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Free Radicals

When I was a kid and heard of all the gorillas, Tamil tigers and free radicals, I thought we lived in a strange world where animals had guns and free radicals were outspoken jailbirds!

Maybe I was not so wrong, but still now many people hear of free radicals, but do not really know what they are, what damage they do and how to prevent them, so here is my 2 cents worth to help.
First of all we need to know that the body is made up of millions of cells and these cells are made up of billions of molecules. The molecules are actually one or more atoms joined together in perfect (or not so perfect) chemical marriage.

If you can cast your mind back to school, you will probably remember that an atom has a nucleus which is made up of neutrons, protons and electrons. Now we are getting pretty small here, but if you remember the positively charged particles are called protons and the negative ones are called electrons.

Atoms try to fill their outer shell with electrons to gain stability and often do this by joining up with other atoms in a chemical reaction. They are always trying to get maximum stability.

Normally everything is fine, but sometimes (more often than we would like) atoms split to leave an unbalanced amount of electrons in the atom and a free radical is born!

Free radicals then attack other atoms trying to steal electrons from its neighbors in an attempt to stabilize itself.

This actually leads to a domino effect of de-stabilization as one atom after another is robbed of electrons leaving more and more unbalanced atoms in its path.

One this starts it can keep on going until a cell is completely destroyed.

This process is actually sometimes meant to happen. Free radicals attach themselves to virus and bacteria in an attempt to remove them from our body which is fantastic, but sometimes they get too enthusiastic and start damaging our good cells.

Pollution, cigarettes, stress, alcohol and other environmental factors normally start this process.
The body normally combats any abnormal instability by the use of antioxidants, but if for any reason there are not enough antioxidants excessive damage can begin and that’s when we get in trouble.
Vitamin C and vitamin E are thought to be one of the best support systems to the antioxidants warfare as antioxidants neutralize the free radicals by donating electrons as required as antioxidants are stable in any form.

Vitamin E is the most abundant antioxidant in the body hiding in fat and is one of the best defenders of the realm while vitamin C is the most abundant water soluble antioxidant and acts primarily in fluid. Works particularly well against pollution and cigarettes.

Lesson for today: top up on antioxidants by taking the necessary food and supplements. They just may save a war in your body.

Fiber Supplements

Fiber supplements are a really great idea and we should certainly consider taking them because the average person has a fiber deficiency of about 30 to 50% of what they should have. The average person needs in excess of about 25g of fiber a day.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) or Crohn’s Disease are signs that we should consider a high fiber diet including fiber supplements as a lot of today’s food processing systems destroy the fiber content in food.

Natural fiber supplements come in the form of:

Whole grain rice
Legumes
Fruit and vegetables (not all)
Split peas
Kidney beans
Raspberries
Whole wheat spaghetti
Broccoli
Oat Bran

Be careful as some of these foods, especially if you increase you fiber consumption quickly will raise your gas levels and you should also drink lots of water to prevent constipation.

If you cannot get enough fiber through your food consider taking supplements being sold which should include psyllium, methylcellulose and polycarbophil.

Psyllium husk fiber supplements does soften and also bulk up stool, so it may be helpful in calming chronic diarrhea and also helping to ease constipation.

Recent additions to fiber supplements are those containing guar gum or acacia. These are natural thickening agents one often sees added to other products. Guar gum has the advantage of being completely tasteless. Many prefer it because it completely mixes with liquid, and thus its presence cannot usually be detected.

Fiber supplements were only available in powder until recently and now can be taken as a tablet or pill which is all together a much nicer experience during consumption.