What would happen if antioxidants did not exist?!

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I suspect that if antioxidants did not exist, the free radicals they fight wouldn't exist either.
In nature there seems to always be both sides of an issue...male to female, prey to predator, etc.

The science of chemistry would be changed.

It's a bit of a foolish question really. It's like asking "what would happen if oxygen didn't exist?"

The real answer is "we'd never know because it's how the universe works". Could there be other another universe without oxygen and anti-oxidants? Sure, I think so there seems to be no fundamental physical laws that dictate the basic constants have to be the way they are. Read Martin Rees's "Just Six Numbers" for more understanding about this.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Six-Numbers…

Antioxidants neutralize free radicals; if they didn't exist, the proteins in your body would be destroyed by said free radicals and you would probably die since the functional parts of your body are mostly protein. However, your body makes its own endogenous antioxidants and the antioxidants in food and supplements only contribute a small amount, so don't freak out about changing your diet.

Evolution on the planet would have happened completely differently and we wouldn't be here discussing it.