Antioxidant Power [antikvár]

Introduction: Antioxidants to the Rescue!Antioxidants Defend Us Against AgeAntioxidants may be defined as any substance that protects tissue yiagainst oxidative damage. Even though oxygen is our primary fuel and we need a constant supply to live, when we use this fuel to generate energy, waste products are spewed off that are damaging. Just as an old car gets rusty or a piece of apple left out on a dish turns brown, these waste products cause us to degenerate fasterthat is, to show the signs of age and to be more vulnerable to disease.Antioxidant Nutrients Are Old FriendsAntioxidant nutrients are just another name for a group of familiar vitamins and minerals that have been around for decades. We learned about them first in a negative way, that if we didn't have enough of one or another, a disease of deficiency would surely result. So the U.S. government developed standards. Recommended Daily Allowances or RDAs for each of these vitamins and minerals.More recently, however, nutritional and medical researchers have discovered that antioxidants play a much more vital role in health and well-being than was previously thought possible for mere nutrients. (Some major studies addressing this and other nutritional issues include the Nurses' Health Study begun in 1976, which involved over 87,000 female nurses for eight years, and the Health Professionals Study, which followed nearly 40,000 male subjectsdoctors, dentists, and other medical personnelover a four-year period.) A preponderance of current research