Antioxidants

Antioxidants

I’ve witnessed an interesting experiment the past few weeks – I particularly enjoy it because I don’t have to do anything ---- apart from check the floor whilst having morning coffee! Some passionfruit ripened and fell to a shady part of the property I’m staying at. So, I left the fruit on the ground to see how long it would remain edible. I was surprised after a couple of weeks that most were still in mint condition and now after 5 weeks some of the fruit (admittedly in the minority) is still edible! The temp is consistently in the low to mid 20s every day and falling to low teens at night. The fruit is in the shade and on a cool patio floor. So, kind conditions but not "fridge" cold.

How is this fruit so well preserved?

Antioxidants – that’s how! The peel or skin of fruit is very high in antioxidants – much higher than the flesh. This defends the fruit from alien invasion. If the skin is blemished it will quickly deteriorate. A peeled apple will go brown quickly once it’s exposed to open air – because it has little to no antioxidant defense.

Like the plant world, animals use antioxidants in a defensive way. The body is constantly under threat from virus, bacteria, mould etc. Athletes in particular need a varied diet to replenish their antioxidant defences. Under duress the organs call on more antioxidants to defend them and so the organs need to restore the balance.

We are constantly told by dieticians to include colours in our diet – this is to ensure a broad balance of nutrients and antioxidants from different fruit and veg.

Antioxidants are used extensively in packaged foods. They protect against invasion of undesirable moulds/bacteria etc and they have been used for many years in this role - indeed there are very few packaged foods that don’t contain antioxidants.

How do we measure antioxidant levels?

There are several ways for measuring antioxidant levels but generally speaking we use vitamin E as a benchmark - eg a product might have 2500 units of "vitamin E equivalent antioxidant capacity".

So called "super foods" such as acai, goji berries, plum powder are given the tag because they are very high in antioxidants so regarded as a good form of dietary defense.

We are able to get similar levels in our Booster products by focusing the process on preserving nutrients.

How many different antioxidants exist?

There are too many different types to mention here! More common ones include polyphenols, vitamins, mineral forms (eg selenium), carotenes, flavonoids etc

There are fat-soluble forms and water-soluble forms, the body can produce its own forms and get some forms from only dietary sources.

There is a vast amount of different antioxidants and we are finding out more and more how important they are to everyday life.

Is it true that some antioxidants need other antioxidants or other nutrients to perform optimally?

Yes – the most well-known example of this is the link between selenium and vitamin E – both seem to perform better in the presence of the other. As science continues to learn about antioxidants it is becoming very clear that many (if not most) nutrients perform optimally when in the presence of others. This of course leads us to the obvious conclusion that the "broad diet" we are constantly recommended is absolutely based on fact!

Broad diversity of diet is usually an advantage in nutritional science especially in omnivores such as dogs and humans.

What is the difference between synthetic and natural antioxidants?

Synthetic antioxidants are usually serving a specific role - for example food preservation in packaged foods. Vitamin E is used in synthetic forms in the livestock industry. The reason synthetic forms are popular is purely down to price.

Natural forms are gaining in popularity not just via superfoods in the diet but also as natural additives to preserve packaged foods and replace synthetic forms in stockfeed.

Natural forms have much broader benefits and they will improve health long term.

Other promising applications of antioxidants

The livestock industry is experimenting antioxidants as a replacement for synthetic antibiotics and they are also using natural antioxidants instead of at least a portion of the usual synthetic vitamin E inputs. This is often in the form of 50% natural antioxidants and 50% vit E (instead of 100% synthetic vit E).

So what is it about antioxidants that is so important?

Oxygen is the driver of life. As a result, there is ALWAYS demand for oxygen and not only from the host. Infection agents are competing for oxygen but other "good" molecules want this stuff too! So, at the molecular level there is constant competition for oxygen and this is why antioxidants are so important - they help manage oxygen levels and they are at work 24/7.

So RESPECT antioxidants !!!