Antioxidants In Green Tea Help Fight The Ageing Process

Do antioxidants in green tea really fight the ageing process? Many people choose to go under the knife to keep their youthful looks, but why put yourself through that when you could simply make the most of the beneficial antioxidants in green tea? Let’s face it, we would all like to grow old gracefully, but this is a much more natural way to maintain that healthful glow. The way to feel good and age gracefully can be found in foods that we eat and the amazing health-improving ingredients they contain. The antioxidants in green tea are a great example.

What Are Antioxidants?

So, what are these antioxidants in green tea? We hear and read about them all the time in the pages of magazines, in medical journals, on TV and radio, and it seems every product from hand cream to supplement pills is now full of antioxidants. But what exactly what are antioxidants and what makes them so special they can keep you looking your best?

If you’ve heard of antioxidants, it’s a fair bet that you’ve probably heard of free radicals to. This is not the place to go into great detail, but put simply, free radicals are the substances in our bodies that cause ageing. Antioxidants are substances that combat free radicals and in so doing slow down the aging process that goes on in our bodies. Sadly antioxidants are not produced by our bodies so we have to ingest them to enjoy their benefits. For a long time this was not understood, but we now know that there are a variety of foods which contain antioxidants and we can benefit by eating (or drinking) them. Drinking green tea and thus absorbing the antioxidants in green tea is a typical way of doing this.

How Antioxidants In Green Tea Fight The Ageing Process

To appreciate just why antioxidants are so effective, here is a very simple explanation of how ageing takes place:

There is a natural cycle in our bodies whereby cells are continually dying and being replaced. This is how a healthy body grows and maintains itself. This cell replacement is part of a process called cellular metabolism, but there is sometimes an unfortunate by-product of this process called free radicals.

Free radicals are unstable molecules which are missing an electron. To stabilize themselves, free radicals will ‘steal’ electrons from other cells. This is the ageing process in action, and that theft damages cells in ways which seem to become more apparent as we grow older in the form of both obviously visible and less visible changes to our bodies. Free radicals can also enter our bodies from outside sources such as cigarette smoke, radiation and the sun’s UV rays.

The more free radicals we encounter, the greater the damage likely to be done. The less visible changes are the development of diseases like cancer, diabetes, arthritis and neurological deficiencies which may begin to affect you as you age. The most obvious visible change is thinner skin and wrinkles.

Antioxidants In Green Tea Act Against Free Radicals

Antioxidants in green tea help enormously in the fight against free radicals by combining with them to neutralize them. Once neutralized, they can no longer do any damage. There seems to be no recognised daily dose of antioxidants to correct free radical damage and the diseases that come with age, but it is certainly proven that eating foods rich in antioxidants does make a difference.

So what are these antioxidants, and which are the best foods to provide them? Examples of antioxidants are vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin E and beta-carotene. Fruits and vegetables are the prime source, so you could actually grow your own! Antioxidants are also found abundantly in nuts and legumes.

A varied diet rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes will ensure you supply your body with regular doses of antioxidants to help reduce the incidence of disease and combat the effects of ageing. Eating fruits and vegetables in their natural form instead of in processed juices also brings the benefit of other nutrients found in the foods. You can read about other benefits from the antioxidants in green tea here.

Replacing your usual black tea or coffee with green tea will boost your intake even further because of the antioxidants in green tea.