What Are Bioflavonoid Antioxidants?

Nearly everyone has heard of antioxidants, but have you ever wondered exactly what bioflavonoid antioxidants actually do?  The story of antioxidants begins with free radicals.  Free radicals are actually a normal part of our body, in fact some of them work in our immune system, so they are not necessarily all harmful, unless there are too many of them.  Free radicals form as part of our metabolic processes and are actually only atoms that have lost an electron.  Each atom in our body exists in a state of balance between the protons (positively charged molecules) and the negatively charged electrons.  At times, an extra proton can be added to the nucleus of the atom, upsetting the balance, or an electron can simply be lost from one reason or another.

When an atom loses an electron, it becomes unstable and tries to gain an electron to return to normal.  The trouble is, it tries to steal an electron from nearby atoms.  The newly unstable atom thus created tries to gain and electron, and so it goes, in a nasty chain reaction that ultimately damages the cell.  It can interfere with the ability of the cell to function or even go rogue, such as happens with cancer.  You can see how important it is to stop the chain reaction caused by these free radicals before too much damage is done.  The damage free radicals are responsible for are also associated with aging, diabetes, and heart disease.

On the plus side, our bodies do make antioxidants themselves, precisely to deal with free radicals.  Unfortunately, however, due to stress, fatigue, pollution, smoking, or a poor diet, we can come up short on the number of antioxidants we need to deal with these troublemakers, which allows the free radicals to harm us.

Nature has been generous, however, and has provided a number of fruits and vegetables with bioflavonoid antioxidants.  Fruits such as acai berry, grapes, strawberries, and blueberries all contain high amounts of antioxidants.  When we eat these fruits, we release the antioxidants into our systems and they go to work immediately to neutralize the free radicals.

The reason that antioxidants are able to stop the destructive chain reaction caused by the free radicals is because they have plenty of electrons.  As soon as they get near a free radical, an electron will be shed and the free radical will take it up, stabilizing the atom.  As the bioflavonoid antioxidants have a generous supply of electrons, they can stop the destructive avalanche before it causes serious damage to the cell.  A diet rich in foods that provide a high amount of antioxidants, or a acai berry supplement could definitely be beneficial to your metabolism – keeping it healthier and more likely to remain free of disease.

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