Free radicals and antioxidants

Free radical is an atom or a group of atoms which has net (a) charge(s) with extra or deficient electron(s). Such free radicals form in the cells by the addition of oxygen atom(s). In our body system cell damage is continuous and new cells also form in the damaged region. In skin the cell repair is very high but in brain cells, the repair is very slow. The damage of memory cells in the human brain is least repaired.

There are two types of radicals in human body system. One is harmful free radicals which are also called oxidants and another radical is beneficial radicals. The information about beneficial radicals cannot be covered in the page. How harmful the free radicals called oxidants are is interesting question. You assume that in a dancing floor, there are only couples who are dancing. If some bachelors are allowed to dance in the floor, the bachelors start cutting the dancing couples in the dancing floor. Here the bachelors are harmful free radicals or oxidants.

In the same way; in the cells are abundant presences of biological and biochemical substances which are working for the cells’ regular processes. If there are harmful free radicals in the cells like bachelors in the dancing floor, the harmful free radicals donate their extra electrons to the structures of the cells and make them non-functional or harm cell wall and internal structure of cells such as DNA. This way, harmful radicals damage the structures of the cells including DNA. The harmful free radicals behave in the way as the bachelors are cutting the unity of the dancing couples in the dancing floor.

In the media of biological structures and biochemical substance, if the cells have antioxidants like lycopene, they destroy the harmful property of the harmful free radicals receiving the extra electrons of the harmful radicals. This way, antioxidants protects cells from the damage caused by harmful free radicals. When people understand the fact, maybe they will start to take abundant quantity of tomato fruits in different forms. Whatever and however may be the benefits of any food nutrients, people should not take any food item excessively. Any food item that is, if, taken excessively will certainly harm us. So be careful of it.

For example, if antioxidants are excessively present in the cells, the antioxidants not only scavenge the harmful free radicals but also start destroying the some beneficial radicals too. This way the antioxidants can harm cellular processes of the human body too. This paragraph is written based on some of researches of the some kind of antioxidant present in excessive amount due to supplementation in the human diet. The study was done with the supplementation of the vitamin E.

Some researches have indicated that regular and long duration supplementation of vitamin E which is one of the antioxidants in our body may harm us. Every body has his or her genetic make up. So, bad effect of intake of excessive amount of antioxidant also depends on the genetic make of the individuals. It is dealt in nutrigenomics. So, similar effects can be possible in case of other antioxidants too. The verification requires further experiments with the tomato lycopene.

In other words, amount of tomato fruits and its products should not be exceeded more than 100 grams in a day if he or she is taking tomato products daily. Excessive intake of tomato fruit means excessive amount of tomato lycopene too. Intake of excessive amount of lycopene may be harmful since excessive amount of same antioxidant of vitamin E is harmful to some human being of certain genetic make up. A particular individual can take abundant amount of tomato or not is dependent on the genetic make up of the individual too. But anybody can take products made from about 100 grams of fresh tomato fruits every day.

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