Oxidative stress is essentially an imbalance between the production of free radicals (unstable oxygen particles) and the ability of the body to counteract or detoxify their harmful effects through neutralization by antioxidants.
If you are a living person your body will naturally produce free radicals. An example is when we metabolize food or when your immune system creates free radicals in order to fight off bacteria and harmful disease.
Fortunately, our bodies have natural antioxidants which will neutralize these free radicals. A problem occurs when your body produces more free radicals than your body can handle. Unfortunately we don’t even realize how much stress we put our bodies through on a daily basis, let alone over the course of years and years.
The environmental causes of free radicals include daily stressors like air pollutants, inflammation, radiation (including UV rays from the sun), processed foods, drugs, chemicals, heavy metals, poor immunity, imbalanced gut flora and so on….
Getting enough antioxidants from our food sources is absolutely essential to help counteract the harmful effects of free radicals. When oxidative stress is high, ageing and breakdown of body tissues is fast tracked and no one wants that!