Diet
Healthy Skin Diet: The Truth About Antioxidants
Learn everything you need to know about these powerful ingredients -- once and for all
The truth about supplements
This may come as a shock, but "it's a good general rule that you don’t need supplements, if you just focus on getting your fruits and veggies in," says Canfield. Plus, you'll get more nutrients and benefits from eating the antioxidants in their natural form, while avoiding an overdose. "When you try to extract something out of a food and put it in to a pill, you take it out of its natural environment, and there are other substances in the foods that help your body utilize the antioxidant better," she says.That's why she recommends increasing your fruit and veggie consumption to eight or nine servings a day. One way to make sure you're getting variety is to "eat something that's from a [different] color of the rainbow every day." So have something white (cauliflower, onion, potato), and red (tomato, watermelon) and so forth. "Then, you'll get a nice mix of phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals."
Simpson agrees saying, "the biggest myth is how people think they can supplement with antioxidants and not have to follow a balanced eating plan. [Good health] is really about synergy." Simpson personally looks at supplementation to "complement diet," not replace it.
SEE NEXT PAGE: The truth about ingesting vs. applying antioxidants
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