Antioxidants are found in dark colored foods like:
grapes dark in color
ruby red grapefruit
green leafy vegetables
green broccoli
dark beets
crisp green beans
peas that are green in color
dark orange vegetables like yams, carrots, and dark orange squashes
Acai berry
You should look for the fruits that are darker in color. The compounds that guard your cells from the various types of oxygen species that occur naturally and damage your body are found in antioxidants. Some of these oxygen species are:
singlet oxygen
super oxide species
peroxyl radicals
hydroxyl radicals
peroxynitrite reactive types
When the body has an inadequate amount of antioxidants, these free radicals are able to run free until they create what is known as oxidative stress, which is very significant to cellular damage to the body. If left untreated, this cellular damage eventually leads to aging and later to disease. Antioxidants is the body's answer to defend itself from the cellular damage done by these various types of harmful free radicals.
Free radicals occur both inside and outside of the body. these harmful radicals build up, due to :
the natural aerobic respiration
metabolics
inflammation
These radicals are constantly being produces by the body through:
Breathing air
food that we eat and the process of digestion
second hand smoke exposure
sunlight
Free radicals leave the body exposed to:
all types of cancer
significant risk of heart disease
other degenerative diseases
Studies suggest that these powerful pigments possess anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties to fight and prevent these free radicals from damaging the body. Of the 150 different flavonoids found in plants, the acai berry appears to have the greatest antioxidant capacity. Studies have suggested that the antioxidants that occur naturally in fresh fruits and vegetables have a protective effect.
An example of this would be how the effects of Vitamin E appear to protect the cell membranes--vitamin C is also effective in removing free radicals from inside the cell. Research has shown that there is a significant link between that of free radicals and degenerative diseases associated with aging such as:
Alzheimers
Eye cataracts
stroke
macular degeneration
Antioxidants, however, stop the chain-reaction and prevent or slow the oxidation process in our body. Antioxidants are compounds of many different chemical structures and are classified into two broad divisions, depending on whether they are soluble in water (hydrophilic) or in lipids (hydrophobic).
water based antioxidants protect the cells and body from blood plasma, and lipid based antioxidants protect the body from lipid peroxidation.
Anti oxidant rich foods like the acai berry have shown in clinical studies to slow down, and even in some cases stop the effects of aging done by these damaging free radicals. Antioxidant rich foods strengthen our muscles, maintain and enhance our immune system, and maintain our bone structure.