Are antioxidants really the key to helping you manage your personal health and weight loss goals? This is certainly the type of rhetoric that is typically attached to these feel-good foods, but it is time to find out the truth about antioxidants once and for all.

The secret to long-term weight loss success is making long-term changes to your health and wellness habits. This means that rather than making a few small but severe changes to your diet for just a short amount of time, you need to make fundamental changes to your diet that you will be able to maintain long into the future. Incorporating more antioxidants into your diet naturally is one of those healthy changes that can stimulate long-term health benefits, and you can easily achieve this by eating as many fruits and vegetables as possible.

Foods that are rich in antioxidants include:

• Blueberries
• Strawberries
• Kale
• Dark chocolate
• Spinach
• Plums
• Grapefruits
• Raisins

Antioxidants are by definition a substance that inhibits oxidation, which is the breakdown of any molecular structure by oxygen. You can witness oxidation happening around your home by seeing rust on items in your backyard. Oxidation happens in the body, as well, as a result of free radical damage—a natural byproduct of the body’s metabolism. Eating foods that are rich in antioxidants fights that oxidation process, thereby helping to reduce inflammation and support overall positive bodily functioning.

As rumor has it, antioxidants can help prevent the development and growth of cancer, will boost fertility, and help your body stay young, fresh, and healthy. But is all this hype around antioxidants for real? Before you start adding anything new to your weight loss diet, it is time to get the story straight.

While antioxidants are a healthy addition to any diet, they aren’t necessarily going to singlehandedly reverse the onset of disease. Making changes to an overall healthier lifestyle can leave a huge impact on your health, but this takes time. Work together with your weight loss surgeon to make improvements to your health one step at a time for the greatest long-term impact on your overall health and well-being.