Supra-normal doses of antioxidants from capsules, pills or supplemented water or foods are commonly recognized as being good for you. Vegetables and fruits are also considered great because they are chock-full of antioxidants, minerals and vitamins.
Here is a fresh, evidence-based view on a seemingly simple, but really very intricate paradox surrounding the ever-increasing use of antioxidants because of their perceived health benefits. Oxidative stress has been implicated in a large number of chronic diseases associated with aging, including cancer.
In chain-reaction manner, free radicals damage DNA, protein, and other biological molecules, resulting in mutation and deranged function. A direct antioxidant may be called a molecule like vitamin C, Vitamin E, or beta-carotene that may quench free radicals, preventing damage from its tracks.
There is still no convincing evidence of any health benefit from direct antioxidant supplementation unless of course, when beating a deficiency condition like vitamin C’s ability to heal scurvy. To the contrary, many clinical trials have had to be stopped early because of adverse effects from the antioxidants under study, for example greater than placebo rates of mortality and cancer.
Yet the signs IS overpowering that some fruits and veggies indeed have enormous health benefits, like reducing cancer risk and lowering mortality. Therefore, if not the vitamin, mineral, or direct antioxidant content. Recent research points on Lone Star Centers out the important role of Phytonutrients, those particular molecules with small macro-nutrient content, but with higher impact upon both our sensory organs and, furthermore, biological pathways of defence.
And you do not need to rely on eating lots of fruits and vegetables to get enough of the ideal Phytonutrients. Forward thinking supplement manufacturers such as moderation now offer items like PhytoAssure.
By way of instance, broccoli should be close to the top of any super food list. It includes a molecule known as sulforaphane glucosinolate that in large doses is toxic, but ingesting the ideal quantity will turn on about 200 protective enzymes such as those involved in detoxification and nitric oxide production.
The synthesis of glutathione, the main antioxidant in each cell, is improved by sulforaphane. This is the reason broccoli seed extract, which comprises a consistently higher level of sulforaphane is known as a long-lasting antioxidant’, not because it comprises direct antioxidants, but instead for its capacity to induce the body’s natural antioxidant system.
Paradoxically, for sulforaphane to turn on those immune boosting genes, free radical signalling is needed inside the cell and direct antioxidant supplementation will really defeat sulforaphane capacity to induce these protective enzymes.