Men's Health – Men's Guide to Fitness, Health, Weight Loss, Nutrition, Sex, Style and Guy Wisdom | Basketcatalunya.com

The focus of research on vitamins these days is how antioxidant supplements may play a role in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Antioxidant supplements – E, C, and beta-carotene (a form of vitamin A) – have potential when it comes to health promotion. However, most data available about such health promoting properties of antioxidant supplements are incomplete. And only up to 30 percent Americans are taking some form of antioxidant supplements.

But what exactly are antioxidants and how important are they?

Antioxidants come in two forms. They can either be vitamins or minerals. They help prevent oxygen from reacting with other chemicals in cells. Such reactions – called oxidation – could lead to cell damage which may result in heart disease and cancer.

Antioxidants can be found in a variety of foods, but they are far more common in fresh fruits and vegetables. A health diet of fresh produce could lead to high levels of antioxidants in your body, which could only mean one thing – less free radicals (those harmful molecules that cause cell damage) and a healthier you.

When antioxidants start to work, they destroy the free radicals or break the chain. You see, here’s what happens when you have lots of free radicals in your body. Because they are highly unstable, these free radicals have the tendency to steal or get electrons from stable molecules and in so doing, make those molecules unstable as well, turning them into free radicals. This becomes a long chain and will go on and on until such a chain in broken. This is where antioxidants come in whose sole function is to break the chain and neutralize free radicals.
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During the last decades there has been a change towards mechanization and homogenization of farming, which uses pesticides, additives, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers and mass-production techniques. All this is clearly affecting mankind’s health, and new diseases are spreading rapidly amongst humans and animals (bird’s flu being the most recent one).

The World Health Organization produces reports to show how the use of chemicals and other products on food, coupled with the manufacturing processes involved, are actually a threat for our health.

If you have space for a few pots or even a small piece of land, it is a wise decision to grow your own organic vegetable garden. Today I’m presenting you with seven reasons for doing this:

1. You will have no additives in your vegetables. Research by organic food associations has shown that additives in our food can cause heart diseases, osteoporosis, migraines and hyperactivity.

2. There will be no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers used. These chemical products are applied to obtain crops all the time regardless plagues or weather conditions, and affect the quality of the vegetables. Besides, pesticides are usually poisonous to humans.

3. Your vegetables will not be genetically modified (GM). Antibiotics, drugs and hormones are used on vegetables to grow more and larger ones. One of the consequences of this practice are vegetables which look all the same and are usually tasteless. Besides, we end up consuming the hormones that have been used on the vegetables, with the potential risks for our health.
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