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Do You Really Need Antioxidants?
With all the toxins present in the world today, antioxidants are extremely important to preserving our health. Antioxidants help attack toxins that enter our bodies and cause damage to our cells on a daily basis. Without adding antioxidants to combat the toxic damage in your body, you are putting yourself at higher risk for various types of health issues. Therefore, it is imperative that you understand how antioxidants fight against toxins in your body.
All day, every day our bodies are exposed to toxins from our environment: our food, our water, our lifestyle and our homes. From these toxins and the natural oxidizing of our cells, free radical cells are created. Cells do die off themselves naturally, which is what we call Oxidation. This process can be compared to fruit turning brown or metal starting to rust. However, these free radicals are missing a molecule, and they lurk within our body waiting to rob a healthy cell of that missing molecule to team up with. Cells get damaged in this process and this is where the problem starts to occur. These damaged cells start a series of events duplicating quickly, creating a wide spread of damaged cells. These damaged cells are then attacked by free radicals, leading to a host of diseases as your body’s natural defenses are overwhelmed. This damage to your cells is kept under control by antioxidants.
Antioxidants reduce these free radicals by donating an electron to them, which stops them from robbing and destroying healthy cells, therefore, reducing the start of disease. Research suggests the damage caused by free radicals can contribute to degenerative diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, immune system problems, cardiovascular disease, cognitive harm, cataracts and macular degeneration. There has been a large amount of research done on the effects that antioxidant rich foods have on our health. Results have shown that antioxidant rich foods such as these can help in combating the risk of disease.
- Vegetables
- Legumes
- Spices
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Fruits – Deep rich colors – red, blue and orange
There are also two important Vitamins that help combat free radical damage.
- Vitamin E — Helps stop damaged cells from quickly spreading.
- Vitamin C — Prevents the spreading from starting.
Not only have you learned how antioxidants work in your body, you also understand why they are essential to add to your daily diet. Being pro-active is your best defense against harmful health ailments. Antioxidants, although readily available in some of nature’s foods can also be added to your diet with a high quality supplement.
Help Your Child Read Their Way To Success
It’s never too early to start reading to your baby. Babies can hear from inside the womb and the loudest noise they hear is their parent’s voice. Starting to read to your baby from pre-birth can help establish an incredible bond between a parent and child. It is recommended that a parent read for 10 to 15 minutes a day, starting from pre-birth. Reading to children daily helps their development in many areas, whether they are just learning to read or studying for exams. The ability to see, say and learn new words is important throughout a child’s lifetime. Beginning to read at a young age develops the necessary skills to be able to read printed instructions in school.
By reading to your child each day, you are sending a message that you have time for him or her and that he or she is important to you. Your child will associate reading with love and attention.
Reading develops an interest in language, vocabulary, and communication, and also improves listening skills. Creativity and imagination pathways in the brain are formed by this activity. The curiosity of wondering what will occur next increases a person’s attention span and helps improve concentration. For older kids, reading together becomes fun and interesting.
There are many activities that you can do to help your child take an interest in reading. By taking him or her to the library or exploring the Internet together, you introduce your child to the world of resources. Word games using index cards or playing reading games while traveling can make learning more fun for your child. Joining a monthly book club encourages your child to look forward to a new book each cycle. Eventually, you can encourage your child to write their own stories and have him or her read them to you. This creates an appreciation for writing.
The older a child is before they start reading, the more difficult it is to teach them to read. Furthermore, some children will have a natural disability, which makes it hard for them to learn to read. If a child is struggling with reading by the end of third grade, the effects of the delay will affect almost every other area of learning. If these learning difficulties can be identified early, your child will have a much better chance of getting the help, he or she requires to be successful at learning.
As you can see, reading to your children as early as possible has many benefits to their future. It shows them that reading can be fun, and it opens up a new world for them to explore. Many research studies have shown that children who are readers are more prepared for academic success. Reading gives them the best chance for them to achieve their goals and helps prepare them for all the changes, they will experience throughout their lifetime. Therefore, take the time and make reading a part of your daily family activities.
