The Properties of Healthy Magnetism
Antioxidants
Fruits and vegetables have distinctive colors: intensely blue blueberries, deeply red strawberries, richly green broccoli, vividly orange carrots. Scientists have shown that the substances responsible for these colors actually help protect plants from chemical damage. The good news for us is that, when we eat colorful fruits and vegetables, the pigments (or colorings) protect us, too. The pigments responsible for plant color belong to a class of chemicals known as antioxidants. Plants make antioxidants to protect themselves from the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) light. Ultraviolet light causes chemicals called free radicals to form within plant cells. If free radicals move through plant cells without being neutralized or eliminated, they can begin to destroy parts of the plant. Antioxidants stop free radicals in their tracks, shielding cells from harm.
Free radicals aren’t a problem just for plants. They also affect people and animals. And ultraviolet light isn’t the only source of these damaging chemicals. If you smoke, drink too much alcohol, are exposed to pollution, such as smog, automobile exhaust, or discharges from a factory, you increase your exposure to free radicals and the damage they can produce. Even the body itself produces free radicals as it processes food.