As a twenty-year fitness enthusiast, I am well aware of the importance of exercise in maintaining a healthy body. However, it has taken me four decades to learn that good nutrition is just as important in the overall health equation.

Consuming a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and healthy fat helps maintain body weight, stabilize blood sugar levels, and provide essential nutrients. Healthy carbohydrates--- fruits, vegetables, and whole grains--- provide the body’s preferred source of fuel for activity and fiber for intestinal health.

But perhaps the most important contribution of dietary fruits, vegetables, and whole grains is the rich source of antioxidants they provide. Antioxidants are vitamins, minerals, and enzymes which protect the body from the relentless attack of microscopic bandits called free radicals.

Free radicals are unstable molecules which have lost an electron. Functioning like a car with a flat tire, free radicals constantly seek to stabilize themselves. They do this by stealing electrons from surrounding healthy cells. This process breaks down cells’ outer wall, ushering in infection, DNA damage, and even cancerous mutations. . .
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