Disabled Traveler: Why we need antioxidants in our food (Part I)

Friday, February 17, 2012

Why we need antioxidants in our food (Part I)

_**Antioxidants supplements are big business**_ :

As of 1999, in the US market [1]. The Vitamin C market was worth 843 $M; The Vitamin E market 731 $M

Quoting nutraceutical world [2] :"Overall, for the estimated_** $25 billion U.S. dietary supplement industry,**_ the prognosis is good. Very good…". That is in 2010.

$25 billions…All right, nutraceutical are not bought only for their antioxidant properties, but those figure prominently in the Marketing ads

_**In order to contrast the benefits of antioxidant food and antioxidants supplements, we need to take a look at what is oxidation.**_

_**1.0 The oxidation process: The good, the bad and the ugly..**_.

The first image that the word "oxidation" evokes can be seen below:

[![][1]][2]

Your rusting knife...(Wikipedia Commons)

Who wants_ that_ happening to the body…

_**Fact is, in biology, not all oxidation is bad.**_ It is even crucial in maintaining life critical processes such as :

* Cellular respiration
* Breathing or Physiological respiration
* Photosynthesis

_So why is there this generally accepted creed about needing more antioxidants?_

_**One has to understand the Reduction-Oxidation (Redox)**_ chemical reactions that have to occur in most of the living (certain bacteria do not breathe, other have a sulfur based metabolism). Redox reactions are the key to using the oxygen that we breathe.

But the redox processes create free radicals. Free radicals [3] are molecules with unpaired electrons that cause the radicals to be highly chemically reactive. The frees radicals then can and do cause oxidative stress, which is damage to various body tissues:

_**Those free radicals are normally cleaned by the body itself generating or using antioxidants as reducing agents**_. In other words, the body's natural antioxidant " passivate" or neutralize the free radicals.

_So how did our bodies survive before there were anti-oxidant supplements ?_

_First there are very powerful anti-oxidant that are manufactured by your body, in other words, they are endogenous [5]:_

Here is a short list:

Glutathione, Alpha-lipoic acid, Coenzyme Q, Ferritin, Uric acid, Bilirubin, Metallothioneine, L-carnitine and Melatonin.

Then you also have the **_antioxidant vitamins,_** which means antioxidant that your body does not synthesize , but has to obtain from food. That defininition of vitamin is a liitle loose since vitamin D can actually be manufactured by your skin under sun light.

_**In addition to the previous molecules or compounds, some enzyme systems **_also help scavenge free radicals by catalizing chemical reactions that neutralize the reactive oxygen species or free radicals.

* Superoxide dismutase (SOD)
* Glutathione enzyme systems

_These enzymes are obtained from your food_

But what if the body does not manufacture enough or the food is enzyme poor?

Two possible paths:

* Choose food with appropriate antioxidant capabilities, that get to the nasty ROS without impeding the life sustaining oxidation process.The food should contain the right enzymes,the right vitamins, and phytochemicals

Phytochemicals are plant based compounds such as Flavomoids, Resveratrol, Curcumin, Polyphenols. Polyphenol antioxidants might not owe their health benefits directly to antioxidants properties at least not in vivo, (out of the lab and in your body). Studies in [5,6] demonstrate the complexity of the assessment.

_Note that all these antioxidants are not necessarily good for everybody. For example Curcumin and anemia might not be a good match…[7]_

[![][3]][4]

Your well packaged polyphenol (flagstaffotos.com.au)

_**In the coming Part II, join us to look at the antioxidant supplements…**_

Discuss this with your Dietitian!

_**Sources:**_

1. [Over The Counter Nutritional Supplements US market][5] ;1999
2. [Nutraceutical world ; Dietary Supplements ][6]; 2010
3. [Wikipedia ; Redox reactions][7]
4. [Advance in Experimental Medical Biology.][8]; "Endogenous antioxidants and radical scavengers." ; 2010
5. [Advance in Experimental Medical Biology.][9]"Flavonoids in foods as in vitro and in vivo antioxidants."; 1998
6. [In Vivo][10] ; "Comparative radical-scavenging activity of curcumin and tetrahydrocurcumin with thiols as measured by the induction period method." ; Nov 2007
7. [Blood][11], Curcumin, a cancer chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agent, is a biologically active iron chelatorJan 2009

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URL: http://www.medinewsdigest.com/?p=4014

Friday, February 17, 2012

Why we need antioxidants in our food (Part I)

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