Why are antioxidants important to you? Do you know what they are?
Not everyone will have heard that antioxidants reduce oxidative stress and inflammation in the body.
What is oxidative stress?
Oxidative stress is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants that can cause damage to the cells.
Free radicals are a by-product of the body's everyday natural processes. Free radicals are unstable energetic atoms - they are tiny troublemakers, but we all make them. If you’re alive you are making free radicals.
What causes free radicals?
The top four body functions that produce free radicals are:
• When we make energy in our bodies.
• When the immune system is fighting an infection or repairing tissue.
• When we are stressed and sleep poorly.
• And, if we are carrying too much weight or are obese.
Out of those four things, you can reduce your free radicals by calming your immune system, calming your stress response and managing your weight. I can help you calm your system and manage your weight. My next blog on 16th October is about how to calm your immune system. If you would like more information on how to reduce stress, here is my blog on stress
Some environmental factors can increase your free radical production, including:
• Exposure to cigarette or vaping smoke, pesticides, and chemicals in beauty, household products and furniture.
• Sun exposure is great for vitamin D, but, too much unprotected sun can damage your skin and increase free radicals.
There are also dietary factors that increase free radicals. These include:
• Consuming unhealthy fats and simple sugars.
• Ultra-processed foods.
• An imbalance in omega-3 & 6 fats.
• Drinking too much alcohol.
Unhealthy fats to avoid are:
- Corn Oil - Rapeseed oil
- Cotton seed oil
- Soy oil
- Sunflower oil
- Safflower milk
- Grape-seed oil
- Rice bran
- Vegetable oil
Simple Sugars
This is a big topic so for simplicity try to avoid adding sugar to drinks or food and avoid packets of cakes, biscuits and sweets. This is a good starting place.
Ultra-Processed foods
Ultra-processed foods tend to be high in inflammatory fats, sugar, and salt. They are also full of preservatives, additives, and colouring. To be honest, there isn't much to like.
If you read the ingredients on any packaging and you don’t recognise the ingredients then this is a ultra-processed foods
Here is my blog explaining UPFs
How is oxidative stress harmful to your body?
Let's go back to oxidative stress now we know what free radicals are and that an imbalance between them and antioxidants causes it.
Oxidative stress damages the body and has been linked to diseases ranging from chronic inflammation, diabetes, autoimmune disease and neurological diseases such as Alzheimers.
Free radicals are part of our daily lives, but in the modern world, we need more antioxidants to reduce damage.
How do antioxidants re-balance the body?
Antioxidants stabilise the body by reducing the amount of free radicals and as a consequence lowering oxidative stress. You can increase the number of anti-oxidants with some small changes.
Foods that are high in antioxidants, include:
- Fruits: all berries, oranges, grapes, and cherries.
- Vegetables: dark leafy green vegetables, carrots, sweet potatoes, bell peppers.
- Nuts and seeds: almonds, walnuts, chia seeds.
- Legumes: Beans, lentils and chickpeas.
- Whole grains: Brown rice, quinoa and oats.
- Herbs and spices: Turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, oregano.
- Organic, free-range, grass-fed where possible as it limits pesticide exposure.
- Drinks: Green tea and coffee, no more than 2 cups of coffee per day or the benefit is lost.
Getting enough fruit, veg and berries into our days can be hard. If this is you then consider using concentrated fruit, veg and berries capsules. 6 small capsules provide 30 varieties of fruit, vegetables and berries per day. I am amazed by this product. Want to know more about it? please talk to me for recommendations
Filtering your water is an easy change to add to your day. Filtering water removes, chlorine, heavy metals and man-made permanent chemicals. These are in the water from your tap.
Maybe try pH-on-the-go from Amazon to filter your water.
What lifestyle changes help?
Manage your sleep.
- Go to bed and get up at the same time every day.
- Turn off electronics 2 hours before bedtime.
- Sleep in a cool room.
- Wear a sleep mask to block out light.
- Read a really boring book!
Exercise regularly.
Gentle walking, dancing around the kitchen and housework count. Strength building is more important for us than building muscle.
But not too close to bedtime please or it may disturb your sleep.
Limit alcohol
I know this can seem hard. If you are a menopausal woman then alcohol might be affecting your sleep more now than ever. My suggestion is to keep an alcohol and sleep diary. Have a couple of nights off alcohol. How did you sleep?
Manage your stress
Stress is another big topic that I have written about before.
Read my blog on how to manage your stress
Stop Smoking and Vaping.
This is a hard one I know. If you need help I can recommend someone to help you.
Avoid plastic bottles and containers
If you do use plastic containers please don’t use them in a microwave.
That was a big topic.
I hope an interesting one?
As always I’m here to help you to make changes. Please book your free 30-minute discovery call here to discover how.
Jackie xx
