Antioxidants Keep You Healthy and Looking Young by Yo Naturals

Yo Naturals would like to offer some advice for those of you who are looking to improve your health. There is lots of evidence to support the claims that antioxidants not only help you to look younger but also fight disease. Studies have shown that antioxidants can help you prevent and even reverse a number of different cancers. Antioxidants also help to protect your heart and prevent you from suffering heart disease. Antioxidants also help to prevent diabetes, cataracts and degenerative diseases.What are these things called antioxidants? The main antioxidants are the vitamins A, C & E along with the minerals Zinc and Selenium. Other antioxidants are Co-Enzyme Q10, l-gluthathione and cysteine. There are also phytonutrients such as lycopene and lutein which are also antioxidants.

The best way of getting all of these antioxidants is to ensure you have an antioxidant rich diet. Let’s look at some of the foods that contain antioxidants. The first food is a personal favorite and is chocolate. Numerous studies have touted chocolate as being a great source of antioxidants. The best chocolate from an antioxidant standpoint is a dark chocolate that contains at least 80% cocoa solids.

Another great form of antioxidants is berries. All berries are high in antioxidants although the Brazilian acai berry is the latest to be hailed an antioxidant super food, containing over ten times the antioxidant levels of a blueberry. Despite this finding, blueberries are still recommended as are strawberries, cranberries, blackberries and raspberries as being part of your antioxidant health busting diet.

One of the cornerstones of the Mediterranean Diet is the tomato. The tomato is also rich in antioxidants including lycopene which has been found to decrease night blindness and also reduce a man’s risk of developing prostate cancer by 20%. This delicious fruit contains high levels of antioxidants in both its raw and cooked states, so should be a definite staple in your diet.

The next antioxidant hero is broccoli. Broccoli has been heralded as a superfood for over 15 years with several studies highlighting its cancer fighting abilities. Over the past couple of years the attention has shifted slightly to broccoli sprouts where a study at Harvard has found the levels of antioxidants are even more concentrated.

Despite puffing on a pipe Popeye always appeared healthy; is this a clue? Yes spinach is also a top antioxidant food. Spinach also contains a special antioxidant called lutein which seems to have an affinity with the heart, keeping it fit and strong.

Another top antioxidant food is walnuts. Walnuts should be added to your daily diet for their antioxidant value alone. In fact in July 2006 the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition labeled walnuts as number two (behind blackberries) for their antioxidant levels.

Other foods that you need to include in your diet to keep your levels of antioxidants up include pinto, black and kidney beans, eggplants and kumara (sweet potato). Stay young and healthy by eating at least one of these antioxidant foods every day.

This article was written by Louanne Cox on behalf of Yo Naturals health food vending machines.