Subscribe Feed (RSS)Anti-oxidant Obsession
January 13th, 2010 by admin | Filed under Uncategorized.Oxidants or free radicals are often labeled as ‘bad’ by-products, derived from metabolism within our bodies. These chemicals have been shown to contribute to our aging and the damage of our blood vessels, leading to heart attacks and strokes.
We are frequently advised, by health personnel, to consume foods with high anti-oxidant properties, which will neutralize these oxidant by-products thus improving our health by slowing aging and preventing heart attacks and strokes. Foods that are high in anti-oxidant properties include fruits and vegetables and poly-unsaturated oils such as flaxseed and fish oils.
But how do you know if you are consuming enough anti-oxidants to counteract your body’s oxidant level? Currently this is not possible since we are unable to measure the body’s oxidant levels. It is likely that all this intake of anti-oxidant is to no avail. This is supported by the recent study published in JAMA February 2006, which showed that a high fruits, grains and vegetables diet (high anti-oxidant diet) had no benefit on strokes and heart attacks.
What we do know, is that the production of oxidants is directly proportional to the complexity of the food molecules being metabolized by our bodies. In other words, starches and fats, when metabolized, would produce significantly more oxidants than their simple refined forms, glucose and fatty acids. This is similar to the burning of complex and simple combustible materials. Burning crude oil, a complex material, will produce a large amount of soot. If the crude oil is refined to gasoline and burnt, only a small amount of soot would be produced. Oxidants in the body are like the soot produced when materials are burnt. The more complex the food the more oxidants produced.
All foods enter your body in a refined form. Food ingested is broken down, in the intestine, to simple forms before they are absorbed by the body. This simple form of food absorbed may be immediately metabolized for use by the body or may be converted to complex forms, such as body fat, for storage. This stored body fat will be converted back to its simple origin and be metabolized for use. If the body used the absorbed simple form of the food for metabolism, very little oxidants will be formed. If on the other hand, the body uses the stored form of the food, a large amount of oxidants will be produced.
It is possible, by our eating pattern, to direct the body to use the simple absorbed food for metabolism immediately rather than first storing the food before use. This means that we could significantly reduce our oxidant production, our rate of aging and prevent diseases such as heart attacks and strokes without being obsessed with anti-oxidant intake.
Dr. Robert Robinson MBBS. DM.(Int. Med.) is a specialist in Internal Medicine trained at the University of The West Indies. He has over ten (10) years experience in the management of patients with obesity and other chronic non-communicable diseases. He is the author of the book “The Sabbatical Diet.” sabbaticaldiet.com sabbaticaldiet.com
Tags: cialis, diet, Heart, obesity
