ADMIT it, you sometimes (or often) overindulge in comfort food. Loading up on calories forces your body into overdrive as it tries to deconstruct the damage.

Imagine your body trying to metabolize the fatty foods you ate, it produces free radicals which can develop into chronic conditions like heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, etc.

To lessen free radicals, you either eat fewer calories and fix it with either a glass of red wine, drizzle of vinegar or eat fruits.

* Eat fruits. If you’ve indulged in a decadent meal, consider fruit for dessert. Eating antioxidant-rich fruits helps minimize the free-radical damage that occurs after a meal. Eating caloric meals, without antioxidant-rich foods can have harmful effects over time. Finish your meal with a generous portion of fruit.

* Drink wine. Antioxidants in red wine, called polyphenols and resveratrol, may reduce the negative impact of high-fat foods. Try to cook food with red wine or enjoy a glass during dinner. But always remember to drink moderately.

* Drizzle vinegar. Having a tablespoon of vinegar with your meal, perhaps drizzled on your salad, may temper the spike in blood sugar (a.k.a. glucose) that occurs after eating a big, carbohydrate-rich meal. This sugar surge is a problem particularly for people with diabetes, who can’t clear glucose effectively; over time, excess glucose in the blood damages tissues.

In one study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, consuming about one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar along with a bagel and fruit juice slashed the post meal rise in glucose in half. The acid in vinegar may inhibit the digestion of the starch, so the starch is rendered into something like fiber, which can’t be digested well. Drizzle a tablespoon of vinegar on your salad.