Antioxidants

This months Triathlete magazine had an interesting article on optimal triathlon nutrition. They stated that hard training creates stress, and stress produces free radicals that are bad for you body. Free radicals are produced when oxygen mixes with certain molecules to create atoms with an odd number of electrons. To fight free radicals one needs to either cut back on the hard training (good luck with that one) or one needs to eat a balanced meal that has plenty of antioxidants to fight the free radicals. On an aside, antioxidants also have shown to lower cancer rates in people. For us, a diet rich in antioxidants may help us recover more rapidly after a hard workout. Foods that are high in Vitamin C, Vitamin E and beta carotene are considered as antioxidant foods, which are found in fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts and some nutritional supplements.

The Top 20 foods that rank high in antioxidants are: