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"Fountain of Youth" Fact and Fantasy
What you really need to know about antioxidants and your health.
INTRODUCTION
Antioxidants are widely used as ingredients in supplements, which are used in the hope of maintaining health and preventing diseases such as cancer and coronary heart disease. Although some studies have suggested antioxidant supplements have health benefits, other large clinical trials did not detect any benefit for the formulations tested, and excess supplementation may even be harmful."
The doubt being thrown on the healthful properties of antioxidants says Beldeu Singh, is due to the fact that many studies designed to clinically test the effects of antioxidants do not take into account nutrient synergy - they are designed around the use of only one single substance.
But what's even more important - they are not even using the real thing! Most pharmaceutical studies rely on synthetic versions or artificial analogs of these natural biomolecules. Beldeu Singh, a Malaysian researcher and writer, adds:” We know that food and dietary sources contain antioxidants. Minerals and antioxidants are part of our nutritional intake and epidemiological studies show that populations with high antioxidant intake from dietary sources are at a lower risk to diseases such as cancers, hypertension cardiovascular disease, stroke etc more so in contrast with malnourished people.
We also know the role of antioxidants in our biochemistry is to scavenge free radicals or convert hydrogen peroxide formed during cell metabolism into water and oxygen as soon as it is formed and that ability is part of health. Yet studies try to show that antioxidants are "harmful".
If so, do not take fruits and vegetables for they are rich sources of natural antioxidants! Go on a diet that is low or devoid of antioxidants...is that what these scientists want you to believe?. Only the conclusions of some scientists.
Dietary Supplements -- More Than Vitamins...
Today's dietary supplements are not only vitamins and minerals. They also include other less familiar substances, such as herbals, botanicals, amino acids, and enzymes. Dietary supplements come in a variety of forms, such as tablets, capsules, powders, energy bars, or drinks.
If you do not consume a variety of foods, as recommended in the Food Guide Pyramid and Dietary Guidelines for Americans, some supplements may help ensure that you get adequate amounts of essential nutrients or help promote optimal health and performance. However, dietary supplements are not intended to treat, diagnose, mitigate, prevent, or cure diseases; therefore, manufacturers may not make such claims. In some cases, dietary supplements may have unwanted effects, especially if taken before surgery or with other dietary supplements or medicines, or if you have certain health conditions.
Unlike drugs, but like conventional foods, dietary supplements are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for safety and effectiveness. It is the responsibility of dietary supplement manufacturers/distributors to ensure that their products are safe and that their label claims are accurate and truthful. Once a product enters the marketplace, FDA has the authority to take action against any dietary supplement product that presents a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury.
Scientific evidence supporting the benefits of some dietary supplements (e.g., vitamins and minerals) is well established for certain health conditions, but others need further study. Whatever your choice, supplements should not replace prescribed medications or the variety of foods important to a healthful diet.
How To Recognize a Dietary Supplement
At times, it can be confusing to tell the difference between a dietary supplement, a food, or an over-the-counter (OTC) medicine. An easy way to recognize a dietary supplement is to look for the Supplement Facts Panel on the product.
Potential Risks of Using Dietary Supplements
Although certain products may be helpful to some people, there may be circumstances when these products can pose unexpected risks. Many supplements contain active ingredients that can have strong effects in the body. Taking a combination of supplements, using these products together with medicine, or substituting them in place of prescribed medicines could lead to harmful, even life-threatening results. Also, some supplements can have unwanted effects before, during, and after surgery. It is important to let your doctor and other health professionals know about the vitamins, minerals, botanicals, and other products you are taking, especially before surgery.
Here a few examples of dietary supplements believed to interact with specific drugs:
Calcium and heart medicine (e.g., Digoxin), thiazide diuretics (Thiazide), and aluminum and magnesium-containing antacids.
Magnesium and thiazide and loop diuretics (e.g., Lasix®, etc.), some cancer drugs (e.g., Cisplatin, etc.), and magnesium-containing antacids.
Vitamin K and a blood thinner (e.g., Coumadin).
St. John's Wort and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drugs (i.e., anti-depressant drugs and birth control pills).
What Should I Know Before Using Dietary Supplements?
Be savvy! Follow these tips before buying a dietary supplement:
Remember: Safety First. Some supplement ingredients, including nutrients and plant components, can be toxic based on their activity in your body. Do not substitute a dietary supplement for a prescription medicine or therapy.
Think twice about chasing the latest headline. Sound health advice is generally based on research over time, not a single study touted by the media. Be wary of results claiming a "quick fix" that depart from scientific research and established dietary guidance.
Learn to Spot False Claims. Remember: "If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is." Some examples of false claims on product labels:
Quick and effective "cure-all."
Can treat or cure disease.
"Totally safe," "all natural," and has "definitely no side effects."
Limited availability, "no-risk, money-back guarantees," or requires advance payment.
More may not be better. Some products can be harmful when consumed in high amounts, for a long time, or in combination with certain other substances.
The term "natural" doesn't always mean safe. Do not assume that this term ensures wholesomeness or safety. For some supplements, "natural" ingredients may interact with medicines, be dangerous for people with certain health conditions, or be harmful in high doses. For example, tea made from peppermint leaves is generally considered safe to drink, but peppermint oil (extracted from the leaves) is much more concentrated and can be toxic if used incorrectly.
Is the product worth the money? Resist the pressure to buy a product or treatment "on the spot." Some supplement products may be expensive or may not provide the benefit you expect. For example, excessive amounts of water-soluble vitamins, like vitamin C and B vitamins, are not used by the body and are eliminated in the urine.
Bottom Line
Do not self diagnose any health condition. Work with your health care providers to determine how best to achieve optimal health.
Check with your health care providers before taking a supplement, especially when combining or substituting them with other foods or medicine.
Some supplements can help you meet your daily requirements for certain nutrients, but others may cause health problems.
Dietary supplements are not intended to treat, diagnose, mitigate, prevent, or cure disease, or to replace the variety of foods important to a healthful diet.
Examples of Products Marketed as Dietary Supplements
Because many products are marketed as dietary supplements, it is important to remember that supplements include vitamins and minerals, as well as botanicals and other substances. The list below gives some examples of products you may see sold as dietary supplements. It is not possible to list them all here. Vitamins, Minerals, Nutrients Botanicals and Other Substances
Multiple Vitamin/Mineral Acidophilus
Vitamin B Complex Black Cohosh
Vitamin C Ginger
Vitamin D Evening Primrose Oil
Vitamin E Echinacea
Beta-Carotene Fiber
Calcium Garlic
ANTIOXIDANTS
Antioxidants are part of many plants and a myriad of foods we eat every day. Their health promoting effects have been well documented. Antioxidants work by donating an electron to a molecule that has been compromised by oxidation, bringing it back into a state of proper function. Having been "used up" in this way, the antioxidant mulecule is then either re-charged by accepting an electron from another type of antioxidant or it is re-cycled into building material such as - in the case of vitamin C - collagen for purposes of tissue repair.
An antioxidant is a molecule capable of slowing or preventing the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals, which start chain reactions that damage cells. Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical intermediates, and inhibit other oxidation reactions by being oxidized themselves. As a result, antioxidants are often reducing agents such as thiols or polyphenols.
Although oxidation reactions are crucial for life, they can also be damaging; hence, plants and animals maintain complex systems of multiple types of antioxidants, such as glutathione, vitamin C, and vitamin E as well as enzymes such as catalase, superoxide dismutase and various peroxidases. Low levels of antioxidants, or inhibition of the antioxidant enzymes, causes oxidative stress and may damage or kill cells.
As oxidative stress might be an important part of many human diseases, the use of antioxidants in pharmacology is intensively studied, particularly as treatments for stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. However, it is unknown whether oxidative stress is the cause or the consequence of disease. Antioxidants are also widely used as ingredients in dietary supplements in the hope of maintaining health and preventing diseases such as cancer and coronary heart disease. Although some studies have suggested antioxidant supplements have health benefits, other large clinical trials did not detect any benefit for the formulations tested, and excess supplementation may be harmful.[1] In addition to these uses in medicine, antioxidants have many industrial uses, such as preservatives in food and cosmetics and preventing the degradation of rubber and gasoline.
HISTORY OF ANTIOXIDANTS
The term antioxidant originally was used to refer specifically to a chemical that prevented the consumption of oxygen. In the late 19th and early 20th century, extensive study was devoted to the uses of antioxidants in important industrial processes, such as the prevention of metal corrosion, the vulcanization of rubber, and the polymerization of fuels in the fouling of internal combustion engines.
Early research on the role of antioxidants in biology focused on their use in preventing the oxidation of unsaturated fats, which is the cause of rancidity. Antioxidant activity could be measured simply by placing the fat in a closed container with oxygen and measuring the rate of oxygen consumption. However, it was the identification of vitamins A, C, and E as antioxidants that revolutionized the field and led to the realization of the importance of antioxidants in biochemistry of living organisms.
The possible mechanisms of action of antioxidants were first explored when it was recognized that a substance with anti-oxidative activity is likely to be one that is itself readily oxidized.[6] Research into how vitamin E prevents the process of lipid peroxidation led to the identification of antioxidants as reducing agents that prevent oxidative reactions, often by scavenging reactive oxygen species before they can damage cells.
A paradox in metabolism is that while the vast majority of complex life requires oxygen for its existence, oxygen is a highly reactive molecule that damages living organisms by producing reactive oxygen species. Consequently, organisms contain a complex network of antioxidant metabolites and enzymes that work together to prevent oxidative damage to cellular components such as DNA, proteins and lipids. In general, antioxidant systems either prevent these reactive species from being formed, or remove them before they can damage vital components of the cell.
The reactive oxygen species produced in cells include hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), hypochlorous acid (HClO), and free radicals such as the hydroxyl radical (·OH) and the superoxide anion (O2−) The hydroxyl radical is particularly unstable and will react rapidly and non-specifically with most biological molecules. This species is produced from hydrogen peroxide in metal-catalyzed redox reactions such as the Fenton reaction. These oxidants can damage cells by starting chemical chain reactions such as lipid peroxidation, or by oxidizing DNA or proteins. Damage to DNA can cause mutations and possibly cancer, if not reversed by DNA repair mechanisms, while damage to proteins causes enzyme inhibition, denaturation and protein degradation.
Antioxidants are classified into two broad divisions, depending on whether they are soluble in water (hydrophilic) or in lipids (hydrophobic). In general, water-soluble antioxidants react with oxidants in the cell cytoplasm and the blood plasma, while lipid-soluble antioxidants protect cell membranes from lipid peroxidation. These compounds may be synthesized in the body or obtained from the diet.
IMPORTANCE OF ANTIOXIDANTS
The relative importance and interactions between these different antioxidants is a very complex question, with the various metabolites and enzyme systems having synergistic and interdependent effects on one another. The action of one antioxidant may therefore depend on the proper function of other members of the antioxidant system. The amount of protection provided by any one antioxidant will also depend on its concentration, its reactivity towards the particular reactive oxygen species being considered, and the status of the antioxidants with which it interacts.
Ascorbic acid or "vitamin C" is a monosaccharide antioxidant found in both animals and plants. As it cannot be synthesised in humans and must be obtained from the diet, it is a vitamin.Most other animals are able to produce this compound in their bodies and do not require it in their diets. Vitamin C is a reducing agent and can reduce and thereby neutralize reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide.
Vitamin E is the collective name for a set of eight related tocopherols and tocotrienols, which are fat-soluble vitamins with antioxidant properties.Of these, α-tocopherol has been most studied as it has the highest bioavailability, with the body preferentially absorbing and metabolising this form.
Antioxidants work by significantly slowing or preventing the oxidative ? or damage from oxygen ? process caused by substances called free radicals that can lead to cell dysfunction and the onset of problems like heart disease and diabetes. Antioxidants may also improve immune function and perhaps lower your risk for infection and cancer.
Using dietary supplements of antioxidants to prevent cardiovascular disease should not be recommended until their effect is proved in clinical trials that directly test their impact on CVD end points. Beneficial effects must be demonstrated in well designed (randomized, placebo-controlled) clinical trials before recommending widespread use to prevent cardiovascular disease.
Antioxidants can be conceptualized in a number of different ways: as insurance against some of the more visible effects of aging; as a weapon in our fight to make our average life expectancy more closely resemble our ultimate lifespan; and as a line of defense against the risk of developing certain illnesses and diseases.
HEALTH EFFECT
If your diet is low in natural antioxidants, free radicals begin to be in excess of your antioxidant ability to biochemically neutralize them (scavenge) and there will be oxidative damage and free radical chain reactions that will damage molecules and cell membranes and quickly lead to the development of disease states as well as impair the function of your immune system."
The difference seems to be that, contrary to the natural variety, the synthetic analogs cannot be recycled and re-used by the organism, once they have donated their electron. When they are "spent", they tend to turn into harmful metabolic byproducts that increase, rather than decreasing, the total load of oxidative stress on the organism.
Antioxidants compounds protect cells against the damaging effects of reactive oxygen species, such as singlet oxygen, superoxide, peroxyl radicals, hydroxyl radicals and peroxynitrite. An imbalance between antioxidants and reactive oxygen species results in oxidative stress, leading to cellular damage. Oxidative stress has been linked to cancer, aging, atherosclerosis, ischemic injury, inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson''s and Alzheimer''s).
Vitamin C helps some of our most important body systems. First and foremost, it helps the immune system to fight off foreign invaders and tumor cells. Vitamin C also supports the cardiovascular system by facilitating fat metabolism and protecting tissues from free radical damage, and it assists the nervous system by converting certain amino acids into neurotransmitters.
Researchers say the antioxidant found in grape skins, known as resveratrol, appears to work by targeting the cancer cell''s energy source from within and crippling it. When combined with radiation, treatment with resveratrol prior to radiation also induced cell death, an important goal of cancer treatment.
A new study has investigated the protection afforded by the flavonoid quercetin against macular degeneration. The macula is the yellowish, central part of the retina about 1.5 mm in diameter that produces central vision and color vision. Macular degeneration is the gradual, progressive destruction of the macula that results in lowered central visual acuity needed for most everyday activities, like reading this article. It leads to permanent blindness, and is the most common cause of blindness in people 50 to 60 years old and above. Approximately 10 million Americans are believed to suffer vision loss due to age-related macular degeneration (ARMD).
There are two types of ARMD: dry and wet. The dry type is much more common than the wet type and accounts for up to 90% of ARMD. In the dry type, the macula gradually thins with aging. The pigmented retinal epithelium, which is the dark-colored cell layer at the back of the eye essential for vision, is gradually lost. One of the first signs of ARMD is loss of color sensitivity and blurring or haziness while reading.
Previous reports have concluded that eating foods rich in lutein and zeaxanthin can help protect the macula, that obese individuals have lower amounts of macular pigment than non-obese people, and that people with very low body fat levels have a higher amount of carotenoids in their blood, which could lead to more pigment in the macula.
Now that we have dozens of studies with hundreds of thousands of participants, I think doctors can pretty safely conclude that prescribing high doses of single antioxidant vitamins does not provide significant protection against heart disease. This is a finding that may disappoint some consumers, but I think one that in retrospect should not be terribly surprising.
Researchers have been interested in the use of antioxidants in the prevention of heart disease since the observation that free radical damage is an event that helps to trigger the process of artery blockage. Since antioxidants help prevent free radical damage, their supplementation is a logical approach to protection of the arteries and prevention of this blockage. A major complication with antioxidant supplementation, however, involves the interactive nature of antioxidants. Antioxidants work as a team in the body to quench these free radicals. Studies have generally found that single antioxidant interventions do not provide full protection against free radicals, and in some instances, have suggested that mega-doses of single nutrients can actually increase free radical production.
20 Common Foods with the Most Antioxidants
Editor's Note: USDA scientists analyzed antioxidant levels in more than 100 different foods, including fruits and vegetables. Each food was measured for antioxidant concentration as well as antioxidant capacity per serving size. Cranberries, blueberries, and blackberries ranked highest among the fruits studied. Beans, artichokes, and Russet potatoes were tops among the vegetables. Pecans, walnuts, and hazelnuts ranked highest in the nut category.
USDA chemist Ronald L. Prior says the total antioxidant capacity of the foods does not necessarily reflect their health benefit. Benefits depend on how the food's antioxidants are absorbed and utilized in the body. Still, this chart should help consumers trying to add more antioxidants to their daily diet.
Rank Food item serving size Total antioxidant capacity per serving size
1 Small Red Bean (dried) Half cup 13,727
2 Wild blueberries 1 cup 13,427
3 Red kidney bean (dried) Half cup 13,259
4 Pinto bean Half cup 11,864
5 Blueberry (cultivated) 1 cup 9,019
6 Cranberry 1 cup (whole) 8,983
7 Artichoke (cooked) 1 cup (hearts) 7,904
8 Blackberry 1 cup 7,701
9 Prune Half cup 7,291
10 Raspberry 1 cup 6,058
11 Strawberry 1 cup 5,938
12 Red Delicious apple 1 whole 5,900
13 Granny Smith apple 1 whole 5,381
14 Pecan 1 ounce 5,095
15 Sweet cherry 1 cup 4,873
16 Black plum 1 whole 4,844
17 Russet potato (cooked) 1 whole 4,649
18 Black beans (dried) Half cup 4,181
19 Plum 1 whole 4,118
20 Gala apples 1 whole 3,903
Virtually all berries & especially those with blue-black coloration have antioxidants that apparently protect the body from many ill effects of aging. These might or might not increase overall life expectancy, & might or might not have immediately measurable health effects; what is more certain is that a lifetime of including these berries in the diet helps preserve the quality of life toward the end.
There are scores of health food store herbal products that boast of their antioxidant value, when in reality these claims are based on (if anything) studies not of food supplements but of pharmaceutical grade extracts, & even those may not have a very strong likelihood of health benefit outside of a poultry dish or high-dose animal modeled study. The assortment of stale herbs & extracts marketed to a gullible public rarely make health claims on their packaging, but in pamphlets, magazine articles, books, & from retail checkers' gossip, sales recommendations, lies, & allegations, many of these products are said to extend life & cure cancer & all sorts of other things, due to the antioxidants. In reality the vast majority of these products do nothing whatsoever.
Researchers also found that cooking method also had a significant effect on the antioxidant content of the foods tested, but those effects were not consistent.
For example, cooked Russet and red potatoes had much lower antioxidant levels than those found in raw potatoes. Boiling also decreased antioxidant levels in carrots, but cooking tomatoes increased their antioxidant content.
The Experiment On antioxidants
The study used cultured human cells of the retinal pigmented epithelium treated with hydrogen peroxide as the oxidative stress agent. Oxidative damage was measured using a special histochemical staining procedure.
Cells treated with hydrogen peroxide alone (the control group) suffered significantly more damage than cells treated with hydrogen peroxide and quercetin. Intracellular glutathione (one of the body’s intrinsic antioxidants) was not altered by hydrogen peroxide treatment or by quercetin (glutathione was measure as reduced GSH only in this study), showing that quercetin’s protective effects might be independent of glutathione. (However, previous studies, which measured different forms and ratios of glutathione, have shown increased intracellular glutathione after addition of quercetin.)
The protective mechanisms of quercetin were demonstrated to be related to its ability to reduce the activity of caspase-3 and level of caveolin-1, both of which were induced by hydrogen peroxide.
The researchers also chose to supplement their mice with a variety of powerful antioxidants. That's because antioxidants work synergistically in their ability to provide protection against free radicals, so it is better to take smaller doses of several different antioxidants than a large dose of only one. This finding has implications for diet as well as supplementation.
Some examples of obtaining a broad spectrum of antioxidants from the diet would be found in the decision to eat a variety of fruits during the day. By choosing to eat different fruits of different colors, you will obtain a much broader variety of antioxidants than you would if you chose to buy only a large bag of apples or oranges for the week. The variation in their color is your key to the variation of their antioxidant powers.
The same logic hold true with vegetables. You will achieve a much larger array of antioxidants by eating a salad made of small amounts of all the veggies on the salad bar than you will with a full size serving of only one variety. Again, let color be your guide. The more colors on your plate, the higher the variety of antioxidants.
If you are headed to the juice bar, don't just order the carrot juice. Ask for some of all the veggies or fruits they have available.
Berries are extremely rich in antioxidants. They have been shown to be especially protective against cancer.
If you decide to use antioxidant supplements, you can buy one of the multi-antioxidant formulations available. A better way may be to familiarize yourself with the major antioxidants and tailor your supplementation to the gaps in your diet. For example, if you eat a bowl of blueberries every morning, you won't need an antioxidant containing lutein.
Another experiment was conducted on smokers by the researchers
Smoking increases the risk of several chronic diseases associated with elevated oxidative stress status. Almonds are a good source of antioxidant nutrients and may diminish smoking-related biomarkers of oxidative stress. We investigated whether almond consumption decreases biomarkers of oxidative stress in young male smokers. We conducted a randomized, crossover clinical trial with 60 healthy male soldiers (18–25 y) who were habitual smokers (5–20 cigarettes/d) and supplemented their diet with 84 g almonds or 120 g pork (to control for calories) daily for 4 wk with a 4-wk washout period between treatment periods. In addition, 30 healthy nonsmoking men were provided the same daily serving of pork as reference comparison. Blood and urine were collected and assessed for biomarkers of oxidative stress. Baseline values of urinary 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) and malondialdehyde (MDA) and peripheral lymphocyte DNA strand breaks were significantly higher by 185, 64, and 97% in smokers than nonsmokers, whereas activities of plasma superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), and catalase were significantly lower by 15, 10, and 9%, respectively. After the almond intervention, serum {alpha}-tocopherol, SOD, and GPX increased significantly in smokers by 10, 35, and 16%, respectively and 8-OHdG, MDA, and DNA strand breaks decreased significantly by 28, 34, and 23%. In smokers, after almond supplementation, the concentration of 8-OHdG remained significantly greater than in nonsmokers by 98%. These results suggest almond intake can enhance antioxidant defenses and diminish biomarkers of oxidative stress in smokers.
Not too low, Not too high
Healthful circulating levels of quercetin (0.1 to 1 micromole) can be achieved by consuming 100 to 200 grams of onion a day. Other foods containing ample quercetin are listed as capers, ancho peppers, cranberries, fennel, cocoa, black currants, buckwheat, black tea, spinach, and wild greens.
Very high concentrations, 100 micromoles or higher, have been suggested in laboratory studies to induce chromosomal damage or cytotoxicity. So, “like many other especially lipid-soluble antioxidants, excessively elevated serum levels of quercetin may cause cellular injury.” (These very high levels were produced in laboratory experiments, but could also probably result from taking too many supplements.)
Clearing the Myth
Following an announcement of a new study showing the phenomenal benefits of antioxidants for preventing heart disease in women, the mainstream media rallied behind a blatantly false distortion of the study designed to convince the public that vitamins E and C are somehow useless. The popular press, which maintains an incestuous relationship with the pharmaceutical industry, once again demonstrates it is little more than a mouthpiece for the pro-pharma propaganda machine. There is no scrutiny of the study's findings, no critical thinking and absolutely no independent journalism being conducted by the mainstream media on this particular topic. It's as if these media outlets just can't wait to be spoon-fed the latest propaganda from drug company collaborators and then parrot it out to the public as fact.
The distortion in question concerns the assessment of women who participated in a nine year trial measuring the effects of vitamins E and C. According to the results published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, women who took these vitamins on a regular basis experienced a remarkable and statistically significant reduction in stroke risk (31 percent) and heart attack risk (22 percent). Not all the women in the study, of course, actually took the vitamins on a regular basis, and when you count the results of those women who never took the vitamins, the study shows no statistically significant benefits for vitamins E and C. In other words, the vitamins didn't work on those who didn't take them. (Is this surprising to anyone?)
The mainstream media has taken hold of this statistical distortion and declared that antioxidants are now useless for preventing heart disease. Utterly ignoring the fact that the vitamins worked remarkably well in those who actually took them, the media now seems to be on a crusade to discredit nutritional supplements by lying to its readers. Having abandoned all common sense or scientific scrutiny, the media is now engaged in an organized campaign of disinformation designed to boost the profits of their largest advertisers -- the drug companies -- by spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt about nutritional supplements.
Here are some of the headlines that appeared yesterday in the mainstream media. As you read these, keep in mind that these are stories based on a study that actually found significant protective benefits for those women who took the antioxidants:
A newly released study suggests that providing yourself with a broad spectrum of antioxidants will offer you protection even under such extreme conditions as total body irradiation. As published in the April, 2008 edition of Radiation Research, the purpose of this study was to determine whether a dietary supplement consisting of L-selenomethionine, vitamin C, vitamin E succinate, alpha-lipoic acid and N-acetyl cysteine could improve the survival of mice after total body irradiation.
Study and Results
Results of the study indicate that these antioxidants significantly increased the 30-day survival rate of the mice after their exposure to a potentially lethal dose of X rays when given prior to or after the irradiation. Pretreatment of animals with antioxidants resulted in significantly higher total white blood cell and neutrophil counts in peripheral blood. Antioxidants were effective in preventing peripheral lymphopenia (reduction in the number of lymphocytes circulating in the blood) only after low-dose radiation. Antioxidant supplementation was also associated with increased bone marrow cell counts after irradiation, and with increased Bcl2 and decreased Bax, caspase9 and TGF-beta1 mRNA expression in the bone marrow after irradiation.
Maintenance of the antioxidant diet was associated with improved recovery of the bone marrow after sub-lethal or potentially lethal irradiation.
The researchers concluded that when taken together, oral supplementation with antioxidants appears to be an effective approach for radioprotection of hematopoietic (blood forming) cells and improvement of animal survival. Modulation of apoptosis is implicated as a mechanism for the radioprotection of the hematopoietic system by antioxidants.
There have been studies to show that bilberry does indeed improve night vision." The science indeed proves nothing of the sort. Doubleblind placebo-controlled studies have disproven that bilberry improves night vision. This fool notion is based exclusively on urban folklore about RAF pilots being able to see in the dark because they had bilberry in their rations. This baseless fable has been widely circulated by herb promoters who, finding the science too often against them, prefer legends (see the separate article on Bilberries & the Myth of Night Vision for a full history of this particular fairy tale).
‘’One of the most encouraging studies holds that over 80% of the people taking bilberry for the first time improved on both their visual acuity exam & on a night vision test." The "80%" figure seems to have been snatched out of the herb-packager's arse. Several different bilberry extract distributors & packagers provide sales-pitch literature with some of these same stories in variant paraphrases, so they're all cribbing from one another without bothering with such niceties as actual sources.
If "one" such study exists it would be contradicted by all the rest. If the unusual study, uncited but alluded to, does actually existed, one wonders why the herb packager would refuse to cite the institute, author, date, or peer-reviewed publication. No such study makes these flat assertions, & the placebo-controlled doubleblind study conducted by Lt. Eric Muth, Ph.D., for the US Navy, found that no improvement of night vision occurs. The study, to quote it exactly, "failed to find an effect of bilberry on night vision acuity or night contrast sensitivity for a high dose of bilberry taken for a significant duration." That's the finding. So vendors who persist in advertising to the contrary are lying their asses off.
"Bilberry concentrate is prepared to specifically contain at least 25% anthocyanosides." Because the product is sold as a food supplement & not as a pharmaceutical, it is not required by law to meet the minimal requirements for a pharmaceutical grade extract. Because of the lack of federal regulations & standards for the manufacture of these products, they tend to be of poor & inconsistent quality, & it is not possible to obtain a predictable dosage from such products.
Furthermore, this claim to "contain at least 25% anthocyanosides" though it strongly implies that the bottle you are purchasing contains 25% anthocyanosides, it doesn't actually claim that because it isn't true. It says that whatever percentage of bilberry extract is in the bottle (a percentage which is not revealed) was originally prepared to be 25% anthocyanosides. That ingredient, before it reaches the user, is diluted with grape skin extract, so for all you can tell it may have less than 1% anthocyanosides.
"Anthocyanoside is one of the more effective antioxidants." Yes, anthocyanosides are excellent antioxidants which is why one should eat plenty of fruit & berries & fruit juices & unsweetened jams & jellies. It does not mean to pop more pills, not even if the quality of the pills & extracts were less wildly unpreditable than is the case.
"In fact, it is ranked higher in power than vitamins E & C." Which if true has nothing at all to do with the product being pitched. The claim of being better than vitamins would have to be given some sort of context to have even a faint possibility of meaning. Various antioxidants have various values throughout the body. Anthocyanoside may under some circumstances but not universally prove to be "higher in power," although that Alcoholics Anonymous style phrase intentionally has no medical meaning & plays instead to faith.
"In addition to finding that bilberry improves night vision, studies have also shown that it improves nearsightedness & overall visual acuity during the day as well." When they harp this much on the alleged value that is definitively disproven, you just know they don't care about what is true, & just want to reinforce popular delusions. It is widely but very incorrectly believed that bilberry assists macular degeneration, nearsightedness, & all sorts of eye problems, but it does not.
"Scientists believe that this improvement might be due to bilberry's effect on the blood supply." What a fabulously unscientific phrase. By "this improvement" they mean the disproven claim of improving vision or curing vision defects. What "scientists believe" would depend on what church they go to, but what they have proven in doubleblind studies is that bilberry does not improve vision. Yes, bilberries are healthy; the pills, probably not. Antioxidants do assist blood circulation which in turn should be very beneficial to overall health & the effects of aging on heart, mind, & body. Getting your antioxidants by eating plenty of fruits, including from the genus of Vacciniums, is a very, very, very good idea. Which has nothing to do with the product being pitched.
"Our bilberry extract is meticulously manufactured under strict quality control standards." Happily for them, but not for you, no law requires this be true, & "meticulous" could well mean the local health department didn't find too many rats in the bottling plant. By "our bilberry extract" they mean someone else's bilberry extract, because all the packagers get their ingredients in large drums to mix with other ingredients, but do not really do more than package, distribute, & promote products. These packagers have no direct authority over "quality control," a term they can define in any manner they desire. "Quality control" could for all we can judge mean very few rodent feces & cockroach particles end up in the bottles.
"It is extracted to provide an optimal level of 25% natural occurring anthocyanosides." This fib occurs twice in the sales pitch, in case you weren't convinced the first time they lied to you. Reality: The herbal industry is low-end in the marketing chain. The best harvests are sold as produce, or for use in food products, not for food supplements. Often only the skins rather than the whole fruit are used in the herb trade because skins are what are left over after the fruit juice & jelly factories are finished.
The buyer can never know if a purported berry-based extract is even made from fruit; being something of a "make use of waste product" sort of industry to start with, herb purveyers frequently draw their extracts & tinctures from leaves & twigs rather than from berries, & there'd be vastly more antioxide in a fruit roll-up from the candy store than a bottle from the healthfood store. Even the packagers & vendors themselves don't know precisely what is involved or included, since they are not the original manufacturer of the separately obtained ingredients.
Without an independent agency to investigate, any sales pitch claiming the highest standards of quality is just a sales pitch, which when turned over to an independent lab to find out for sure turns out scarcely ever to have been true.
"Additionally, it contains a full spectrum of components as they occur naturally in fresh whole bilberries." The product is in no way a substitute for "fresh whole bilberries." No lab test exists for "a full spectrum" of alkaloids & flavinoids in fruits, which is why lab researchers are continuously finding new chemical components of interest. So this is a promise that can't be tested or proven, but they make it anyway, because they're at heart slight-of-hand artists whose industry has far less to do with human health than with flimflam. The only way to be certain of "a full spectrum of components as they occur naturally in whole bilberries" would be to eat whole bilberries.
"Red grape skin extract & Citrus bioflavonoids work synergistically to enhance the proven benefits of Bilberry Extract." It sure took a hell of a long time to admit the product isn't actually bilberry extract, but a mixture of waste-product grape skins obtained after they were squeezed dry at a higher level in the food chain, plus an unspecified citrus content (lemon would be the cheapest, but they're unspecific so they can use whatever's on the market most cheaply in a given week). "Synergy" is one of the favorite catch-words of the herbal fan base, & vendors use the word whenever they wish to imply that adulterating a product is a good thing.
Bilberry being the more expensive food crop, would not be as profitably cost effective to sell as pure undiluted extract. But put a little of it in grape juice &/or lemon juice & sell it for the price of bilberry, woohoo! Unadulterated profit! It is doubtful that anyone buying this product, even if they read every bit of information carefully, quite realizes they are buying pills or extracts made of grape-skins & citrus.
And what the "proven benefits" are is left unspecified; the ones they claim, such as enhancement of night vision, are complete falsehoods.
13) "Potency guarantee: Bilberry fruit extract standardized to 25% anthocyanosides [and] Red Grape Skin Extract (vitis anthocyanidins) 50 mg. Citrus Bioflanonoid Complex 50 mg." What should be a statement of ingredients is misguidingly framed as some kind of guarantee, & they couldn't even fashion a complete sentence out of that bit of slight-of-hand. As an ingredient list rather than a guarantee, the three ingredients should be listed in order of amounts, though there's no reason to believe they are so listed. If bilberry happened to be the largest of three ingredients, that could mean it is 34% bilberry extract & 66% percent other. Since percentages aren't revealed by this company, however, it could well be primarily the world's cruddiest grape juice made from grape skins with scarsely an eyedropper drip of billberry. They've intentionally made it impossible to tell, & that's not apt to be because they're being so generous with the percentage.
And it could be worse than even a cynic would fear. A ConsumerLab analysis of another brand of Bilberry extract found that it had more milligrams of Docosohexoenoic Acid from tuna fish oil than it had bilberry. Vegetarians with herb fixations are quite often eating animal products & never know it, whether tuna oil posing as bilberry, or cow's feet for the gelatin capsules.
So this "guarantee" is useless on the face of it, as for all we can tell it only has 5% bilberry in it. What they are claiming (with no legal requirement to prove even this) is that 25% anthocyanoside is in the unrevealed percentage of bilberry. If that percentage of the ingredient can't be revealed, it's because it wouldn't be much of a sales point if you found out.
What if one wanted to call in this "guarantee"? Get your money back? Your ruined health back? Your dashed expectations restored? Personal apology from some organized crime godfather? The product could have as little as .1% anthocyanoside & still fulfill this poor excuse for a guarantee. Since they don't say what percentage of the ingredients is bilberry, even the most advanced lab testing could not ascertain if the .1% anthocyanoside was or was not 25% before other ingredients were added. So there is really no way to take advantage of the fatuous "guarantee."
But if you didn't read all the way to the bottom of the advertising claims, you would probably still believe you bought bilberry extract rather than some small percentage of bilberry mixed with grape skin juice & citrus. Herbal products are more often than not the dregs of the commercial food chain that would otherwise have gone into the trash compactor.
Many packagers & vendors will not give us so much fake information to analyze, as they don't want to risk recommending a product for something that might get them sued. "Use as recommended by your health care professional" is the entirety of what another packager of the same bilberry product advises under the heading "Recommended use." By "health care professional" they are counting on your reliance on some herbal quack or retail check-out teller or shelf-stocker or herb-promoting pop-book, or someone whose expertise amounts to having studied wicca, or a really dumb article in a promo-magazine given out free at the check-out stand. There are so many ways to reinforce false beliefs that the packages these products come in don't have to promise anything whatsoever, so most promise very little, & deliver less.
When they do trespass into the territory of recommendations & alleged proven values, they will almost always, as in the text quoted above, be using as much doubletalk & insinuation as they can, so that lying can be denied even though most readers' understanding of the text would lead them to conclude the product being sold was 25% anthocyanoside when it was not, will enhance night vision though it never would, & when rechecking the precise letter of their wording, they can deny they said any of it could ever have applied to their product anyway.
Without federal regulation they don't even have to provide essential warnings about risks. Completely missing from the advertisement I commented upon, & which poses as medical or scientific reporting, is any warning that concentrated bilberry may worsen clotting disorders & should not be taken with blood thinning medications including common aspirin, may be harmful to pregnant mothers, & should never be given to children (unfortunately, there are other companies selling mixtures of herbs including bilberry to treat attention deficit disorders in children; the product is not only worthless for the stated purpose, but the ingredients have never been assessed for safety for use by children).
Of course, if the vendor above quoted already knows the bilberry to grape juice ratio is very slight on the bilberry side, then they're on sound ground assuming risk is far too unimportant a factor to ever bother about contraindications, since its mainly grape juice after all.
The companies who sell this kind of swill have practically no regulations governing what they sell. I believe at least one federal law should be enacted for minimal protection of the public. Like cigarettes, these herbs too should have a warning label clearly marked as a "warning" with no doublespeak to make bad things look great. A concise unambiguous text should run something like this: "This product is a food supplement not a medication. This product has not been tested for safety or efficacy."
In the herb trade & among devotees of anything labeled alternative medicine, "antioxidant" has become a word similar to "abracadabra" which when spoken or printed in a pamphlet instantly confers the antioxidant value of fruits to pills & from pills to human life expectancy.
Anyone who is not gullible, unquestioning, superstitious, or stupid, already knows that herbal fads & folklore as filtered through the "food supplement" industry is 90% fraud & 10% confusion, rendering it difficult to believe the broad claims of the fantastical health values ascribed to bilberries.
But the idea of broadly healthful value for the antixoidants in fruits is largely factual. And if people who waste their money on indigestible "food supplements" devoid of the alleged health effects would, instead, eat plenty of fresh fruit, they would obtain legitimately much of what they thought they were getting from pills.
A 1999 article in The Journal of Neuroscience reported on animal-modeled studies conducted by Barbara Shukitt-Hale, PhD, at Tufts University, funded in part by the USDA. Funding sources are important to note; USDA funding would be less likely to introduce bias than, say, Blueberry Council funding, as the Blueberry Council would not renew funding if the findings were not pleasing to the Blueberry Council, & researchers whether intentionally or subconsiously are always influenced by the funding source.
There are scores of healthfood store herbal products that boast of their antioxidant value, when in reality these claims are based on (if anything) studies not of food supplements but of pharmaceutical grade extracts, & even those may not have a very strong likelihood of health benefit outside of a petry dish or high-dose animal modeled study. The assortment of stale herbs & extracts marketed to a gullible public rarely make health claims on their packaging, but in pamphlets, magazine articles, books, & from retail checkers' gossip, sales recommendations, lies, & allegations, many of these products are said to extend life & cure cancer & all sorts of other things, due to the antioxidants. In reality the vast majority of these products do nothing whatsoever (see the article on Ginkgo biloba for an example of the sad truth versus the sales pitches & baseless beliefs).
Disease treatment
The brain is uniquely vulnerable to oxidative injury. Consequently, antioxidants are commonly used as medications to treat various forms of brain injury.
Antioxidants can cancel out the cell-damaging effects of free radicals. Furthermore, people who eat fruits and vegetables, which are good sources of antioxidants, have a lower risk of heart disease and some neurological diseases, and there is evidence that some types of vegetables, and fruits in general, probably protect against a number of cancers. These observations suggested that antioxidants might help prevent these conditions. There is some evidence that antioxidants might help prevent diseases such as macular degeneration, suppressed immunity due to poor nutrition, and neurodegeneration.
However, despite the clear role of oxidative stress in cardiovascular disease, controlled studies using antioxidant vitamins have observed no reduction in either the risk of developing heart disease, or the rate of progression of existing disease. This suggests that other substances in fruit and vegetables or a complex mix of substances, may contribute to the better cardiovascular health of those who consume more fruit and vegetables.
It is thought that oxidation of low density lipoprotein in the blood contributes to heart disease, and initial observational studies found that people taking Vitamin E supplements had a lower risk of developing heart disease. Consequently, at least seven large clinical trials were conducted to test the effects of antioxidant supplement with Vitamin E, in doses ranging from 50 to 600 mg per day. However, none of these trials found a statistically significant effect of Vitamin E on overall number of deaths or on deaths due to heart disease. It is not clear if the doses used in these trials or in most dietary supplements are capable of producing any significant decrease in oxidative stress.
While several trials have investigated supplements with high doses of antioxidants, the "Supplémentation en Vitamines et Mineraux Antioxydants" (SU.VI.MAX) study tested the effect of supplementation with doses comparable to those in a healthy diet. Over 12,500 French men and women took either low-dose antioxidants (120 mg of VIitamin C, 30 mg of vitamin E, 6 mg of beta carotene, 100 μg of selenium, and 20 mg of zinc) or placebo pills for an average of 7.5 years. The investigators found there was no statistically significant effect of the antioxidants on overall survival, cancer, or heart disease. However, a subgroup analysis showed a 31% reduction in the risk of cancer in men, but not women.
Many nutraceutical and health food companies now sell formulations of antioxidants as dietary supplements and these are widely used in industrialized countries. These supplements may include specific antioxidant chemicals, like resveratrol (from grape seeds), combinations of antioxidants, like the "ACES" products that contain beta carotene (provitamin A), vitamin C, vitamin E and Selenium, or herbs that contain antioxidants - such as green tea and jiaogulan as well as moringa. Although some levels of antioxidant vitamins and minerals in the diet are required for good health, there is considerable doubt as to whether antioxidant supplementation is beneficial, and if so, which antioxidant(s) are beneficial and in what amounts.
It has been suggested that moderate levels of oxidative stress may increase life expectancy of in the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, by inducing a protective response to increased levels of reactive oxygen species. However, the suggestion that increased life expectancy comes from increased oxidative stress conflicts with results seen in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the situation in mammals is even less clear.
A low calorie diet extends median and maximum lifespan in many animals. This effect may involve a reduction in oxidative stress. While there is good evidence to support the role of oxidative stress in aging in model organisms such as Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans, the evidence in mammals is less clear. Diets high in fruit and vegetables, which are high in antioxidants, promote health and reduce the effects of aging, however antioxidant vitamin supplementation has no detectable effect on the aging process, so the effects of fruit and vegetables may be unrelated to their antioxidant contents. One reason for this might be the fact that consuming antioxidant molecules such as polyphenols and vitamin E will produce changes in other parts of metabolism, so it may be these other non-antioxidant effects that are the real reason they are important in human nutrition.
In the herb trade & among devotees of anything labeled alternative medicine, "antioxidant" has become a word similar to "abracadabra" which when spoken or printed in a pamphlet instantly confers the antioxidant value of fruits to pills & from pills to human life expectancy.
Anyone who is not gullible, unquestioning, superstitious, or stupid, already knows that herbal fads & folklore as filtered through the "food supplement" industry is 90% fraud & 10% confusion, rendering it difficult to believe the broad claims of the fantastical health values ascribed to bilberries.
But the idea of broadly healthful value for the antixoidants in fruits is largely factual. And if people who waste their money on indigestible "food supplements" devoid of the alleged health effects would, instead, eat plenty of fresh fruit, they would obtain legitimately much of what they thought they were getting from pills.
A 1999 article in The Journal of Neuroscience reported on animal-modeled studies conducted by Barbara Shukitt-Hale, PhD, at Tufts University, funded in part by the USDA. Funding sources are important to note; USDA funding would be less likely to introduce bias than, say, Blueberry Council funding, as the Blueberry Council would not renew funding if the findings were not pleasing to the Blueberry Council, & researchers whether intentionally or subconsiously are always influenced by the funding source.
Physical exercise
During exercise, oxygen consumption can increase by a factor of more than 10. This leads to a large increase in the production of oxidants and results in damage that contributes to muscular fatigue during and after exercise. The inflammatory response that occurs after strenuous exercise is also associated with oxidative stress, especially in the 24 hours after an exercise session. The immune system response to damage done by exercise peaks 2 to 7 days after exercise, the period during which adaptation resulting in greater fitness is greatest. During this process, free radicals are produced by neutrophils to remove damaged tissue. As a result, excessive antioxidant levels have the potential to inhibit recovery and adaptation mechanisms.
The evidence for benefits from antioxidant supplementation in vigorous exercise is mixed. There is strong evidence that one of the adaptations resulting from exercise is a strengthening of the body's antioxidant defenses, particularly the glutathione system, to deal with the increased oxidative stress. It is possible that this effect may be to some extent protective against diseases which are associated with oxidative stress, which would provide a partial explanation for the lower incidence of major diseases and better health of those who undertake regular exercise.
However, no benefits to athletes are seen with vitamin A or E supplementation. For example, despite its key role in preventing lipid membrane peroxidation, 6 weeks of vitamin E supplementation had no effect on muscle damage in ultramarathon runners. Although there appears to be no increased requirement for vitamin C in athletes, there is some evidence that vitamin C supplementation increased the amount of intense exercise that can be done and vitamin C supplementation before strenuous exercise may reduce the amount of muscle damage. However, other studies found no such effects, and some research suggests that supplementation with amounts as high as 1000 mg inhibits recovery.
Adverse effects
Relatively strong reducing acids can have anti-nutritional effects by binding to dietary minerals such as iron and zinc in the gastrointestinal tract and preventing them from being absorbed.Notable examples are oxalic acid, tannins and phytic acid, which are high in plant-based diets. Calcium and iron deficiencies are not uncommon in diets in developing countries where less meat is eaten and there is high consumption of phytic acid from beans and unleavened whole grain bread.
Foods Reducing acid present
Cocoa and chocolate, spinach, turnip and rhubarb.Oxalic acid
Whole grains, maize, legumes. Phytic acid
Tea, beans, cabbage. Tannins
Antioxidants such as eugenol, a major component of oil of cloves have toxicity limits that can be exceeded with the misuse of undiluted essential oils. Toxicity associated with high doses of water-soluble antioxidants such as vitamin C are less of a concern, as these compounds can be excreted rapidly in urine. More seriously, very high doses of some antioxidants may have harmful long-term effects. The beta-Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial (CARET) study of lung cancer patients found that smokers given supplements containing beta-carotene and vitamin A had increased rates of lung cancer. Subsequent studies confirmed these adverse effects.
These harmful effects may also be seen in non-smokers, as a recent meta-analysis including data from approximately 230,000 patients showed that β-carotene, vitamin A or vitamin E supplementation is associated with increased mortality but saw no significant effect from vitamin C.
No health risk was seen when all the randomized controlled studies were examined together, but an increase in mortality was detected only when the high-quality and low-bias risk trials were examined separately. However, as the majority of these low-bias trials dealt with either elderly people, or people already suffering disease, these results may not apply to the general population. This meta-analysis was later repeated and extended by the same authors, with the new analysis published by the Cochrane Collaboration; confirming the previous results.These two publications are consistent with some previous meta-analyzes that also suggested that Vitamin E supplementation increased mortality, and that antioxidant supplements increased the risk of colon cancer. However, the results of this meta-analysis are inconsistent with other studies such as the SU.VI.MAX trial, which suggested that antioxidants have no effect on cause-all mortality. Overall, the large number of clinical trials carried out on antioxidant supplements suggest that either these products have no effect on health, or that they cause a small increase in mortality in elderly or vulnerable populations.
While antioxidant supplementation is widely used in attempts to prevent the development of cancer, it has been proposed that antioxidants may, paradoxically, interfere with cancer treatments. This was thought to occur since the environment of cancer cells causes high levels of oxidative stress, making these cells more susceptible to the further oxidative stress induced by treatments. However, this concern appears not to be valid, as it has been addressed by multiple clinical trials that indicate that antioxidants are either neutral or beneficial in cancer therapy.
SOURCES AND FOOD LEVELS
Antioxidants are found in the nutrient antioxidants, vitamins A, C and E, and the minerals copper, zinc and selenium. Other dietary food compounds, such as the phytochemicals in plants and zoochemicals from animal products, are believed to have greater antioxidant effects than either vitamins or minerals. These are called the non-nutrient antioxidants and include phytochemicals, such as lycopenes in tomatoes, and anthocyanins found in cranberries.
Antioxidant Riches Found in Unexpected Foods Beans like Berries, Spices, and Potatoes Are Antioxidant Powerhouses By Jennifer Warner Health News Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MDJune 17, 2004 -- Blueberries may be the poster children for antioxidant abundance, but a new study suggests the humble bean may be a more deserving candidate.The largest and most advanced analysis of the antioxidant content of common foods to date shows that disease-fighting antioxidants may be found in unexpected fruits and vegetables, such as beans, artichokes, and even the much-maligned Russet potato.Researchers found that small red beans contain more disease-fighting antioxidants than both wild and cultivated blueberries, which have been heralded in recent years for their high antioxidant content. In fact, three of the top five antioxidant-rich foods studied were beans.The study also shows that nuts and spices, such as ground cloves, cinnamon, and oregano, are rich in antioxidants, although they are generally consumed in much smaller amounts than fruits and vegetables.
Ranking Antioxidant-Rich Foods. The study, which appears in the June 9 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, used updated technology to assess the antioxidant content of more than 100 foods, including fruits, vegetables, cereals, breads, nuts, and spices. Each food was analyzed for antioxidant concentration and ranked according to antioxidant capacity per serving size. But researchers note that the total antioxidant capacity of a food does not necessarily reflect their potential health benefit.
"A big factor in all of this is what happens in the digestion and absorption process," says Researcher Ronald.Prior, PhD, a chemist and nutritionist with the USDA's Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center in Little Rock, Ark. "With some of these compounds, it appears that even though they have a high antioxidant capacity, they may not be absorbed."Cranberries, blueberries, and blackberries were ranked highest among the fruits studied. Beans, artichokes, and Russet potatoes were tops among the vegetables.Pecans, walnuts, and hazelnuts were the winners in the nut category, and ground cloves, cinnamon, and oregano were the top three antioxidant-rich spices.
The largest and most advanced analysis of the antioxidant content of common foods to date shows that disease-fighting antioxidants may be found in unexpected fruits and vegetables, such as beans, artichokes, and even the much-maligned Russet potato.
Measurement of antioxidants is not a straightforward process, as this is a diverse group of compounds with different reactivities to different reactive oxygen species. In food science, the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) has become the current industry standard for assessing antioxidant strength of whole foods, juices and food additives. Other measurement tests include the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent, and the trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity assay. In medicine, a range of different assays are used to assess the antioxidant capability of blood plasma and of these, the ORAC assay may be the most reliable.
Antioxidants are found in varying amounts in foods such as vegetables, fruits, grain cereals, legumes and nuts. Some antioxidants such as lycopene and Vitamin C can be destroyed by long-term storage or prolonged cooking. Other antioxidant compounds are more stable, such as the polyphenolic antioxidants in foods such as whole-wheat cereals and tea. In general, processed foods contain less antioxidants than fresh and uncooked foods, since the preparation processes may expose the food to oxygen.
Antioxidant compounds Foods containing high levels of these antioxidants
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) :Fruits and vegetables
Vitamin E (tocopherols, tocotrienols) :Vegetable oils
Polyphenolic antioxidants (resveratrol, flavonoids) :Tea, coffee, soy, fruit, olive oil, chocolate, oregano and red wine.
Carotenoids (lycopene, carotenes) :Fruit and vegetables
Some antioxidants are made in the body and are not absorbed from the intestine. One example is glutathione, which is made from amino acids. As any glutathione in the gut is broken down to free cysteine, glycine and glutamic acid before being absorbed, even large oral doses have little effect on the concentration of glutathione in the body.
Unfortunately, today's food supply reflects less than ideal conditions, so it is quite difficult to get enough antioxidants from your diet to protect you from the ever increasing levels of free radicals generated in our polluted environment. As a result, many people are turning to dietary supplements, which can be extremely effective, as this study indicates.
The Tufts University research & others usually note that the antioxidant theory is still only a theory -- the best guess as to why certain foods from beans to blueberries seem to have a positive effect on human health & aging.
The bottom line seems to be all edible berries are good for their antioxidant activity, with blueberries & black currants & tart cherries quite a lot higher than the average. Studies have been done on concentrated extracts, freeze-dried fruits, & fresh or fresh-frozen fruits, & all show these same values.
In our Meat, Eggs, Bread & Pasta age, too few human diets include enough veggies & fruits to get the positive effects being discussed. Dried herbal supplements are way too trivial in their antioxidant potential to make up the difference. If dried fruits or fruit-roll-ups replaced candy intake; if more fruits were gotten into the diet by means of jellies & jams & fresh fruits; if some kind of berry could be included with almost every meal, a family would be well on the way to obtaining a maximum daily intake of antioxidants. Taking on the "hobbies" of baking berry cobblers, or seasonally canning berries as jams, jellies, & preserves for use later in the year, would more than do the trick.
One easy way to get people to "accidentally" take in enough berry concentrates without having to start a new hobby or force fresh fruit down everyone's throat would be if all soda pops & sweetened teas & other packaged drinks were not just colored sugar waters, but had berry concentrates as their main sweeteners or entire content. Since this isn't the case for most such products, a consumer will just have to make the health-conscious choice to purchase & bring home no soda pops or artificially flavored drinks ever again, but expose the family exclusively to fruit drinks. The Tufts University research & others usually note that the antioxidant theory is still only a theory -- the best guess as to why certain foods from beans to blueberries seem to have a positive effect on human health & aging.
The bottom line seems to be all edible berries are good for their antioxidant activity, with blueberries & black currants & tart cherries quite a lot higher than the average. Studies have been done on concentrated extracts, freeze-dried fruits, & fresh or fresh-frozen fruits, & all show these same values.
In our Meat, Eggs, Bread & Pasta age, too few human diets include enough veggies & fruits to get the positive effects being discussed. Dried herbal supplements are way too trivial in their antioxidant potential to make up the difference. If dried fruits or fruit-roll-ups replaced candy intake; if more fruits were gotten into the diet by means of jellies & jams & fresh fruits; if some kind of berry could be included with almost every meal, a family would be well on the way to obtaining a maximum daily intake of antioxidants. Taking on the "hobbies" of baking berry cobblers, or seasonally canning berries as jams, jellies, & preserves for use later in the year, would more than do the trick.
One easy way to get people to "accidentally" take in enough berry concentrates without having to start a new hobby or force fresh fruit down everyone's throat would be if all soda pops & sweetened teas & other packaged drinks were not just colored sugar waters, but had berry concentrates as their main sweeteners or entire content. Since this isn't the case for most such products, a consumer will just have to make the health-conscious choice to purchase & bring home no soda pops or artificially flavored drinks ever again, but expose the family exclusively to fruit drinks.
USES IN TECHNOLOGY
Food preservatives
Antioxidants are used as food additives to help guard against food deterioration. Exposure to oxygen and sunlight are the two main factors in the oxidation of food, so food is preserved by keeping in the dark and sealing it in containers or even coating it in wax, as with cucumbers. However, as oxygen is also important for plant respiration, storing plant materials in anaerobic conditions produces unpleasant flavors and unappealing colors. Consequently, packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables contains an ~8% oxygen atmosphere. Antioxidants are an especially important class of preservatives as, unlike bacterial or fungal spoilage, oxidation reactions still occur relatively rapidly in frozen or refrigerated food. These preservatives include ascorbic acid (AA, E300), propyl gallate (PG, E310), tocopherols (E306), tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA, E320) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT, E321).[184][185]
The most common molecules attacked by oxidation are unsaturated fats; oxidation causes them to turn rancid. Since oxidized lipids are often discolored and usually have unpleasant tastes such as metallic or sulfurous flavors, it is important to avoid oxidation in fat-rich foods. Thus, these foods are rarely preserved by drying; instead, they are preserved by smoking, salting or fermenting. Even less fatty foods such as fruits are sprayed with sulfurous antioxidants prior to air drying. Oxidation is often catalyzed by metals, which is why fats such as butter should never be wrapped in aluminium foil or kept in metal containers. Some fatty foods such as olive oil are partially protected from oxidation by their natural content of antioxidants, but remain sensitive to photooxidation.
INDUSTRIAL USES
Some antioxidants are added to industrial products. A common use is as stabilizers in fuels and lubricants to prevent oxidation, and in gasolines to prevent the polymerization that leads to the formation of engine-fouling residues.They are also used to prevent the oxidative degradation of rubber, plastics and adhesives that causes a loss of strength and flexibility in these materials. Antioxidant preservatives are also added to fat-based cosmetics such as lipstick and moisturizers to prevent rancidity.
The performance of macromolecular antioxidants in a wide range of materials shows significantly higher oxidative resistance. These molecules also have higher thermal stability. The enhanced activity of Polnox PNX AO, for example, suggests that one could use three times less the amount of antioxidant used today in polyolefin such as PE or PP without sacrificing their performance. Another benefit of using lower amount of antioxidants is that it minimizes the unwanted inter chemical transformation reactions such as discoloring. Discoloring of the finished product due to inter chemical transformation reactions is one of the major concerns in the plastics industry. This is often referred to as 'phenolic yellowing or pinking'. This problem is very serious in cases where chemically transformed molecules tend to come to the surface as a result of migration. The diffusion of such molecules scales approximately as the inverse of the cube root of the molecular weight. High molecular weight, macromolecular antioxidants developed by Polnox possessing significantly improved thermal stability along with higher antioxidant activity may assist in solving this serious industrial problem in plastics.
In the case of oils and lubricants, the performance of PNX antioxidant is significantly better compared to presently used antioxidants. The Oxidation Stability Index (OSI) (AOCS Cd-12b-92 method of American Oil Chemists Association), Total Acid Number (TCN) test and Free Fatty Acid (FFA) test on soybean oil samples containing TBHQ and Polnox AOs which are heated at 190 °C for different lengths of time show a superior performance of Polnox PNX AOs compared to currently used AO.
Free fatty acid (FFA) content in oil is dependent on the quality of oil. They are formed due to breakdown of oil molecules, triglycerides into its components (fatty acids and glycerol). Antioxidants help to preserve the quality of oil by retarding the oxidative degradation of oil in the presence of heat, light and oxygen thus lowering the formation of free fatty acid. It is known that high free fatty acids levels may not be good for human health. There is evidence that they may cause a number of problems if the free fatty acids content is too high. Thus antioxidants that lower the formation of these free fatty acids by preserving the oil is beneficial to human health. The plot shows that Polnox AO has a superior performance in protecting the oil from breaking down into free fatty acids as a result of the oxidation process at frying temperatures.
Thermal stability of antioxidants plays a key role in their ability to protect materials. For example, many of the antioxidants that are used in food applications are prone to volatilize or degrade themselves at temperatures ca. 200 C. This is not the case with Polnox antioxidants, which are stable even at 375 C. This is one of the main reasons why the quality of oil is excellent in cases where Polnox antioxidants are used. In addition, Polnox macromolecular antioxidants are equally effective in gasoline oil and lubricants. In summary, macromolecular antioxidants developed by Dr. Cholli and his team at Polnox is a disruptive technology and effective in many materials that have been tested so date. Antioxidants created using this innovative technology are cost effective and have a superior price-performance ratio.
The antioxidant activities (measured as AA%) of starting materials and macromolecular antioxidants are evaluated according to the method reported in Food Chemistry 73, 285 (2001) and Phytochemistry, 37, 1585 (1994). A typical antioxidant activity measurement profile based on the assay for the current commercial AO and Polnox's macromolecular AO are compared. Antioxidant activity of antioxidants at 100 ppm concentration were measured by the bleaching of the - carotene system. The mechanism of bleaching of -carotene is a free-radical mediated phenomenon. In this model system, -carotene undergoes rapid discoloration in the absence of an antioxidant. The linoleic acid free radical, formed upon the abstraction of a hydrogen atom from its diallylic methylene groups, attacks the highly unsaturated -carotene molecules. As -carotene molecules lose their double bonds by oxidation, the compound loses its chromophore and characteristic orange color. The amount of sample used for the analysis is the same for both monomers and macromolecular AOs. The percentage of increased antioxidant activity ranged between 30% for PNX AO1 to 1450% for PNX AO3 as compared to the corresponding current commercial antioxidants. Polnox's enhanced antioxidant performance is most probably due to the collective ability of multiple oxidizable sites on these macromolecules to react rapidly to the oxidation-causing event as well as due to their molecular weight. In addition, the radicals that are generated in the macromolecules are likely to be more stable compared to the current commercial and smaller antioxidant radicals. The performance of these PNX AOs in consumer products has also been evaluated using industry standard tests such as ASTM, AOCS and other methods show significantly improved activities and performances.
Conclusion:
Turning truth upside down
Of course, the idea that antioxidants are useless for preventing disease is as absurd as thinking the Earth is the center of the universe, or that pigs can fly. Yet this is the position being promoted by the press today in blatant abandonment of all rational thought. To state that vitamins don't work on women who don't take them is classic doublespeak ripped right out of the pages of the novel 1984. You might as well say that pharmaceuticals don't work on people who don't take them, either.
I wonder why they even bothered to give antioxidants to the participating women at all. If you're going to count the results of all the women who don't take the supplements, why not simply launch the study, give vitamins to no one, then announce the conclusion that vitamins don't work? This could create a whole new way to conduct clinical research: Track the health results in people who have taken nothing! Think of what we could accomplish in medical science by following this model -- we could test thousands of different substances by simply giving them to no one, then declaring whatever results we wish to notice!
Ultimately, that's what's going on here anyway. Researchers are simply declaring whatever they want with no real regard to scientific truth or common sense. Much of medical science today has become a self-reinforcing exercise in pro-pharma dogma. Listening to drug-company funded researchers talk about nutritional science is a lot like listening to President Bush talk about peace: There is simply no connection with reality.
There is no health announcement too absurd for the mainstream media to print. If the American Medical Association declared water to be harmful to human health, the media would run the story without asking a single question. If the FDA declared all vitamins to be toxic and announced a nationwide ban on all dietary supplements, the mainstream media would fall right into step, parroting whatever scientific half-truths the FDA was spouting at that particular moment. If the American Cancer Society declared that sunlight caused cancer and that the citizens should avoid sunlight and cover their skin with toxic chemical creams to block out the sun, the press would gladly run with that story, too. Come to think of it, they already have: That's the story on sunscreen, and just about everything you read in the mainstream media about sunlight and sunscreen is blatantly false.
There are so many falsehoods routinely printed in the mainstream media these days that it has become a rarity to find any piece of truth. From fudged war casualty numbers to details about health care in America today, the media has proven itself incapable of printing anything resembling factual truth. Instead, it has become a pro-war, pro-corporation, pro-disease, pro-market, profit-minded mouthpiece for the corrupt elite who now run this country.
Keeping the population distracted
As such, the media has quite literally become the enemy of the people. Rather than informing people about things that matter in the world, the media uses its power to fill peoples' heads with falsehoods. And when it's not reporting falsehoods, it's keeping the people distracted with wall-to-wall coverage of stories that really don't matter at all, such as celebrity mishaps, isolated acts of violence (always with explicit footage) and fear-mongering campaigns (the terror alert is now orange again!).
This nation no longer has any desire to keep its people informed, educated or healthy. The effort now is to keep people misinformed, ignorant and diseased. This is accomplished precisely through actions like this antioxidant study in which researchers pretending to conduct science send fabricated stories to a press pretending to report the news. When this kind of action is repeated a few hundred times a year, it leaves the population distrusting all nutritional supplements and believing that only synthetic patented chemicals (pharmaceuticals) can solve their health problems. It is no coincidence that pharmaceuticals are allowed to be advertised everywhere, promoted with outrageously false claims of benefits, and that such advertising is in no way regulated by anyone. "Free speech" is granted to pharmaceutical companies, but not to dietary supplement companies. It is my belief that free speech is not free if it only selectively allowed.
So we have a conspiratorial trio now working in concert to keep you stupid and diseased: The mainstream media (which takes billions of dollars each year from drug companies), the drug companies (which earn billions of dollars each year selling advertised drugs), and the FDA (which enforces the monopoly and eliminates competition by censoring truthful information about dietary supplements). It is this trio which explains why Americans now pay the highest prices in the world for health care and yet are simultaneously the most diseased people of any industrialized nation in the world.
In Africa the continents is coming to a point where food supplements are becoming more and more acceptable and our natural plants are promoted which are rich in vitamins and other supplements. The government of expectably Ghana(my Country)has promoted the use of moringa as a food supplements for schools and other places of eating such as restaurants and hotels.
This has enhanced life span and brought people into the farming of this plant.
The truth of these natural food supplements should be encouraged to minimized diseases.
If you look at your food as sustaining your health as well as the environment, the price of organically grown food seems well worth it. Recent studies have shown organic fruits and vegetables contain more vitamins, and a little soil science explains why.
A large, four-year research project in Britain recently reported that organic crops grown adjacent to conventionally grown crops contained as much as 40% more antioxidants, those vitamins heralded by scientists for protecting against heart disease, cancer, strokes and other health problems.
These results from Europe don’t come as a surprise to supporters of organic farming. While the next phase of the UK study will research how the nutritional quality of the food is affected by agricultural methods, organic proponents here in the United States have some answers.
“It comes down to the health of the soil,” explains Bob Schaffer, co-founder of Soil Culture Consulting. We caught Schaffer just after he gave a talk on Whole Farming Systems to 1,200 people at the Acres USA Conference. “If we don’t look after the environment, then we won’t get healthy plants,” he said.
“The plant and the soil are highly attuned to the microorganisms in it – this is the whole system,” said Schaffer. “Plants have an inherent genetic need to protect themselves against disease, sunlight and pests through antioxidant production. The levels of protective vitamins, the antioxidants that the plants produce for their own benefit, are higher in plants not damaged by pesticides and excessive fertilizer. When we eat those plants, every nutrient in the food literally becomes a medicine for us too.”
“Those levels of protective vitamins are higher in organically grown plants,” explained Schaffer, “because the plant’s inherent disease protection mechanisms are naturally stressed. The plant produces more antioxidants, like vitamins C, E and thiamine, and toughens its cells with more calcium and boron. When we consume the plant, those antioxidants are carried into our blood and give us the same protection.”
If you take the view of conventional farming that you can just add nutrients out of a bag, the plant loses some of its ability to protect itself, he adds. “The plant gets bigger, but not stronger.” Schaffer likens it to humans – exercise stresses you but makes you stronger.
Nancy Redfeather, a sustainable mini-farm owner and Coordinator of the Hawaii Island School Garden Network, says that studies have shown a steady decline in the nutrients in the soil and in the vegetables we eat since the industrialization of farming and application of chemicals to agriculture. She believes that returning to natural farming methods can restore the integrity of the soil.
With organic farming, no chemical fertilizers or pesticides are used to detract from the balance of the dynamic universe of the earth, says Shekina Carrillo, another organic farmer in Hawaii. “We have a very intimate relationship with the soil, working diligently to create balanced trace minerals. At the same time, we’re using our own farm compost to nurture the hundreds of beneficial microorganisms that are working steadily to create a fertile, successful garden. We work with nature’s way – if a plant is unhealthy, that’s when bugs will come. If that happens, we correct the imbalance rather than fight the bugs.”
Schaffer sums up the reasons for choosing organically grown food, saying, “When we consume them, their antioxidants are carried into our blood and give us the same protection. So this is the gift of plants – the real medicine that the plants are giving us.”
Choosing organically grown food also provides the benefits of saving your own body, wildlife and our natural environment from the effects of toxic pesticides and other chemicals.
Finally, I have to wonder, what good is a free press if it's a false press? Our forefathers (and mothers) fought hard to create a nation with protections for the freedom of the press, and yet now the press has become the oppressor. There is no freedom in ignorance.
Nick Lane Oxygen: The Molecule That Made the World (Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN 0-198-60783-0
Barry Halliwell and John M.C. Gutteridge: Free Radicals in Biology and Medicine(Oxford University Press, 2007) ISBN 0-198-56869-X
Jan Pokorny, Nelly Yanishlieva and Michael H. Gordon: Antioxidants in Food: Practical Applications (CRC Press Inc, 2001) ISBN 0-849-31222-1
Malecula: (http://www.answers.com/macula?cat=health&y=0&x=0)
Malecular degeneration (LEF):((http://search.lef.org/cgi-src-bin/MsmGo...)
Malecular degeneration (AnswersDotCom):((http://www.answers.com/macular+degenera...)
Mole (micromole): ((http://www.answers.com/mole?cat=technol...)
Barbara L. Minton : Antioxidant Blends May Offer Protection in Life Threatening Conditions
Thursday, April 24, 2008
CTV.ca, Canada :Antioxidant pills don't prevent heart disease
Bloomberg :Antioxidants Don't Cut Heart Disease Rates in High-Risk Women
ABC News Vitamins No Magic Bullet for Heart Health
Forbes, NY Antioxidants No Magic Bullet for Heart Disease in Women
Natural Products Industry Insider Antioxidants Don't Impact CVD Events in High-Risk Women
Reuters Common vitamins no help for women's hearts - study
Nutrition and Disease :Almond Consumption Reduces Oxidative DNA Damage and Lipid Peroxidation in Male
National Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety, Chinese Center for Disease
Control and Prevention, Beijing 100050, China; and 4 Jean Mayer USDA Human
Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, MA 02111
National Food and drugs Board,Ghana,Accra
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