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Sunday, March 1, 2009

The benefits of green tea's antioxidant

By Collin James

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 themselves don't do anything to oxygen. What they do, do is fight a chemical reaction in your body called oxidation. I am sure your saying right now, wait a second - that's what causes metal to rust - I am not made of metal! Your right to say that but oxidation is the interaction between oxygen molecules and the substances they come in contact with. If this just so happens to be living tissue, then that's when disease occurs.

The damaged caused by oxidation in your body is caused by free radicals, which are highly reactive molecules that cruise around your body doing nothing but causing problems. Oxygen is the most common source of generating these free radicals.

Oxygen typically travels throughout the body in pairs, and these two molecules share electrons. But sometimes this double molecule splits into two separate oxygen molecules called singlet oxygen. When this happens, there are no longer enough electrons to go around, so each oxygen molecule ends up one electron short. This destabilizes the molecule, in a sense throwing it off balance. In order too stabilize itself, it races off throughout the body in search of another electron.

The single molecule does not just sit around waiting for another electron to become available, what this little bugger does is it goes around and find ones to steal. So what happens to the molecule that just had it's electron stolen, well, it goes and steals it's own from another molecule. This process of stealing back and forth causes damage to the cells and it often though to be a leading contributor to cancer, heart disease and aging.

Antioxidants work against "electron stealing" by neutralizing and stabilizing free radicals. They do this by donating an electron so that singlet oxygen and other free radicals no longer have the urge to "steal." And while the body does produce a certain amount of antioxidants for the express purpose of taking care of such problems, it also needs the added help of antioxidants found in foods.

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. - 17268

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