EAT YOUR VEGES!
Antioxidants and free radicals could be a metaphor for life, or a crazy zombie movie, either way if more people behaved like antioxidants and less like free radicals the world would be a better place!
Essentially free radicals are molecules produced by complex chemical processes in our body. They have unpaired (odd) electrons, which makes them unstable, so they attack the nearest molecule to steal its electron to make itself stable. When the ‘attacked’ molecule loses its electron it then becomes a free radical itself beginning a chain reaction which, like dominos falling, can collapse cell membranes killing our cells or damaging our DNA. This is called oxidation, and there are millions of processes taking place in our bodies at any one moment that can result in it happening.
Now enter the good guys: the antioxidants. These are free radical scavengers and they have an extra electron that they can donate to the free radicals thereby making them stable and ending the electron-stealing reaction and reducing the cell and tissue damage being done. (World leaders take note!)
Oxidation and you
If you are wondering what this has to do with running, the process of oxidation happens when our bodies metabolise the oxygen we breathe which our cells
