Fitness, Health and Wellness Musings, Tips and the occasional rant'n'rave about finding your excellence from an Athens 2004 Olympian.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Antioxidants


Antioxidants seem to be the most recent bandwagon for promoting food choices to consumers and it's driving me mad. Why? Because it seems that it's the new "Fat Free / Low Fat" marketing scheme: where everything including sugar laden foodstuffs were labelled "Fat Free" or "Low Fat" in an attempt to entice people to believe that the product's fat levels made it a good food choice, and the fact that they were fat free or low in fat was a "new" thing.

While the claims were truthful with regard to their fat content, this condition wasn't new, and it unfortunately convinced many people that they were making "healthy" food choices by grabbing packets of sugar-laden, nutrient devoid and highly processed food that they may not have otherwise loaded into their shopping trolleys and bodies and, ironically enough, increasing the oxidative stress load on the body. Which brings me to the current Antioxidant drive.
It started with berries and fruit - fair enough...but now it's being used to sell instant coffee and I don't know what's next.

Antioxidants do serve a very useful role -they have been shown to slow and prevent oxidative stress, the build up of free radicals and therefore cell damage. So: it appears that they are indeed good for you, however the best form to find them in is in whole foods. Namely: fresh fruit and vegetables where they're packaged as nature intended and ready for our bodies to receive them:- not in highly processed pseudo-foods.

SO: Before you buy your next over-priced "Antioxidant" labelled feed, consider this - the best sources of bio-available antioxidants are whole foods that grow on trees, bushes, vines and in the ground. They are bright and colourful all by themselves and don't need a Marketing Agency's Graphic Artist to weave any visual magic to make them more appealing. Ditch the packets and visit the Fruit and Veg. aisle in your supermarket if you don't have your own garden. Better for you and Better for the environment.

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