It's little appreciated in public information about antioxidants but our bodies are constantly producing oxygen free radicals in roles essential to our health.

Oxygen radicals are typically formed and disabled over a period of only milliseconds or seconds. Some of them are so transient that they are formed as gas molecules that, like a wisp, are here, exert their effect, then are neutralized in the blink of an eye.

 

Examples of what roles these short-life oxidation signals serve?

• local control of blood vessel tone for rapidly reducing or increasing blood flow
• creating rapid signals between adjacent cells
• inhibiting platelet aggregation and so reducing risk of blood clots
• initiating a cascade of mediators required for immune regulation
• destruction of pathogens in or near cells

 

An example of such an oxidant is nitric oxide, biological Molecule of the Year in 1992 and subject of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

When oxidation is unregulated or prolonged over months-years, damage to cells can result as the beginning of such diseases like cancer, arthritis, diabetes, heart and vascular disease plus others.

Many of these disorders begin first as part of the inflammation response.

 

      

Orange: A simple source of dietary antioxidants -- vitamin C and pro-vitamin A carotenoids.

 

What can we do to affect this possible course of unregulated oxidation effects in our bodies?

Consume more antioxidant-rich foods... every day

 

What are the key dietary antioxidant agents,

and which ones are not useful?

 

Key dietary nutrients --

the antioxidant "ACE" vitamins and

how to get them into your diet!!

 

• vitamin C click for plant sources!
• vitamin A (from plant foods containing carotenoids)
• vitamin E (from seeds, nuts, oils)

 

Polyphenols are NOT key dietary antioxidants -- here's why

Read a summary article about what physiological

roles polyphenols likely have in the human body -- click!

mechanisms pertaining to cardiovascular disease

and cancer are discussed

(polyphenols are the parent family of plant chemicals

called flavonoids referred to in this article)

 

There are new research-based theories about what polyphenols may be doing in the human body after digestion.  Here are a few

 

Polyphenols account for the colors of

these different berries, but likely do not contribute the same

antioxidant benefit after digestion as they do in the lab test tube.

Berries are good sources of vitamins C and E (in seeds, if chewed)

 

 

 

Alphonso mango (Mangifera indica L.), a simple and

delicious dietary solution for getting your vitamins A

(from carotenoids) and C

 

Check out the

new Archives just for superfruit essays, click!