Eating food that contains antioxidants is a great way to protect yourself from different diseases including cancer and inflammatory diseases, not to mention that it has a great impact on general body health and helps maintain your immunity and boost immune functions, in this series we will help you understand what antioxidants are and cover the different food that contain antioxidants.
What are antioxidants?
Not all people are familiar with antioxidants and what they do, well, in todays environment and the pollution, its essential to eat food that contains antioxidants, as antioxidants help your body get rid on the free radicals that can come from smoking, food that contains saturated fats and inhaling polluted air, if these free radicals accumulate in your body they can lead to cellular damage which can cause a variety of diseases, whereas antioxidants help detoxify your body from these harmful substances.
Your body naturally produces antioxidants called endogenous antioxidants, but you can also get an external source of antioxidants by consuming plant-based foods or other types of food, there also other artificial sources of antioxidants that you can consume, but there’s no better way to strengthen your body and immunity than going all natural.
Antioxidant Foods
There is a variety of food that you can consume and incorporate into your daily meals to benefit off their nutritional values, from meat to plant to poultry and spices, there’s always going to be different dishes that suite all tastes and yet contain the same nutrients and antioxidants.
If you are looking for a plant-based source of antioxidants then we recommend incorporating sage into your meals or simply enjoying sage tea in the morning of a few minutes after enjoying your favorite meal. Sage (meramieh) is rich in antioxidants that can help boost you immune system responses to microbes, these are chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, rosmarinic acid, ellagic acid and rutin on top of phenolic acids which are plant base chemicals that act as antioxidants. On top of the antioxidant property of these compounds, they were also found to lower the risk of developing cancer and improving brain function and memory. Apart from the antioxidant property that sage has, sage can be used as a mouth wash as it was found to kill the harmful bacteria that cause mouth cavities and gum infections.
Another ingredient that contains a lot of antioxidants and nutritional values and can be a great substitute for sugar is honey. Honey can be added to any type of meal either sweet or savory, to enhance the taste of the dish and enhance the health benefit of any meal. Many of honey’s health benefits are attributed to its antioxidant content as it contains flavonoids and phenolic acids, these antioxidants work on neutralizing the reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can build up in the cells of your body, leading to cellular damage. The antioxidant property of honey can protect you against conditions such as premature aging, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
Another healthy alternative that contains a lot of antioxidants and can be a substitute to peanut butter is tahini. Tahini contains a lot of antioxidants, the most significant one being selenium. Selenium is a mineral found in tahini which is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound. Not to mention that tahini is made of sesame which has a lot of health benefits and adds a lot of nutritional values to any dish it’s added to.
Antioxidants are also abundant in meat, chicken, vegetables and fruits, now that you know how essential antioxidants are and now that we’ve provided you with knowledge on different and new products that contain antioxidants, we advise you to eat food that will feed you immunity!