3 things to know about antioxidants

Antioxidants are a nutrition topic that has endured for decades, while other nutritional trends come and go. For what? Because while antioxidants can sometimes be overrated, there’s real substance behind the hype.

Antioxidants neutralize free radicals, substances naturally present in the body but which can damage cells and DNA.

“Antioxidants are simply compounds that protect cells against oxidation – or the effects of free radicals – and they are found all around us, in many types of foods and drinks,” explains Ginger Hultin, MS, RDN, registered dietitian nutritionist based in Seattle. , owner of Champagne Nutrition and author of “Anti-Inflammatory Diet Meal Prep” and “How to Eat to Beat Disease Cookbook.”

Hultin points out that the body is constantly changing and needs antioxidants to help naturally turn off the oxidation that occurs simply by living – by breathing, by metabolizing, by detoxifying. “These processes create natural free radical damage, and the result is that we get antioxidants from the foods we eat,” she says.

Our body does a great job of controlling free radicals by producing its own antioxidants – but a poor diet and exposure to cigarette smoke, pollution, radiation, and environmental toxins can produce more free radicals than your body can handle. manage it. The resulting oxidation can accelerate aging and increase the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and cancer.

Counterintuitively, excess antioxidants can also be oxidizing, and oxidation is not always bad, says Michelle Averill, Ph.D., RDN, associate professor of occupational and health sciences at the University of Washington. “It’s all a system, and we need a balance of oxidants and antioxidants,” she says. “When our body increases oxidants it’s not always negative, sometimes the oxidants are a response to something happening in our system and it tells our body to do something.”

We sometimes refer to certain nutrients and phytochemicals as antioxidants, but it is more accurate to say that they have antioxidant properties. For example, vitamin C plays a role in the production of collagen, neurotransmitters and certain amino acids in the body – and it also functions as an important antioxidant.

“Vitamins and minerals contain antioxidants, including beta-carotene and vitamins C and E, but there are actually thousands of antioxidant compounds,” says Averill. “For example, all types of polyphenols found in tea, coffee, berries or chocolate. They contain flavanols, proanthocyanidins and anthocyanins, among others.

The minerals selenium and manganese also have antioxidant properties and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Averill says there could be hundreds of thousands of compounds with antioxidant properties.

Should you get antioxidants in supplement form? The short answer is no, partly because there can be too much of a good thing. Antioxidant supplements generated a lot of excitement in the 1990s, until researchers discovered that high doses increased certain health risks – such as an increased risk of lung cancer in smokers taking beta- carotene – or simply did not produce the expected benefits. It’s almost impossible to get too many antioxidants from food, and there’s no evidence that taking antioxidant supplements is as effective as eating antioxidant-rich foods.

“It’s not that we specifically take micronutrient X to increase antioxidants in our body. It’s that we eat foods that support the antioxidant balance in the body,” says Averill. “You can’t overcome an imbalance between antioxidants and oxidants through supplements, but there are certainly dietary patterns that will promote a balance and patterns that would promote an imbalance,” says Averill. “However, it is difficult to say that this is all just a matter of diet. If someone has an unhealthy diet and is out of balance, the culprit could also be environmental factors.

Each antioxidant performs a different function and is not interchangeable. It is therefore important to get a range of antioxidants, fiber and other nutrients from food. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and lentils, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices, coffee and cocoa, and green and black tea all contain antioxidant compounds. The common denominator? These are all plant foods.

“People would be amazed at how many antioxidants they can get naturally through diet,” says Hultin. “Simply eating more common foods like carrots, apples, onions or parsley, for example, can provide a wide range of powerful antioxidants.”