Antioxidant Tablets?

Antioxidants can be either man-made or found in natural substances and are very helpful in preventing or delaying some types of cell damage. Antioxidants are found in many foods, including fruits and vegetables. They are also available as antioxidant medicines and supplements. Some of the types of antioxidants required by the human body include: Beta-carotene, Lutein, Lycopene, Selenium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E.

Most multivitamin tablets and capsules like Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E are rich in antioxidants. However there are some vitamins which are equally necessary to a human body may not be antioxidants.

Multivitamins are a combination of many different vitamins that are normally found in foods and other natural sources and are used to provide vitamins that are not taken in through the diet. They are also used to treat vitamin deficiencies caused by illness, pregnancy, poor nutrition, digestive disorders, and many other conditions.

To achieve a healthy and well-balanced diet, on should eat a wide variety of food. But the five main groups that one should eat regularly are: vegetables and legumes or beans, fruits, whole grain foods and cereals, lean meat, poultry and protein rich food such as fish, eggs, tofu, legumes, nuts and seeds, and dairy and dairy products.

Antioxidant tablets and capsules are in most cases multivitamin products used to treat or prevent vitamin deficiency due to poor diet, certain illnesses, or during pregnancy. Since vitamins are important building blocks of the body and help keeps a person in good health, these tablets and capsules  such as vitamin C and vitamin E tablets and carotenoid capsules can help people in getting the required nutrients and thus protect cells from damage. One should bear in mind that Antioxidants play a role in lowering risks of heart disease, cancer and other diseases. However due to many reasons like lifestyle, dietary pattern, etc. people are left with certain deficiencies. This is where antioxidant tablets and antioxidant capsules come to the rescue.

For most people nutrients found in food alone cana??t compensate if they have any kind of deficiency. For example, people with osteoporosis might need extra calcium and vitamin D or vegetarians might need iron or vitamin B12. This is where antioxidant tablets or antioxidant capsules help them. Also impurities and contamination in vegetables and fruits, which are supposed to be powerhouses of natural antioxidants, leave people consuming them with a deficit in the daily ORAC units.  Additionally, antioxidant tablets and antioxidant capsules may actually help address oxidative stress.

The ORAC unit (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity), also known as ORAC value, or ORAC score is a method developed by scientists at the National Institute of Health and Aging (NIH) to measures the antioxidant capacity of different foods. Based on their findings the optimum daily intake of antioxidants is also determined by an ORAC unit.

Although there is no officially recommended daily intake of antioxidants, most researchers suggest an optimal intake to be 3000-5000 ORAC units per day, with the USDA suggesting a daily intake of 5000 ORAC units.

Several scientific studies involving tens of thousands of subjects combined with rigorous tests have from time to time tried to find whether antioxidant antioxidant tablets or capsules can actually help prevent chronic diseases, such as cancer, cataract or cardiovascular diseases. In most cases although there were some positive signs, there was no concrete evidence that antioxidant tablets reduced the risks of developing these diseases.