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What's all the fuss about antioxidants? First they were thought to be bad for you but it turns out they are very good for you. They give your body many benefits like thinning your blood, stopping your arteries from getting clogged, helping with cholesterol and blood pressure, all which, help against many diseases like heart disease, heart attacks, strokes to name a few. Did you know you get antioxidants from fruit, grains, nuts,
juices, Moringa and many more sources. Did you know your body makes antioxidants?
There are amino acids, which your body gets from food such as Cysteine, that are great antioxidants.
But how important to your overall health are antioxidants? As you have read there are many great benefits from taking antioxidants but antioxidants are just one part of your total health. But due to there popularity lately, many people think that antioxidants is all you need to be healthy and this is not true. Amino acids are much more important for your overall health than antioxidants. Amino acids make all the cells, repair and build new muscle, help control almost every bodily function and help fight many illnesses and ailments. They have a much greater affect on your overall health than antioxidants. Not getting the right amount or combination of the amino acids you need is more detrimental to your body than not getting enough antioxidants. But if you get both your on your way to a much healthier body.
The truth is if a supplement contains too many fruit juices or extracts, it will be a very good source of antioxidants but it may also be over acidic which can have an adverse affect on you bodies PH. An out of wack PH can be more damaging to your body than getting an overabundance of antioxidants. When choosing any supplement, make sure it is balanced and does not contain too much of any thing. You know the old saying, "Too much of anything is not good for you". Try to take a supplement that has antioxidants, amino acids, immune building and antibacterial properties, which is considered a more balanced supplement.
Very true, I have tried almost every supplement that has been on the market the last 5 years, with little or no possative health benefits. And through the research I have done you need more than just antioxidnats for it to be a complete supplement. I have been using a product that has everything you need to be heralthy. Antioxidants, amino acids(all of them) , vitamins, nutrients, a true whole food supplement. Pogamoongajuice is the best thing I have seen in the past 5 years for supplying your body with a complete balance, needed in a supplement.
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For me, it's a combination of things. My personal experience is that supplements help. You just have to do some real homework to understand how supplements work physiologically and be sensitive to what you take and its impact on your body.
Many supplements are ones you can "feel the difference" right away. For example, omega-3 supplements (like neptune krill oil) that you can buy at Costco improve mental clarity, thinking and emotional balance. Some glutamine help provide sustained energy especially when you feel too tired to excercise after a long day @ work. Or broad spectrum caretenoids help eyesight.
The devil's in the details, as always. Take caretone for example. There is a major study that indicts it for being a cancer causing agent, esp. for smokers. On the other hand, many beta carotene (or vitamin E for that matter) products sold are artificial man-made types. The same side effect does not apply (or has not been demonstrated) for natural carotene; otherwise, surely one shouldn't eat too many fruits then. However, there are options, and in this case, there are products like CarotenAll that derive its source from [palm] fruit and algae for a broad spectrum of alpha- and beta-carotenes, lutein, zeaxanthin, etc. And is great for my eyesight.
Point is supplements are just that. It is not a substitue for eating right and excercising. It provides both a dose of insurance (e.g. multivitamin) as well as boosts the your body that are undergoing higher than normal stress (mental, physical, etc.). Yes, the industry is not regulated though its is highly competitve and has no few monopolies unlike pharams; conversely, the industry is not on the news every other week with reports of unintended side effects and deadly consequences, whereas pharmas seem to be regular fixtures on the nightly news.
Just because Merck has a nice soothing commercial on TV and has double-blinded trials to prove out very specific cause and effects for particular disease does not mean it's safe, natural, or is a pill for health. Rather, at most it can effective triage the problem without resolving the underlying structural defects. I can safely say that core supplements (omega-3's, natural carotenoids, multivitmain, balanced b-complex) when taken in moderation and as intended are great boosts help your body be more efficient to increasing your stamina and vitality. I for one don't take herbs etc., but do take things like pomegrante, which has pretty good data indicating effectiveness which can be had pretty cheap at Costco.
All in all, I wouldn't rule out supplements as a category because of some charlatans, which is the case for any capitalist endeavor. Merck's rosy commercials are just another form of. In my case, I got started because of a PBS show where Dr. Perricone talked about the underlying physiology and biochemistry of the body, and I picked up some books to understand the science and model behind it all. I never relied on infomercials or one dogmatic source of info. And I never thought it was an either-or question either. Eating and excersing right goes hand in hand with smartly boosting your body depending on your areas of need.
In any event, people can visit places like Costco or research on the web to see that vendors like Jarrows produce pharmaceutical grade (in terms of purity) supplements that are highly effective.
And an unparalled public resources for acquiring a deep fundamental understanding for how the body works that can enable to have the critical thinking needed to evaluate and figure out yourself what's right for you. It can be found for free at the [Ben] Franklin Institute website @ http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/pyramid.htm l