If you analyze the word antioxidant, it is a combination of the prefix “anti” and the word “oxidant”. The word “anti” accounts for its opposing nature. The complete word means that they are the elements that act in a complete opposite manner to the way the oxidants do.

 Now to understand them better you need to know about the oxidation reactions. They are just another type of reaction that occur within our body due to the assimilation and combustion of food particles.
These reactions generate some by products, which are very rich in oxygen content. This makes them highly reactive and free moving. These compounds are called the free radicals. These free radicals when come into direct contact to the cells of the body, cause severe harm to them. In fact the damage can cause diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, heart problems and cancer. But the antioxidants react with them before hand and remove them from the body. This is the reason why they are called the antioxidants.
The antioxidants are often acquired from the natural resources like green vegetables, fruits, herbs etc. Foods that are full of ample quantity of antioxidants are the brightly colored vegetables and fruits. The blossoming green vegetables like kale, spinach, broccoli, sprouts, collard, tomato, carrots, squash, beets etc are also wealthy in the content of antioxidants. Colorful fruits like peaches, berries, grapefruits, apricots, oranges, plums etc are evenly overfed with antioxidants.
Two of the recently discovered affluent sources of antioxidants are chocolates and blueberries. As a variety of fruits and vegetables are available which supplies adequate quantity of antioxidants, you can be choosy about picking the one for yourself. And if are genuinely not interested in consuming vegetables or fruits then there are antioxidant supplements and drinks for you that will keep supplying the amount of antioxidant that you need on a daily basis.
So these are the facts about antioxidants. They are as important as the essential vitamins and repair all possible damages that are caused by the free radicals. Now you know why you should be very much conscious about including the antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables to your diet.