Green Tea’s Antioxidant – Do you know what antioxidants are?
You have heard of the power behind green tea being it’s antioxidant and the power to increase it in the human body right? Do you know exactly what an antioxidant is and what it can do for you?
Antioxidants do not do anything to oxygen. Antioxidants fight a chemical reaction called oxidation. This is the same process that causes metals to rust. Oxidation is the mingling between oxygen molecules and what they come in contact with. If it is living tissue where this occurs then that’s when damage of disease occurs.
The harm caused by oxidation, is a result of free radicals, highly reactive, unstable molecules that travel around the body wreaking havoc. Although free radicals can be generated by exposure to UV rays, toxins, cigarette smoke, microbes and other sources, the most common source is the oxygen molecule itself.
Paired together, oxygen travels throughout your body and each molecule has its own electron. Often what happens is this double molecule splits into two halves, which leaves one molecule without an electron to go with it. Feeling out of balance, the single molecule races around your body trying to repair itself and find a new electron to pair up with.
The molecule does not just wait for a spare electron to pop up, but what it does is it steals one from another molecule. The problem keeps reoccurring over and over again. This process is what causes cells to be damaged, and the entire body system gets effected by it. This is believed to be the major cause of cancer, heart disease and aging.
Now, this is where taking antioxidants come into play. What antioxidants do is donate an electron to the lonely free radicals so they no longer have to steel electrons to feel balanced. Your body does produce antioxidants on its own, but not nearly enough to aid all the free radicals. That’s where green tea can help you a lot,
Among others, these include beta-carotene, vitamins C and E, the mineral selenium, and various phytochemicals such as lycopene and quercetin. But the catechins, especially EGCg, are among the most powerful and effective antioxidants of all.
