The Benefits of Eating An Antioxidant Diet

There are many different benefits to eating an antioxidant diet, however the two most common reasons include better overall health as well as younger, healthier looking skin. Although there are many crèmes, lotions and topical treatments to help your skin look younger and fresher, starting from the inside and improving the cellular makeup of tissues is really the best possible option.

Eating right, which includes focusing on an antioxidant diet, is the key to both health and appearance. Within your body there are many thousands of small, cellular processes occurring all the time. These processes cause some cells to break apart, with the debris, the free radicals, floating through the body. Free radicals are also caused by the reactions within the body to specific environmental issues such as sunlight, pollution and exposure to cigarette and tobacco smoke. Since these three things are all around us, it is virtually impossible to prevent exposure to these problematic factors.

Limiting exposure to the sun is important, which can be done by wearing appropriate clothing and using a good quality high protection sun screen at all times. Exposure to cigarette smoke or tobacco smoker is a bit harder, but keeping your home and workplace smoke free is a good start. Pollution is almost impossible to avoid no matter where you live. Even pollutants from household cleaning chemicals, paints and carpets can be a real problem. To counter balance these negative factors, eating an antioxidant diet is essential, no matter where you live and what your lifestyle is. Eating an antioxidant diet will help to minimize the effect of these factors on the appearance of your skin as well as your overall health and wellness level.

Antioxidant Diet Foods

An antioxidant diet can begin with a supplement that is rich in antioxidants, however it can also be as simple as adding a few specific foods to your diet. Believe it or not most of the foods will be something you probably already have in your fridge and are generally available in either fresh or frozen form year round. The most important factor in antioxidant diet food selection is to pick foods that have bright or deep and rich colors. Red fruits and vegetables such as fresh tomatoes, red peppers, strawberries, raspberries and apples are high in antioxidants. Yellow and orange fruits and vegetables like carrots, oranges, corn and mangos are also great to add to an antioxidant diet. Deep colored fruits such as blueberries and currants are also good sources. Generally any food listed as high in Vitamins A, C and/or E is excellent to add to an antioxidant diet.

To get the maximum benefit from an antioxidant diet be sure to eat many of the fruits and especially the vegetables in raw form. Cooking, steaming or boiling depletes the antioxidant value of the food and always stick to fresh or frozen, never canned or processed foods to get the best possible benefit.