Free Radicals and Antioxidants

How can Antioxidants Benefit Us?

Antioxidants are essential for optimal health, especially with respect to aging
and age-related diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer and
many others.

Fruits and vegetables have high Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity values. Dark chocolate is included in the Table below due to raw cacao being considered a fruit; it is loaded with antioxidants.

Scientific research shows that antioxidants increase our resistance to diseases and boost our immune systems. Health professionals recommend that everyone consume 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

What are Antioxidants and Free Radicals?

Antioxidants are any substance that reduce or prevent oxidative damage, such as vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, and polyphenols that help protect your body's cells against the harmful effects of free radicals in the bloodstream.

The body creates free radicals for important functions such as killing of bacteria or sending signals within cells, but they can also damage many parts of the cell causing it to malfunction, die or become cancerous.

Free radicals are atoms (such as oxygen), molecules (such as peroxy) and ions (such as hydroxyl) that have an electron imbalance making them very reactive.

Free radicals are generated continuously by nearly all of the cells of the body as a byproduct of generating the energy that we require for muscle contraction, vision, memory, or thousands of other of our daily functions.

Free radicals can also assault us from the environment; in cigarette smoke, in other noxious pollutants, or in background radiation that continuously bathes us, causing damage to our lungs, eyes and skin.

While the body has a number of mechanisms to prevent or repair free radical damage, dietary antioxidants perform a major role in this regard to help keep us healthy. However, these natural antioxidants come in bursts from our meals and snacks but not in the recommended amounts unless we have an excellent diet including all the necessary portions of fruits and vegetables.

Time-release antioxidant supplements can bring us up to a healthy level of antioxidant protection and make them available continuously throughout the day providing the protection when needed.

Our Cantavita™ time release antioxidant supplement is effective against all five major free radicals that cause cellular damage. As Jim Nichols, President of Brunswick Labs, recently stated "Defending against just one of these is like patching just one of five holes in a boat."

Keep your body healthy with Cantavita™, a time release antioxidant supplement.