Why are they beneficial when we need oxygen to survive? Do they even exist, or is it a marketing buzzword?
In: Biology
Oxygen is useful to your body because it is very reactive. Think about it like your car: your car needs gas to go, but that doesn’t mean you want to just pour gasoline all over your engine.
In particular, oxygen can undergo a small chemical reaction in your cells that makes it somewhat dangerous and allows it to easily cause damage to important machinery or even your DNA, which can cause cancer. Anti-oxidants don’t just slurp up any oxygen, but particularly react with this dangerous form, rendering it safe. This means that anti-oxidants can slow down cell death and damage slightly. But the benefit of anti-oxidants in your diet is fairly small overall.
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