Wonderful Summer Weight Loss Tips

Antioxidants and all their added benefits are all the rage today. Antioxidants are known to help neutralize free radicals which cause cell damage, and can ultimately lead to diseases of the heart or even cancer. It seems everywhere you go its blueberry this and blueberry that. You have your choice of wild blueberry juice, blueberry pomegranate juice, blueberry-cranberry juice and so on. In our rush to embrace antioxidants, we have ignored some very important high-antioxidant foods that may already be in our cupboards. When consuming antioxidants here is an essential weight loss tip for you, instead of blueberries try the small red bean.

Why do we need to eat foods that are found to be naturally high in antioxidants? Scientists have found that the body forms unstable oxygen molecules, called free radicals; every cell produces tens of thousands of them each day.

A free radical is basically an atom with an odd number of electrons. Due to their odd number of electrons, free radicals indiscriminately pick up electrons from other atoms, which in turn convert those other atoms into secondary free radicals, thus setting up a chain reaction, which can cause substantial biological damage. Free radicals, in short, are bad. There are also many kinds of free radicals, which we are exposed to everyday, for example, pollution, radiation, cigarette smoke and herbicides.

There are many common foods high in antioxidants and you should not just restrict yourself to one particular food source. Did you know that foods are in different color families and each color contains different types of antioxidants and benefits? Thus the saying "eat your colors!" Peaches and nectarines, belonging in the yellow-orange color family, help offer an immune system boost. The purple-red color family of foods helps to reduce inflammation. To reap the full benefits of antioxidants it is important to eat foods from all color groups.

You can eat food high in antioxidants (by eating them raw, cooking them, or juicing them yourself) without having to pay a high price for unhealthy juices found in many grocery stores.

Be sure to give your blueberries some company at the dinner table tonight. Make sure to invite some beans, spinach, potatoes, or artichoke hearts to your table and enjoy your antioxidants and your weight loss tip of the day!