Antioxidants: managing free
radicals is as natural as inhaling air.
Life and Damage in a Breath
by Iske Conradie
Hold your breath
for the truth about free radicals and antioxidants.
Since the 80's
many studies have linked free radical damage to the death of cells and diseases
such as Parkinson’s disease, heart fibrillation and cancer. Scientists also pinpointed the means to
counter free radical damage: antioxidants.
Free radicals are
unstable and highly reactive molecules that love to bind with particles like
DNA, proteins and lipids. When they do, they meddle with the structure and
functionality of these particles, which can ultimately cause cellular death.
Antioxidants
inhibit these free radical reactions.
These scientific breakthroughs
along with pharmaceutical opportunism sparked the popularity of antioxidant
supplements.
Shelves and
shelves with various antioxidant supplements market antioxidants as the hero’s
in the fight against free radicals.
You can thank your
life-source, oxygen, for your inevitable dose of oxygen related free radicals.
As free radicals
come without saying and with a gulp of air, your body has a natural management
plan to keep the radicals in check. High dosages of antioxidants in supplements
may disregard the natural balance of antioxidants and free radicals in your
body.
The management system
Every waking or
sleeping moment, at least 2 to 5 % of the oxygen you breathe potentially
converts to reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS are potent free radicals that
derive from oxygen.
This happens
naturally within cells when some of the oxygen molecules accept one or more
unpaired electrons from other particles.
With their newly
acquired unpaired electrons these oxygen molecules (O2) change into ROS
radicals like superoxide water peroxide (H2O2),
superoxide (O2-) or the radical (O2.).
ROS free radicals
are very eager to connect with other particles; electrons hate being single.
Your body uses
antioxidants to take up single electrons to inhibit free radicals hooking up
with unsuitable partners.
It produces uric
acid, protein thiols and melatonin which act as antioxidants to neutralise free
radicals.
Your body is also
an expert in putting your food to work. It will harvest all the edible antioxidants
or elements, which aid antioxidants from your lunch.
Getting enough antioxidants
Your mango juice
and whole grain beef, mayonnaise and tomato sandwich serves up vitamin B, C and E; beta-carotene; selenium; zinc
and plant flavonoids.
Dietitian, Andrea
Fick, believes well-fed people will get sufficient antioxidants from their
day-to-day diet.
"Most things
you eat: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, most breakfast cereals and breads
contain antioxidants. The amounts of various antioxidants you need per day are
really small. For example a woman can get her daily intake of vitamin C for the day, eating one
orange. After about four oranges your body is satisfied with vitamin C and excretes the rest.
"However if
you don't eat your whole grains, two fruits and three vegetables per day and
mostly refined starches and takeaways you won't consume sufficient
antioxidants".
The term Oxidative stress is used to describe the harmful state when the amount of ROS
produced exceeds your bodies' ability to remove them.
There is a
beneficial function of ROS free radicals in your body as well. It is used to
reduce inflammation and to attack bacteria.
An too much antioxidants
Medical practitioner, Dr.
Herman Kotzé, believes people should take antioxidant supplements. He uses
high dosages of antioxidants himself.
"I believe in
preventative medicine. It is proven that free radicals can cause various
diseases and cancer. The amounts of free radical exposure that we are exposed
to in the last decade or two manifest later in our lives.
"If you can use
antioxidants to inhibit diseases and antioxidants causes no harm, why not? Free
radicals may cause people to suffer and die from certain diseases, sooner than
expected".
Fick points out
that water-soluble antioxidants are excreted when the body is saturated while
fat-soluble antioxidants, like beta-carotene and vitamin E, may be toxic in an
overdose, because they aren't excreted.
Recent studies
suggest that an overdose in vitamin E and zinc may be linked to certain types
of cancer and some indicated that vitamin E is only useful and beneficial when
there is a deficiency.
South Africa has
no have a formal regulatory system for dietary supplements, which might put
people at risk who take label indications for granted. Furthermore the maximum
and recommend daily allowance of many nutrients are still in debate.
Both Fick and
Kotzé agree that health begins primarily with a healthy organic diet.
Breathing
easily
"I don't
think people should be a big fuss about not getting in enough antioxidants,
people who eat lot of fruits and vegetables definitely get enough. Fruits and
vegetables usually have a bit of most antioxidant in," says Fick.
Sufficient
antioxidants are your natural means to control free radicals.
"You should
use supplements to give you what your diet lacks," explains Kotzé.
Supplements cannot
outsmart ROS.
"ROS is
natural byproduct in your body. It's always there, but where scientist
identified it as a bad is where it binds to molecules it shouldn't." says
scientist, Dr. Izabeth Conradie
The only way to
eradicate free radicals completely is by not breathing ever again, which is
also known as dying.
"If you end
free radicals, you end the life of cells. You will produce free radicals from
your first day to your last," explains Conradie.
Prof. Lieberman
and Prof. Marks, authors of Mark'd Basic
Medical Biochemistry: A clinical approach, dub oxygen as "both
essential to human life and toxic".
Take a breath; there
is no way around needing oxygen. It's a vital irony. Keep eating your five
fruits and veggies a day to control those radical few.
Here's a guideline how to consume sufficient antioxidant through your diet:
How
to consume Antioxidants
|
|
Food you get it in
|
The
Daily Dosage you need
|
Watch out
|
Beta-carotene
(molecules of vitamin A)
|
Dark yellow, orange, dark green
colored fruit and vegetables (like pumpkin, carrots, sweet potato, spinach,
apricots, broccoli, papaya, mango and tangerine).
|
Men: 600-900 mcg
Women: 600-700 mcg
|
Smokers
should avoid getting high dosages of beta-carotene. It increases their risk
of developing lung cancer..
|
Thiamin (B1)
|
For breakfast you’ll find it in fortified
cereals, oats, dried milk powder and eggs.
Legumes, brown rice, whole-grains,
nuts, cornmeal, enriched flower or bread, wheat germ, green peas and seeds
are rich in Thiamin.
Meat lovers can dish up pork or lean
meat for vitamin B1.
|
0.9-1.1 mg/d
|
If
you eat a lot of carbohydrates you also need consume more B1.
Raw
fish, tea, coffee, blueberries and red cabbage damage Thiamin molecules – eat
more Thiamin rich food in combination with these food types.
|
Vitamin C
|
Fruits like oranges, grapefruit,
lemons, tangerines, clementine, peaches, papayas, apricots, nectarines,
pears, pineapple, yellow raisins, grapes, all berries and watermelon are rich
in vitamin C.
You’ll get this antioxidant from vegetables
like yellow pepper, broccoli. red cabbage, red pepper, radishes and tomatoes.
|
Women: 75 mg
Men: 90 mg
Smokers: 100mg
|
|
Vitamin E
|
Wheat germ, whole grains,
mayonnaise, creamy salad dressings, pistachios, almonds, peanuts, walnuts,
fortified cereals, meat and egg yolks all contain Vitamin E.
|
15 mg
|
High
doses can cause internal bleeding, because it thins blood. Avoid using
Vitamin E supplements if you use blood-thinning medication.
|
Selenium
|
Seafood, fish, chicken, egg yolks,
whole grain breads and cereals, wheat germ, dairy products and onions.
|
40-55 mcg
|
|
Zinc
|
Beans, seafood, meat, poultry,
eggs, milk, peanuts, oatmeal, whole grains and yeast.
|
Women: 8 mg
Men: 11 mg
|
In
combination with high doses of vitamin C, it may increase the risk of lung
cancer in postmenopausal women. It may also be linked to prostate cancer in
men.
|
Flavonoids
|
Brightly colored fruit and
vegetables
|
|
|
