Oxygen's ability to do this is called oxidation. Of course, oxygen, by itself doesn't do anything. In order for oxidation to take place, other biochemical factors and agents must be present, such as enzymes, trace minerals, amino acids, fats, carbohydrates, etc. These various nutritional factors, co-factors, and agents are called antioxidants. Antioxidants allow for a balanced amount of burning to take place inside the cells.
Antioxidants allow for a normal and healthy amount of energy production.
To provide the nutrients to mix with oxygen to burn To provide nutrients to protect the cell and to prevent the burning from going too far Antioxidants are the natural and organic dancing partners to the normal, natural, and healthy oxidant co-factors of metabolism. So, a certain amount of oxidative stress is normal, as we have just described. Then of course, there is that other kind of oxidative stress - the abnormal, insulting, and destructive kind. The absence of vital antioxidant nutrients. Free radicals are highly charged but extremely unbalanced molecules that have a very destabilizing and destructive effect when they interact with our cells in the absence of essential antioxidant protection.