Little Step No. 29
What to do:
Know what glutathione is.
Why this step works:
Antioxidants have been a hot topic for many years now. Antioxidants are substances that help to protect against ‘free radicals’ – unstable molecules that can damage your cells.
We can’t avoid free radicals; they are a natural by-product of essential processes (such as energy production) that are happening inside our bodies every second of every day. We also encounter free radicals from external sources such as air pollution, cigarette smoke and industrial chemicals. The point here is that a certain amount of free radical exposure is inevitable, so you want to know that your defence against them is robust.
This is where antioxidants come in; they help to neutralise free radicals so they can no longer cause damage. When free radicals are nicely balanced with antioxidants this is a big tick for your immediate and long term health. Unfortunately, if the balance shifts in favour of too many free radicals and not enough antioxidants, cellular damage, premature ageing and ultimately chronic diseases can occur.
You might be thinking that the key to all this is to increase your intake of antioxidants through your diet. And indeed, a brightly-coloured diet packed full of a rich variety of vegetables and fruits certainly can help. Alongside the antioxidants we consume through our diets however, we also have in-built antioxidant systems inside our bodies. If you wanted to put out a fire would you use a tea cup of water or a high powered fire hose? It’s your internal antioxidant systems that are the fire hose when it comes to free radicals and there’s one in particular that’s immensely powerful. Glutathione is made inside our bodies and is often nicknamed the ‘master antioxidant’. Cellular levels of glutathione are directly associated with health and longevity.
This little step is simply to become familiar with glutathione, an incredible substance produced inside your body that helps to protect against free radicals (and more). As you can probably imagine, there are little steps you can take to help your body to make glutathione, and since this is so incredibly important, this will be the focus in the next couple of weeks. If you want to get a head start re-visit Little Step no 16. For now, simply marvel at the incredible systems your body has in place to deal with adversity and stay curious to the idea that there are ingredients we can add to help it to thrive x