Antioxidants Health Benefits: New Approach

Free Radicals, Oxidation and Antioxidants
Free radicals are unstable molecules that are missing electrons. They pillage your body's healthy molecules for replacement electrons, leaving more free radicals and damaged cells and tissues in their wake. This process is called oxidation. It creates a destructive cycle that may multiply and quickly spread. And it's what makes iron rust and fruit turn brown. Scientists are beginning to believe that oxidation is what makes people age.

Though free radicals are formed during everyday functions such as breathing (oxygen itself is the most prevalent free radical found in our body), environmental stress factors such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and exposure to harmful chemicals dramatically accelerate their production.

The free radicals most critical to the aging process include superoxide anion, hydrogyn radical, singlet oxygen, hydrogen peroxide, and hypochlorus acid. At the molecular level, they can wage an assault on several fronts, such as damaging immune cells (white blood cells), lysomes (digestive enzymes), and unsaturated fatty acids (lipid peroxidation), destroying DNA and causing DNA mutations, hardening cell and nuclear membranes, breaking off cell membrane proteins, etc.

To fight this free radical onslaught, you need a strong defense, and according to research, one of the best defenses consists of nutrients known as antioxidants, most notably vitamins C and E , beta-carotene and bioflavonoids. Antioxidants work in your body as kamikaze fighters, protecting your body's healthy molecules by sacrificing their own electrons to neutralize hostile free radical invaders.

Though antioxidants aren't miracle cures and certainly shouldn't lure you into a false sense of security about smoking and alcohol overconsumption, these nutrients can help.

Vitamins C, E and beta-carotene's ability to scavenge free radicals can protect tissues from inflammation and cell mutation that marks cancer and other chronic diseases. Free radicals are defeated mainly by being trapped, or isolated, and not allowed to seek out electrons from neighboring cells. Free radicals then can be processed and turned into harmless water molecules.

While dietary antioxidants such as vitamin C are useful in the fight against free radicals, this is not the only place they are needed in the body. The more antioxidants are involved in this fight, the less are available overall. If neither the protective proteins (enzymes) not dietary sources of antioxidants can ward off the rising tide of free radicals, the cells attempt to destroy themselves. This burns up vital energy the cells require for important activities.

While free radicals destroy healthy cells, those cells that are not being destroyed are expending more and more resources both in attempts to keep the free radical onslaught at bay and to clean up and repair the damage. Eventually something is going to give. And that something increasingly moves from the molecular level outward, taking the form of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, a weakened immune system, and numerous other ills.

Although supplementation is considered okay by most experts, doctors say it's even better to eat vitamin- and beat-carotene-rich foods. Why? Because beta-carotene, for example, is just one of many related sunstances called carotenoids that protect your body from cell damage. All of the carotenoids function a little differently, so getting beta-carotene from fruits and vegetables covers a lot more bases than just taking a supplement. It's best to strive for getting as much of your 16,500 to 50,000 international units a day as possible from foods. If you're having trouble meeting your needs in this way, then talk to your doctor about supplementation.

Antioxidants: New Approach Antioxidants have been blamed lately with a few studies demonstrating a worsening effect on cancer or cardiovascular disease when a single antioxidant is used. A combination of antioxidants, like ferulic acid combined with βbeta-carotene, α-tocopherol and vitamin C has shown to decrease the rates of cancer and other chronic diseases more effectively. Best results might occur with, not just a combination of two antioxidants, but a number of antioxidants together.

Recent studies have shown, for example, that a tomato oleoresin's effect on LDL (bad cholesterol) oxidation was five times superior to that of single lycopene due to a combination of lycopene, vitamin E, glabridin (a flavonoid), garlic, and the well-known phenolics rosmarinic acid and carnosic acid. Due to their interaction, these antioxidants produced an enhanced antiatherogenic (preventing formation of plaque on the walls of the arteries) comnbined effect called synergistic effect.

Phytochemicals and other non-nutritive plant constituents that may be beneficial to human health

Phytochemical	Compound	Sources	Established or proposed effects on human-wellness
Phenolic Compounds
Proanthocyanins	tannins	apple, grape, cranberry, pomegranate	cancer
Anthocyanidins	cyanidin, malvidin, delphinidin, pelargonidin, peonidin, petunidin	red, blue, and purple fruits (such as apple, blackberry, blueberry, cranberry, grape, nectarine, peach, plum & prune, pomegranate, raspberry, and strawberry)	cancer initiation, heart disease, diabetes, cataracts, blood pressure, allergies
Flavan-3-ols	epicatechin, epigallocatechin, catechin, gallocatechin	apples, apricots, blackberries, plums, raspberries, strawberries	cancer, platelet aggregation (blood clotting)
Flavanones	hesperetin, naringenin, eriodictyol	citrus (oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, tangerine)	cancer
Flavones	luteolin, apigenin	celeriac, celery, peppers, rutabaga, spinach, parsley, artichoke, guava, pepper	cancer, allergies, heart disease
Flavonols	quercetin, kaempferol, myricetin, rutin	onions, snap beans, broccoli, cranberry, kale, peppers, lettuce	cancer initiation, capillary protectant, heart disease
Phenolic acids	caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, coumaric acid, ellagic acid	blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, apple, peach, plum, cherry	cancer, cholesterol
Carotenoids
Lycopene		tomato, watermelon, papaya, Brazilian guava, Autumn olive, red grapefruit	cancer, heart disease, male infertility
Β-carotene		cantaloupes, carrots, apricots, broccoli, leafy greens (lettuce, swiss chard), mango, persimmon, red pepper, spinach, sweet potato	cancer
Β-carotene		cantaloupes, carrots, apricots, broccoli, leafy greens (lettuce, swiss chard), mango, persimmon, red pepper, spinach, sweet potato	cancer
Xanthophylls	Lutein, zeaxanthin, Β-cryptoxanthin	sweet corn, spinach, corn, okra, cantaloupe, summer squash, turnip greens	macular degeneration (blindness)
Monoterpenes	limonene	citrus (grapefruit, tangerine)	cancer
Sulfur compounds	glucosinolates, isothiocyanates, indoles, allicin, diallyl isulphide	broccoli, Brussels sprouts, mustard greens, horseradish, garlic, onions, chives, leeks	cancer, cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes
Vitamin E (tocopherols)		nuts (such as almonds, cashew nuts, filberts, macadamias, pecans, pistachios, peanuts, and walnuts), corn, dry beans, lentils and chickpeas, dark-green leafy vegetables	cancer, heart-disease, LDL-oxidation, immune-system, diabetes
Folate (folicin or folic acid)		dark-green leafy vegetables (such as spinach, mustard greens, butterhead lettuce, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and okra), legumes (cooked dry beans, lentils, chickpeas and green peas), asparagus	cancer, birth defects, heart disease, nervous system

See Top 10 berry, fruit and vegetable content for each of the above compounds.