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| Drink to your health |
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As health products go, green tea is probably the most mainstream. It can be found in mulitple grocery store aisles, as an additive (natural or artificial) in body lotion, air fresheners and as a beverage. When asked why he drinks green tea, Evan Jordan, a senior majoring in art, spoke for most green tea drinkers: "It's got antioxidants." But what are antioxidants, and why do we need them? "We're living in an ocean of chemical waste," said Dr. Judith Weiss, chief of medicine at the UT Student Medical Center. The burning of fossil fuels over the past 300 years has created an abundance of oxidative species of chemicals, which have an imbalance that causes them to steal electrons from the body's cells, Weiss said. Oxidation is a natural process, but generally its effects are offset by our body's ability to generate new cells when old ones die, according to "How Antioxidants Work and Which Foods Help," an article at www.webmd.com. But here's the rub: "Because the body didn't evolve with the chemicals that are a product of environmental pollution, our bodies have no way to effectively deal with these amounts of these chemicals," Weiss said. For this reason, there is a greater chance today than in the past that oxidized cells won't die but will instead become damaged. When oxidative species steal electrons from the body's cells, they create electron imbalances in those cells, which turns those cells against the body. This caused them to steal electrons from other cells, damaging them in the same way, she said. This chain reaction is what antioxidants help to avoid. "Simply put, antioxidants help you fight off damage to your cells," said Liz Kromenacker, a sophomore majoring in nursing at Mercy College of Northwest Ohio. However, green tea is not the only item that contains these important substances, and different foods contain antioxidants that have different functions, Webmd.com said, so it's important not to rely on just one. Weiss also listed several behaviors that, in addition to eating foods rich in antioxidants, can help to combat the long-term effects of environmental pollution: Take a multivitamin and multimineral. Eat sources of healthy fat, such as flaxseed oil. Get plenty of rest. Eat organic foods. The best solution, though, Weiss says, would have to be undertaken on a much larger scale. As a result of our dependence on fossil fuels, which over the past 300 years has been increasing rapidly, "we are in the process of making our own species extinct," she said. Humanity will be able to continue only if our society finds means of sustaining itself that do not simultaneously release chemicals that will eventually destroy us, she said. Green tea, nonetheless, is a small part of what we can do for ourselves until other sources of energy can create a cleaner environment - or until we're not around to worry about it. Source: www.independentcollegian.com Sep 22, 05 |
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