Consumers are witnessing a new era in how foods are identified.

New nutrients, not commonly understood for their health benefits,

seem to be popping up on our grocer’s shelves every day.

Omega fatty acids, newly defined sources of dietary fiber, and

antioxidant phytochemicals are examples of healthful plant components

that are creeping into public media reports and water-cooler debates.

Laboratory and preliminary human clinical studies are revealing anti-disease properties of some phytochemicals as “antioxidants”.

Extensive food and medical research underway presently will eventually translate the chemical properties into consumer understanding and terminology

we all will grasp and use in everyday conversation.

With such potential significance to public health, the consumer education process should begin now in a way that members of the public, from teenagers to grandparents,

can readily understand antioxidants as easily as we now

refer to calories, carbohydrates, fat percentage, and vitamin C.

The scientific and regulatory bodies for food labeling have a great challenge ahead of them.

There are thousands of plant food sources with suspected health benefits having complicated chemical names that are unfamiliar and can be intimidating.

The challenge at hand is to decipher this blizzard of names and promote

better nutrition for our families and for ourselves.

Why Antioxidants?

The antioxidant chemicals that we get from colorful plant foods are our best defense against threatening oxidative stress, a normal part of cellular metabolism

that occurs even in healthy people.

Normally, oxidative species are neutralized by antioxidant enzymes present in

our bodies and from food-derived antioxidants.

However, the following circumstances can cause an imbalanced oxidant-antioxidant relationship that allows oxidative stress to go unopposed.

• Contamination by environmental pathogens like ultraviolet irradiation

and toxic pollutants like cigarette smoke and inhaled chemicals

• Premature aging

• Poor dietary intake of essential nutrients and phytochemicals

The result of this imbalance is cellular disruption or

genetic pathologies leading to diseases like:

• Cancer
• Hypertension
• Diabetes
• Chronic inflammation
• Neuronal degeneration as in Alzheimer’s disease.

Oxidative stress is preventable.

We can achieve antioxidant protection mainly through our choice of diet.

Learn more next time when we consider the Color Code

for gaining antioxidant qualities through foods.

Dr. Paul
The Berry Doctor