Question

What does an antioxidant do for the human body?
Complete this equation. H2O2 -----------------------> _____________ + ____________

Answer 1

The basic answer is free radicals are powerful oxidising agents - that is they are very reactive and wreck havoc by making and creating bonds which destroy biologic molecules.

Antioxidants help because they convert reactive species like H2O2 into harmless products. In this case one of them is H2O (water, which is quite innocuous unless your head happens to be under it) and oxygen, which is what we breathe. Hope that helps.