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♪ [music playing--no dialogue] ♪♪.
My name is Amber Halvorson, and I'm a graduate student at
Eastern Illinois University.
And today I'm going to discuss with you antioxidants and how
you can incorporate them into your daily diet.
According to the American Dietetics Association,
antioxidants are dietary substances that can prevent
damage to our body cells and repair damage that
has already been done.
Antioxidants can be vitamins such as vitamins A, C, and E;
minerals, like zinc; and other dietary substances
like lycopene.
Antioxidants are needed everyday because we are all bombarded
constantly from oxidative substances in the environment
no matter what your age.
These helpful dietary substances protect our body by catching the
harmful oxidative substances and preventing them from interfering
with normal cell function.
Take these apples for example.
All the apple slices have been sitting out at room temperature
for the same amount of time, but these apple slices have
lemon juice on them.
The lemon juice has an antioxidant vitamin C which
prevents the oxidative substances in the air from
turning the slices brown.
In humans, antioxidants can improve immune function, prevent
macular degeneration which is the leading cause of age-related
blindness, and prevent cognitive decline in the elderly.
Another great thing about consuming a diet rich in
antioxidants is that antioxidant-rich foods have
other health benefits, such as being low in fat and calories
and high in essential vitamins and minerals.
Some of the best sources of antioxidants come from
fruits and vegetables.
Of these there are sweet potatoes, carrots, cantaloupe,
apricots, pumpkins, oranges, collard greens, spinach, kale,
tomatoes, watermelons, guava, papaya, bell peppers,
blueberries, and pomegranates.
There are also other foods that are not fruit and vegetables
that are high sources of antioxidants such as almonds,
wheat germ, and green and black tea.
There are so many different anioxidant-rich foods to choose
from and many of them you can add into your favorite recipe,
use as a side dish, or just eat them plain.
They can also, most of them, be purchased all year round in a
cheaper form such as frozen or canned.
So to show you, these blueberries are thawed frozen
blueberries and you could put them on your cereal
or eat them plain.
These are pomegranate seeds which you could put in yogurt or
on low-fat ice cream, and it's kind of fun for kids to try and
get the seeds out of the fruit.
These are baby spinach leaves which you could eat plain in a
salad or cook with pasta.
This is a serving size of almonds, about 23 almonds,
and you could cook them in green beans or put them
in a trail mix as a snack.
This is a red bell pepper that you could add into any dish with
vegetables or saute with brown rice.
This is wheat germ, and you could add wheat germ in baked
goods like muffins or pancake mix or you could put it in a
fruit smoothie, and if you roast it,
it has more of a nutty flavor.
This is green tea, which can come in a variety of flavors,
and you can substitute it for your morning coffee.
So now that you know of so many fruits and vegetables and other
foods that contain antioxidants, I challenge you to try and
incorporate at least five of these foods
into your diet each day.
To read more about antioxidants, you can go to the
American Dietetics Association's website, www.eatright.org.
Also on this website you can find a local dietitian that can
also teach you more about antioxidants.
So remember that antioxidants are healthy foods that help you
alter your life cycle and they can come in a variety of
different foods that you can incorporate
into your diet each day.
♪ [music playing--no dialogue] ♪♪.