What Are Antioxidants and How Much of Them Should You Be Eating?

14 Jul.,2022

Ever wonder, what are antioxidants? Here's what these compounds actually are, what they do for your health, and several foods high in antioxidants.

 

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There are tons of buzzwords in the nutrition world, and antioxidants is definitely one of the more frequently used ones. But what are antioxidants, really? How do they actually affect your body? What food sources include them—and how much do you need to get?

From foods branded as superfoods (like the acai berries in your morning smoothies) to more humble sources (like the ketchup on your burger), plenty of foods contain antioxidants. Even if they all aren’t famous for it, thousands of different foods—especially plant-based foods—have some of these special compounds inside.

Now, you’ve probably already heard that antioxidants can do a lot for your health—they’ve been touted as potentially being able to do everything from helping to prevent heart disease to promoting glowing skin to boosting the immune system to even assisting in warding off cancer. But what do antioxidants do for real, and are they really as helpful as people say? What are these supposedly magical compounds, exactly, and why is everyone making such a big deal out of them?

As with many things in the nutrition field, there’s a heck of a lot to unpack regarding antioxidants. Antioxidants started to earn their status as a household name in the 1990s, when researchers began doing more and more studies about their potential benefits. In 1997, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its first guidance for how food and supplement companies could use the word antioxidant in association with nutritional claims on the labels of their products.

However, even to this day—25 years later—scientists’ understanding of these substances and their possible health effects is still evolving. And despite headlines, social media posts, and marketing claims singing the praises of antioxidant foods, drinks, and supplements, they’re not exactly a panacea on your dinner plate. (Or your cup, for that matter—sorry, but the antioxidant-rich pomegranate juice starring in your favorite summer cocktails is not a magic elixir.) But all this definitely doesn’t mean you should discount the importance of antioxidants in your diet, though: Antioxidant-rich foods can, in fact, offer benefits in support of your health and well-being.

Here’s what you need to know about the science behind how antioxidants work, what antioxidants can actually do for us, and how best to incorporate a variety of nutritious antioxidant foods into your diet.

What are antioxidants?

Antioxidants are a type of healthy compound, commonly found in foods like fruits and vegetables, that help defend the body against a process called oxidative stress, which is thought to be involved in the development of various diseases.

Okay, let’s unpack that a bit. Before talking about what an antioxidant is, it helps to understand what we mean by another wellness buzzword: free radical.

“Free radicals is a general term used for compounds that are highly reactive, which means that they can attach and bind to, and ultimately damage, normal [cells] in the body, such as DNA,” Edward Giovannucci, MD, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, tells SELF. To get a little more technical, free radicals are any molecules in your body that contain an unpaired electron, which makes them very unstable and keeps them looking for other compounds to bind to.