Antioxidants and weight loss.
You hear the word antioxidant a lot when people talk about health. But what exactly are antioxidants and how can they help with weight loss?
The way your body burns fuel is very similar to the way a fire in a fire place burns. There needs to be fuel and oxygen for the fire to start and to continue burning. Once the fire has died out, there is ash and soot left behind in the fireplace. In our bodies, fuel and oxygen are needed to produce the energy we need and once the process is done, there is residue left over, just like in the fire place. This residue is known by the name of oxidants. And just like soot in the fireplace, if oxidants aren’t cleaned up, the result can be disastrous.
A healthy body is capable of cleaning up the normal load of oxidants. It does this by using antioxidants which clean the reside from the body and prevent from becoming an irritant and damaging other nearby cells. However, when we eat a lot junk food, don’t exercise, don’t drink enough water and live with an elevated level of stress consistently, the body is unable to remove the oxidants as efficiently as it should. If the body is overwhelmed with the oxidant level on a daily basis, then cells and tissues within the body start to deteriorate, setting up the environment for shortened cell life, lowered immune system functions, and general rapid aging of the entire body.
Being overweight generates a low but persistent level of inflammation in the body which adds to already unmanageable levels of oxidant activity. Your body is in a state of disrepair and cannot fix itself properly. That means losing weight is even harder because your body sees it as another form of stress.
There is a way to combat oxidative stress – certain foods have the ability to stop the corrosive oxidative effect and thus are called antioxidants. These foods – most of them fruits – excel at sweeping up the residue as well as stopping the chain of deterioration oxidants create. Making sure to include at least two cups of the following foods in your diet every day will go a long way in lowering the stress level of your body, allowing to heal and to release fat as it improves it fuel burning capabilities.
Those foods are:
* blueberries
* strawberries
* prunes
* blackberries
* red delicious apples
* Granny Smith apples
* plums
* raspberries
* sweet cherries
* black, red kidney, or pinto beans
Eat and enjoy the weight loss!