Antioxidants: Your Personal
Pacman to the Rescue

WHAT ARE FREE RADICALS?

I’m not a physicist or geneticist or scientist but a consumer just like you. In order for me to understand antioxidants and free radicals, any I need to simplify the concept. So I’ve come up with a way I can understand the subject enough to explain it to you.

The human body is composed of thousands of cells.

The US National Institute of Health has estimated that each cell in our body is attacked by free radicals 10,000 times a day. These ever increasing number of free radicals begin to damage the body, unless we have antioxidants. As we age, our antioxidant content drops (along with some body parts).

Premature aging causes wrinkles, age spots, stooped posture, plaque that clogs arteries and some forms of cancer. We need to find a way to stop the villains. Pacman to the rescue! Antioxidants act as little Pacmen, gobbling up free radicals, saving us from usual signs of aging, disease and discomfort.

Researchers believe that antioxidants play a role in preventing the development of such chronic diseases as cancer, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Cataracs to name a few.

WHERE DO YOU FIND ANTIOXIDANTS?

Our body doesn’t manufacture enough antioxidants to keep up with the production of free radicals. Most fresh fruits contain antioxidants, but not in the quantity our bodies require. We need to increase the supply through vitamins, herbal remedies and other supplements. Health food store shelves are filled with supplements advertised as antioxidants. Those containing resveratrol are the most widely advertised.

Remember when the experts were telling us to drink a glass of wine every night? They decided that the reason French people could eat so much cheese and other fatty foods, yet not gain weight (as we Americans do) and live longer was because they drank so much wine. This is called "The French Paradox."

In addition, researchers conducted dozens of laboratory experiments, as reported in the New York Times archives. In one famous experiment, "A Longer, Better Life," scientists began with the well known premise that a low calorie diet will extend one’s life. Instead of cutting calories, they put a group of mice on a high fat diet and gave them large doses of resveratrol.

The findings: Resveratrol mimicked the effect of a low calorie diet. The conclusion was that resveratrol would extend and enhance the lives of mice and could do the same with humans. But where to get resveratrol?

Experts now tell us that we too can get the same benefits of resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant, through red wine. That’s fine except I don’t drink, nor do millions of others, including recovering alcoholics. Besides, to get enough resveratrol to make a difference one would have to drink at least a bottle of wine or two everyday. Nobody could pass a breathalyzer sobriety test or, for that matter, get any work done. There is a healthier way to get the benefits of resveratrol.

ADD RESVERATROL RICH FOODS AND BEVERAGES TO YOUR DIET

1) Drink grape juice instead of red wine. Think this is a good idea – to drink a bottle of grape juice everyday? Pick up a bottle at the store and read the label. Look first at the sugar content. Grape juice has about 45 grams of sugar in each 8 oz. glass. That’s just like eating 15 teaspoons of sugar. I don’t like that solution and I don’t think diabetics or anyone else who wants to restrict their intake of sugar wants to down 15 teaspoons of sugar in one 8oz. glass.

2) Drink sugar free grape juice. Read the label. Which chemical replaced the sugar? Usually the answer is the artificial sweetener ‘aspartame’, also known as Nutra Sweet.

Aspartame is made up of three chemicals: aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol. (As Kevin Trudeau, the Natural Cures guru says, “If you can’t pronounce it, don’t’ eat it.”) And in their book "Prescription for Nutritional Healing," by James and Phyllis Balch, aspartame is listed under the category of "chemical poison."

Most juices also contain high fructose corn syrup, a chemically processed additive. It’s highly toxic, less expensive and sweeter than real sugar. You'll find HFCS in most baked goods, juices, salad dressings and almost every processed food we eat.

There is a striking correlation between the rise of obesity in the US and the use of HFCS. It's not clear whether this is coincidence or a causal relationship. The big difference between sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup is that HFCS is a processed product, meaning there are lots of enzymes and other chemicals added to make the product taste the way it does. There is abundant evidence that HFCS is hazardous to our health. As for me, I just know it gives me a roaring headache, which can’t be good.

3) Eat resveratrol rich fruits such as blueberries. This is a great solution because they are high in antioxidant properties and contain only natural sugar. If you want more bang for your buck, eat blueberries. And pomegranates beat bluberries in the antioxidant category.

4)Eat grapes! After all, isn’t red wine made from red grapes? Bingo! But is there any difference between a pino noir grape or a cabernet grape or a muscadine? There’s a word you probably have never seen before, unless you grew up in the Southern United States.

Muscadine grape vines grow in states such as North Carolina, Florida and South Carolina. Studies show that a Muscadine Grape has more than twice the amount anti-oxidant power of a blueberry. We’re talking about God’s natural healing fruit, grown on a vine, a grape vine, a Muscadine Grape Vine.. Muscadine Grapes have the highest ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbing Capacity) of any natural substance yet to be tested on this earth

Fresh grape skin contains about 50 to 100 micrograms of resveratrol per gram. In grapes, resveratrol is found primarily in the skin and seeds. This is particularly true for muscadine grapes, whose skin and seeds have about 100 times the concentration of reseveratrol as the pulp

HOW MANY GRAPES DO I HAVE TO EAT? 5)That’s always the question. Can I eat enough of an antioxidant rich food to get the benefits of resveratrol? The answer is, probably not. But there is a solution.

We've found an amazing, natural supplement, made only from Muscadine Grape skins, that has as much antioxidant power as a whole glass of wine. Not only resveratrol, but many more polyphenols (another word for antioxidants). It's called Muscadine Plus. Made not with chemicals but a natural nutrient powder made from Muscadine Grape skins, Muscadine Plus supplements have 10 times the antioxidant power of blueberries,once thought of as being the best source.

Resveratrol Nature's Healing Antioxidant Free Radicals and Aging