Antioxidants not only promote growth and healing, they play a role in physical performance and can enhance your athletic performance.
Most of us take supplements to improve our athletic performance; I bet you can tell me everything you are taking, but do you include antioxidants? You may want to consider reaping the benefits by incorporating antioxidants into your nutritional strategy.
Antioxidants, ‘super foods’ as they are called fight off damage to our cells. Some antioxidants can also be used to your advantage around your exercise times to prevent damage to your cells and stress on your body from exercise. Antioxidants reduce the amount of inflammation which is another bonus for athletes after a very hard training session.
Another benefit of these ‘super foods’ is they will help you maintain a strong immune system, and a strong immune system means more time spent in the gym rather than on the sidelines.
Antioxidants will help clean up your pineal gland. In an interview I recently watched with Dorian Yates, he spoke of opening up his pineal gland through the use of DMT. Through the introduction of antioxidants in our diet over time, we can do this naturally. The pineal gland controls the endocrine system. The endocrine system itself controls every aspect of your life. Your body is a well-oiled machine and it is all connected.
From an athlete’s standpoint, 3 things you should be aware of that the endocrine system controls are your ability to grow, your energy levels and your ability to be strong. Keeping it optimized is to your advantage to enhance your athletic performance NATURALLY. The pineal gland naturally makes its own DMT, but as time goes on our bodies produce less and less, but we can make improvements and clean it up. Once we clean it up, it has the ability to make its own DMT.
Antioxidants is an effective group of nutrients that can be found in naturally in foods, flavonoids, vitamins and some trace minerals as well. I am sure you have heard that blueberries are full of antioxidants, but so are a wide variety of other colorful fruits and vegetables.
Some other sources are cherries, strawberries, mangos, apricots, carrots, butternut squash, spinach, broccoli, nuts, avocado, dark chocolate, some spices and even green tea! Vitamin C, E and Alpha Lipoic acid some trace minerals including beta-carotene and selenium are also antioxidants.
So with all this information how do we choose the best sources?
Here are some tips. Choose wisely, not all is created equal.
- Look for organic fruits and vegetables that are free of pesticides.
- Select Raw Cocao; it is in the raw form and is unsweetened.
- Ceylon Cinnamon has more health benefits than the common cinnamon, ‘cassia.’
- Vitamin C is very powerful, but to make this a more powerful source select a C with Camu, Camu. It is made from berries and is one of the highest natural sources of c derived from the Peruvian Amazon.
- Choose High Gamma E this vitamin E has far more anti-inflammatory actions compared to your local drugstore vitamin E.
- Pick R-Alpha Lipoic Acid over the S-form. You want the R-form because it will bind to your cells. The S-form is not as effective, because it is synthetic.
How can you implement this into your daily regimen?
As athletes we sometimes fall short of eating our fruits and vegetables. How many servings of fruit and vegetables are you eating in a day? You may want to up your ante and aim for 6-9 servings a day. Trace minerals are needed in such small amounts that you can acquire them naturally through your diet. Beta-Carotene can be found in plant sources such as carrots, spinach, pumpkin, butternut squash, apricots mangos and nectarines. Selenium can be found in fish, meat, eggs, grain and asparagus.
