Antioxidants

In order to explain what an antioxidant is, we first have to understand what an oxidant is. Electrons circulate in pairs around the cell.

Sometimes for both abnormal and normal reasons one of the electrons gets given up. This leaves the cell with an unpaired electron. These unpaired electrons are free radicals. They are highly reactive, which means that they easily interact with other molecules. This isn’t always a bad thing.

The free radical can act as a signalling molecule which tells the cell to activate certain pathways. For example, if there is an invading microbe, it will signal to the cell to produce substances that kill the microbe.

However, they can be so highly reactive that they can end up damaging cellular machinery such as sugars, proteins and fats.

There are a number of triggers that create free radicals such as:

• Ionising radiation from the sun
• A leaky gut
• Chromosome or genetic predisposition.
• Faulty mitochondria

When free radicals are produced, this then activates immune cells and triggers tissue inflammation. Remember that low grade chronic tissue inflammation is the main causative factors in just about all of our diseases associated with ageing.

To de-activate the free radical and put out the inflammation fire, the body needs to give back an electron, so that it is a pair again. When our bodily tissues gets inflamed, the body uses all of its resources to try to quench the free radicals fire.

The quenching of the free radicals comes from antioxidants. Some of the most well known free radical quenchers are Vitamin C and E, but also Vitamin A and glutathione.

The body goes about this process efficiently as long as the anti-oxidant resources are present. However, if this process is overwhelmed instead of regeneration of fresh tissue we get either cell death and no regrowth or disordered function of the cell - and that’s one of the mechanisms that is associated with cancer presentation.

Another important factor to think about when we are learning about antioxidants is to understand that when we take toxins into our system, the body uses specific mechanisms to process and eliminate the toxins. These same antioxidant processes are involved in the detoxification process.

Glutathione is an important anti-oxidant which works as a tag team with vitamin C.

Glutathione rich foods include:

• Cruciferous veggies - sprouts, broccoli, kale
• Garlic
• Rosemary
• Montmorency Cherry

In the lecture, I go through a number of foods that are rich in antioxidants. It can be tempting to look at the lists and think that you are doing the right thing by eating lots of these antioxidant foods.

Science is good at looking for individual substances and measuring levels in foods. But the body doesn’t work with single, individual substances and it is important to look at eating combinations of nutrients.

Although analysing scientific research is important, I often find that it’s just as important to look at how traditional societies eat when they combine different foods. Science viewed through the lens of traditional food combining is my preferred approach.

Recently it has become popular to eat ‘raw’ foods or juiced fruit and vegetables. This has meant that cooked foods have taken a back seat. My parents come from Nigeria, where meals are hardly ever raw or juiced.

I grew up in Derbyshire where cabbage was a staple and slow cooked for several hours, very much like in the old traditional Irish way. In the lecture, I show that cooking can actually increase the antioxidants properties of certain foods, including cabbage.

Turmeric which many people like to take as a specialised supplement is also another food that increases in potency when cooked. Traditional Asian societies don’t take their turmeric as a supplement. They cook real food with it. Ginger, clove, cinnamon and turmeric have some overlapping molecular properties. It is likely that traditional societies have understood a thing or two about the importance of slow cooking these spices. Honey and tomatoes are two other vegetables that do well cooked over a long period of time.

The Japanese, the French and the Poles tend to combine meat dishes with vegetables and especially cabbage. Cooked or fermented cabbage has been shown to prevent the oxidation (free radical production) in meat. The other thing to note is that thermal processing can also enhance the bioavailability of vitamins such as B vitamins and Vitamin A. These nutrients are trapped in the plant matrix and heating them releases them.

For example, greater increases in total serum beta-carotene and serum lycopene have been reported after eating cooked carrots and spinach and cooked tomatoes compared with levels when they are consumed raw.