Antioxidant foods are powerful scavengers of free radicals. The function of antioxidant foods is to hunt down free radicals and destroy them. What are Free Radicals? Free radicals are highly reactive chemical substances that are produced when the body undergoes the process of oxidation. The reason that free radicals are highly reactive is that they lack electrons, which cause them to be highly unstable. This antioxidant dietary supplement works best when taken with Vitamin C as it seems that both vitamins have synergistic effect when taken in combination. Besides vitamins, antioxidant dietary supplements may be in the form of botanicals. Green tea, for example, is a rich source of the flavonoid derivatives (polyphenols) epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin gallate (ECG), and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). The result is a chain reaction which can only be stopped with the entrance of antioxidants. Herbal antioxidants are the body's natural defenses against harmful radicals. Their function is to stop free radicals from "attacking" other healthy molecules and causing a chain reaction. Because of this function, herbal antioxidants are said to play a role in the prevention and potential cure of various degenerative diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis, and several others. The only problem is they do not distinguish between healthy and harmful molecules so that there is a great possibility that they would also "attack" your other healthy cells, causing massive cellular damage, tissue damage, and eventually resulting in a chronic disease or disorder, such as aging. The result is a rapid chain reaction which when left unattended can lead to various degenerative diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, memory loss, etc. Natural antioxidants are primarily derived from plants. The human body cannot produce its own supply of natural antioxidants; that is why we have to depend solely on our diet to get the amount of antioxidants our body needs. During the process of oxidation, highly unstable substances called free radicals are produced. These free radicals react with other molecules in the cell by stealing their electrons and turning them into free radicals like themselves. When this happens, a chain reaction is created, one that when accumulated could result in massive cell damage.