Green Tea's antioxidant

March 10, 2009

By Collin James

I am sure by now you have heard all about the antioxidants found in green tea. But, do you know what antioxidants are or how they work. The quality of a antioxidant can help prevent harmful diseases such as cancer and heart disease. I suppose your wandering why anything that is anti-oxygen can be good for your body.

Antioxidants don't work against oxygen. They fight against a chemical reaction called oxidation, this is the same process that turns bananas black and rusts metal. Oxidation is the interaction between oxygen molecules and the substances they come in contact with. When that substance happens to be living tissue, damage and disease can occur.

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 usually travels through your body paired up with another oxygen molecule. In some cases this pairing splits into two individual oxygen molecules called singlet oxygen. When this occurs, electrons fall in short demand as there are now to many oxygen molecules. This destabilizes the molecule and in a way, throwing it off balance. In the attempt to try and fix itself it races through the body trying to find an other 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.

Now, this is where having antioxidants come into play. What antioxidants do is donate an electron to the lonely free radicals so they no longer have to steel electrons to feel balanced. Your body does produce antioxidants on its own, but not early enough to aid all the free radicals. That's where green tea can help you a lot,

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.

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