect our brain chemicals (neurotransmitters)and interfere with appetite control. Some of your cravings may be due to having too many toxins messing up your brain chemistry.
Your body can only process so many by-products of free radicals and toxins at a time. It fights free radicals and oxidative stress by making and using antioxidants. As we have learned the chief antioxidant your body makes is glutathione. Glutathione acts as a detoxifying agent and regulates other antioxidants we eat.
How do antioxidants work to support fat loss?
Free radicals are neutralized by antioxidants.
Free radicals are in stored fat and slow metabolism.
Free radicals interfere with appetite control.
Antioxidants help our bodies function more efficiently in processing waste which increases our metabolism.
Some antioxidants help to control blood sugar.
When you embark on your permanent fat loss plan you need to make sure you are eating the top antioxidant foods and even supplementing extra antioxidants. According to the authors of Prescription for Nutritional Healing, Dr. James Balch and Phyllis Balch, CNC, it is difficult to get enough antioxidants in food sources to hold back the free radicals constantly being generated in our polluted environment.
| I have explored many ways for the body to get more glutathione production because I have a son with a medical condition that causes a deficiency in glutathione. We have tried many products from liquid glutathione to suppositories but taking glutathione itself doesn't work well because the body doesn't digest it as food. Recently we have come across a more bioavailable product which is made up of "glutathione precursors" which are nutrients that support the body's production of glutathione. They give the body the raw material it needs to make glutathione. There are studies showing that it raises glutathione by 292%. But the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and what we have seen is our son obviously experiencing much better detoxing. He is feeling a thousand percent better than he has in a very long time.
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This is the antioxidant supplement I recommend not only to detox and allow your body to release fat but also because it can significantly reduce inflammation. To order you can call toll free 1-855-485-5373. As far as losing fat it is essential to also eat a clean diet so that your body isn't just working to detox improper foods. Eating low glycemically will be of great benefit in this regard.
Speaking of eating properly there are lots of antioxidants in foods, the exogenous antioxidants are vitamins A, E, and C, CoQ10, omega 3s, lycopene and resveratrol (in grapes.) Fresh fruits and vegetables contain many powerful antioxdants.
Top Antioxidant Foods
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Artichokes |
blueberries |
grapes |
burdock (an herb) |
| spinach |
broccoli |
carrots |
tomatoes |
| turmeric (an herb) |
bilberries |
green tea |
garlic |
| ginkgo biloba (an herb) |
apples |
cantaloupe |
kale |
| artichoke |
basil |
beans |
beets |
| Brussels sprouts |
gogi berries |
guavas |
leafy vegetables |
| olive oil |
oranges |
peppers |
plums |
| pomegranates |
sweet potatoes |
tangerines |
wheat germ |
Now that you know "how do antioxidants work" you can make them work for you! These are foods you can add to your diet every day. And you can make sure your body is making enough glutathione. You can take a simple supplement that gives your body the raw materials to make the glutathione you need to give you super antioxidant affect.
I started out asking how do antioxidants work especially in losing fat. This is a way to release fat and also have some great health benefits. You can slow down the aging process, manage your weight effectively, feel more vitality and energy and also sleep more soundly, and have better cognitive function. How do antioxidants work? By giving us what we need to protect ourselves from free radical damage.
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