Nutrition demystified: now you can eat healthfully ever after: Heather King is a certified diet counselor and a graduate student in nutrition at Bastyr University.(bastyr u: health research from grad students)

Editor's note: Better Nutrition, in collaboration with Bastyr University, a world leader in the advancement of natural health sciences, has established a grant program to foster well-researched articles by graduate students. Each article is vetted by a Bastyr faculty member. The intent of the program is to provide readers with new and reliable information while encouraging future leaders in various health disciplines.

"Contains Essential Fatty Acids," "No Trans Fat," "Good Source of Antioxidants." What do these claims really mean? After seeing them over and over, you may think you know, but a clarification of common nutrition terms can make you a wiser consumer.

Antioxidants

Free radicals are atoms that contain unpaired electrons--they are unstable and always looking to steal all electron from other atoms.

In our bodies, free radicals destabilize other molecules and cause damage--known as oxidation. Our cells produce compounds called antioxidants that share electrons with flee radicals, thereby stabilizing them. In our environment, however, pollution, food processing and toxins overwhelm the body's ability' to stabilize free radicals. As a result, we become susceptible to oxidative damage and disease.

Dietary antioxidants, especially lycopene and vitamins A, C and E can help. They function much like our naturally occurring antioxidants: They share electrons with free radicals, resulting in stable atoms that don't damage cells.

Antioxidant food sources include berries, brightly colored fruits and vegetables--especially kale, broccoli and cabbage-and green and white tea. Antioxidants can also be taken in supplement form and are present in most multivitamins.