Lack of energy, fatigue, and premature aging can happen due to many reasons: insomnia, no exercise, chemical food, and stress… All these cause weak mitochondrial energy metabolism. Weak mitochondria are not able to metabolize enough energy from the food to help the body function and work at its best. Don’t worry, Drinkizz will help you overcome this situation with antioxidants – compounds that you should know about and are especially important to your body.
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1. What are antioxidants?
Antioxidants are compounds that stop oxidation.
Oxidation is the process by which substances combine with oxygen and create free radicals.
Free radicals are molecules that are unstable due to a lack of an electron (e-), so they steal e- from other molecules to stabilize again. Like a domino effect, e-stealing becomes chaotic, causing the molecules to become unbalanced and produce more free radicals.
Accumulation of too many free radicals causes oxidative stress. Oxidative stress damages cells, proteins, and DNA, and causes fatigue, lack of energy, aging, and diseases.
To prevent this, antioxidants neutralize free radicals by generously providing the missing electron helping them stabilize and preventing an excess of free radicals in the body.
Free radicals formation in the human body is derived from:
- External sources such as exposure to food chemicals, air pollutants, cigarette smoking, industrial chemicals, X-rays, and ozone.
- Internal processes like metabolism, mental and physical stress, and inflammation.
A simple example of oxidation and how antioxidants work is when we cut an apple:
- If we leave it exposed to air (that contains oxygen), the open cut side turns brown by oxidizing.
- But if we add an antioxidant, for example, lemon juice, the oxidation stops and it doesn’t turn brown.
Therefore, antioxidants help balance free radicals, avoid fatigue and lack of energy all day.
2. How do antioxidants support your energy?
We already talked about the importance of cell’s energy with the mitochondria in our blog here.
Antioxidants are extremely important to keep the mitochondria, the part of the cell that converts energy from food to energy, healthy; because mitochondria damages in the presence of free radicals.
When the mitochondria is healthy you can digest food better and more efficiently, keeping your metabolism and energy levels high.
According to the FDA, for a 2000kcal a day diet, we should aim at least 8,800 μmol (micromoles) of antioxidants every day.
This number can be hard to reach, the average person only consumes about half of them daily. You can see from the list below that most of the foods we consume are not high in antioxidants (1) (*values for 100grams):
- Eggs: 40 μmol
- Poultry and meat products: 230 – 310 μmol
- Grains: 340 μmo
- Vegetables: 800 μmol
However, there are some foods that we consume rarely but are really high in antioxidants:
- Herb: 14180 μmol
- Spices: 11300 μmo
- Cacao: 2330 μmol
- Berries and berries product: 3340 μmol
When you consume an adequate amount of good quality antioxidants daily you can:
- Keep your body and mind energetic.
- Slow down aging.
- Improve immune system.
There are 2 types of antioxidants: (2)
- Natural antioxidants are both produced in your body and ingested through foods:
- The body naturally produce some powerful antioxidants, called enzymatic, such for example the glutathione that is produced by the liver;
- The foods and drinks we consume contain antioxidants, called nonenzymatic, these include Vitamins, Minerals, Carotenoids, and Polyphenols.
These antioxidants peak in our blood around 1 hours after ingestion. (3)
Plant foods are the richest sources of these antioxidants, for example, all teas from the camellia tea plant (4) (black, oolong, and green teas) are specifically rich in polyphenols.
- Synthetic antioxidants are produced in the lab both for food and cosmetic purposes. They are widely used, but safety issues have been raised over time with suspicion of cancer promotion. (5)
Therefore, natural antioxidants are the best type for our long-term health.
3. How can Drinkizz antioxidants support your energy?
Drinkizz contains antioxidants from organic plant-based as black tea, hibiscus flower, lemongrass, mint, ginger, lime, black pepper, and star anise.
- According to the FDA, for a 2000kcal a day diet, we should aim at at least 8,800 μmol (micromoles) of antioxidants every day but we rarely reach that amount. Drinkizz contains a whopping amount of 1250 μmol of antioxidants for each 250ml can, 14% of our Recommended Daily Amount! (6) This means that, for 4% of the calories of our daily calorie need, you get up to 14% antioxidants! This is truly impressive since you don’t need to consume too many calories to get such high nutrition!
- Consume daily Drinkizz for antioxidants, helping to improve your health and energy. Tip for you: The best time to drink Drinkizz is mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Enjoy the cool and refreshing herbal taste of Drinkizz, and provide the body with instant energy and abundant nutrition.
Sources:
1.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2841576/
2.https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/antioxidants
3.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24114059/
4.https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/camellia-sinensis
5.https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/antioxidant
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/minimum-recommended-daily-allowance-of-antioxidants/
6.https://nutritionfacts.org/video/minimum-recommended-daily-allowance-of-antioxidants/
