If vitamins and minerals where in high school, antioxidants would be the cool, popular and mysterious kid that everyone was huddling around and dying to be best friends with. That's how it feels if you pick up any magazine, read any article in the paper or even peruse any blogs online - healthy, beauty or otherwise, antioxidants are the thing to talk about these days. We also see them appearing in more tangible ways, like in our groceries and supermarkets. Every label and bit of packaging has a sticker or addendum that's screaming about how chock full the product is of antioxidants…down every aisle, something or the other is brimming or exploding or pack with antioxidants. And we've all bought into the justified hype…loosely looking over antioxidants seem to be good things. We want more of them! We want to bathe with them and sleep with them at night…we want to take them dancing and show them a night out on the town! But let's get serious here…do you have the faintest clue what an antioxidant is or what it does to and for the body? Luckily, there is a lot of credible information online that can help educate yourself as to the new popular kid on the vitamins, minerals and supplements block.

Originally, the term antioxidant used to mean or define rather, a chemical that prevented the body's consumption and processing of oxygen. In later years as more cellular activity and behavior has been discovered, the term has evolved and engendered a new meaning. An antioxidant is now referred to as a chemical that reduces the rate of oxidation reactions. What does this mean? Oxidization or the chemical process by which oxygen molecules interact with other substances is what an antioxidant can inhibit, prohibit and solve.  Things are starting to make a lot more sense now, aren't they?

Through even moderate research, you can tell that many times antioxidants are naturally occurring in wide range of fruits, vegetables, some meat and fish as well as they are produced in modest quantities by the human body. While we need oxygen for life, as a substance, oxygen is very volatile and highly reactive - so much so that interactions between it and other chemicals or molecules can be catastrophic. Oxygen can actually kill some living organisms. If you want to see oxygen and oxidation in action, simply cut an apple in half and let it stand, untouched for a bit. In as little as ten minutes when you return, it will have begun to discolor and even change in texture. Thus is the destructive power of oxygen.

Supplements like Vitamin C and Selenium are wonderful examples of antioxidants that you can find at online stores like Pure Formulas - they are both excellent preparations and can really combat the negative effects of free radicals and oxidation within your body. Some preparations are even topical as one of the first places you can see oxidation occurring is on your skin. Make sure to speak with your doctor so you're taking the right kind and amount of supplements for you!