The antioxidant chemicals are increasingly in everyone's head. It does not do more than to hear its beneficial effects for the health and more and more are announced remedies, and compounds with this antioxidant effect for the organism. In this post we will see what they are, how they act and examples of natural antioxidant products.
Lindberg CoQ10 200 mg 120 Vegetarian Capsules
WHAT ARE THE ANTIOXIDANTS
An antioxidant is a molecule capable of delaying or preventing the oxidation of other molecules.
WHAT IS OXIDATION
Oxidation, when we speak in purely chemical terms, is a chemical reaction in which an atom loses electrons, thereby acquiring another state of oxidation and being able to form compounds and react with other elements.
Whenever an element is oxidized (loses electrons), there is another element that is reduced (gains electrons), are the so-called oxidation-reduction reactions, or redox reactions. They are spontaneous chemical reactions that occur in nature by which there is a transfer of electrons between atoms.
- The element that is oxidized is known as a reducer (since it reduces the other element), or as an antioxidant, since when it oxidizes, it prevents the other element that intervenes in the reaction from oxidizing.
- The element that is reduced is known as an oxidant, since to reduce it, it needs to have another element that oxidizes and loses the electrons that the reduced one gains.
OXYGEN - FIRST OXIDANT ELEMENT
Oxygen, an essential compound for human life, is in turn one of the most oxidizing elements that exist. Just as oxygen is responsible for the formation of oxide in metals (oxidizing the iron or the metal in question), it produces this effect in the cells of our organism.
Antioxidant products, either food or cosmetics, delay the oxidation of our cells. The way an antioxidant element acts is by oxidizing itself. In this way it prevents the oxidation-reduction reaction from being between oxygen and our cells, and between oxygen and the antioxidant element.
EXAMPLES OF ANTIOXIDANT PRODUCTS
- Flavonoids : Present in red fruits such as strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, pomegranate, papaya, citroflavonoids present in orange, lemon, grapefruit or green tea catechins.
- Isoflavones: Found in soybeans, flax seeds or rye.
- Tannins: In grapes or in red wine.
- Beta-carotene : In foods such as carrot, pumpkin, melon, mango, spinach or spirulina algae.
- Vitamin E : present in virgin olive oil and other vegetable oils, avocados, nuts or spirulina algae.
- Vitamin C : present in citrus fruits, tomatoes, peppers, tropical fruits (guava, papaya), spinach, broccoli, fresh soybeans, grapes or spirulina algae.
- Zinc : present in wheat germ, nuts or whole grain cereals.
- Selenium : present in some nuts or coconut.
ANTIOXIDANTS IN FOOD PACKAGING
There are natural products that behave as antioxidants, such as those described above. Other types of antioxidants are also used in the food industry because they make food retain their nutritional properties and their quality levels.
Antioxidants do not improve the quality of food, but it does keep it for a longer period of time. The most common uses of antioxidants are in oils, margarines, confectionery, bakery, pastries, snacks, cereals and sauces.
In the composition of ingredients you can distinguish antioxidants with their denomination E. Antioxidants correspond to the numbers between E-300 and E-399 . The E numbers are codes of the different additives, which are used to label them in food products.
E-300 Ascorbic acid Antioxidant
E-301 Sodium ascorbate, Sodium ascorbate, Na ascorbate Antioxidant
E-302 Calcium Ascorbate, Calcium Ascorbate, Ascorbate Ca Antioxidant
E-303 Ascorbic acid Antioxidant
E-304 Ascorbyl Palmitate Antioxidant
E-306 Vegetable Extraction Antioxidant
E-307 Alpha-Tocopherol Antioxidant
E-308 Gamma-Tocopherol Antioxidant
E-309 Delta-Tocopherol Antioxidant
E-310 Propyl gallate Antioxidant
E-311 Octyl gallate, octyl gelato Antioxidant
E-312 Galato dodecilo, Gelato dodecilo, Galato de laurilo Antioxidant
E-315 Erythorbic acid Antioxidant
E-316 Sodium erythorbate, Sodium erythorbate, Eritorbato Na Antioxidant
E-320 Butylated hydroxyanisole, butylated hydroxyanisole Antioxidant
E-321 Butyl hydroxytoluene, BHT Antioxidant
E-322 Lecithin-N Antioxidant
E-325 Sodium lactate, Sodium lactate, Na lactate Antioxidant
E-326 Potassium lactate, potassium lactate, K lactate Antioxidant
E-327 Calcium lactate, calcium lactate, lactate Ca Antioxidant
E-330 Citric acid Antioxidant
E-331 Sodium Citrate, Sodium Citrate, Na Citrate Antioxidant
E-332 Potassium citrate, potassium citrate, K citrate Antioxidant
E-333 Calcium citrate, Calcium citrate, Citrate Ca Antioxidant
E-334 Tartaric acid Antioxidant
E-335 Sodium tartrate, sodium tartrate, Na tartrate Antioxidant
E-336 Potassium tartrate, Potassium tartrate, K tartrate Antioxidant
E-337 Tartrate ... Antioxidant
E-338 Orthophosphoric acid Antioxidant
E-339 Orthophosphoric salts Antioxidant
E-340 Orthophosphoric salts Antioxidant
E-341 Orthophosphoric acid Antioxidant
E-380 Triamonic Citrate Antioxidant
E-385 EDTA, Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid,
Disodium calcium ethylenediamine tetraacetate,
Tetra acetate disodium of ethylenediamine
Antioxidant