As we got more affluent, we have added more expensive foods like meat to our daily diet. Unfortunately, the addition of meat has meant less vegetables and fruits in our daily diet. In my childhood, meat was a luxury eaten once a week, typically on Sundays. Today, we consume it on a daily basis, squeezing out the antioxidants available only in vegetables and fruits.
What are antioxidants and why should we care? Going by their name, they fight against oxygen. But why? Oxygen, the life-giving gas is something we revere, particularly in COVID-19 pandemic. Actually, oxygen, in its free form, is toxic to living things and nonliving things alike. Remember the rust on iron. Rust is due to oxygen. Oxygen destroys anything it touches including us. Our skin protects us from oxygen like paint on iron.
If oxygen is so toxic, why do we breathe in and let it inside our body? Its because that's what mammals chose to use in order to remove waste from our bodies. I am sure the abundance of oxygen in the atmosphere has something to do with the choice. The air we exhale is a form of waste removal. Since we breathe out carbon-dioxide, it's easy to infer that carbon is the waste product removed by the oxygen we breathe in. Contrary to popular belief, we do not convert carbon atoms we eat every day in the form of plants and animals into energy. Instead, our body is powered by the energy that is released when the bond between the carbon bonds are broken. We have no use for the carbon atoms afterwards and must be removed. Doesn't all this make us wish that we paid more attention to organic chemistry in school?
However, during the waste removal process, some oxygen gets left behind inside our body. Once oxygen is flowing through our blood, our skin cannot protect us anymore. It starts to weaken our cells from the inside. This contributes to aging and one of the many causes of diseases we are up against. We need a way to continuously remove the excess oxygen. As always, plants have the answer. Plants produce antioxidants and wrap the fruits and vegetables in a layer of antioxidants to protect them from oxygen.
Actually, the antioxidants are the ones that give fruits and vegetables their unique color. Let's make sure our food is as colorful as possible. More importantly, the skins are to be eaten and not thrown away as thats where most of the antioxidants are stored. Then we wouldn't have to worry about those pesky oxygen that gets left behind. Cooking, while making our food delicious, removes antioxidants. So, lets include raw vegetables as well in our daily diet.
Remember, the only excuse for not eating our vegetables and fruits is if we are not eating at all.
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