Bruce
10th January 2005, 10:08 AM
Don't you just love it when a sciency sounding sounding stuff makes it way into the marketing department and eventually into the woo culture?
Anti-oxidants are supposed to be molecules that intercept free radicals before they can wreck havoc on you cells, garbling your DNA, and causing cancer. The science sounds good, but the practice of beefing up your anti-oxidant intake to fight cancer is subject to skepticism:
http://www.ntskeptics.org/news/news2004-05-13.htm
Not only did the group with the fruit and vegetable intake get a lower incidence of cancer, but the group taking the supplements had a higher incidence of cancer than the placebo group and the trial had to be terminated.
"Concentrating anti-oxidants in a tablet do not give you the same benefits as fruit and vegetables because you need the other vitamins found in the vegetable to get the benefits of the anti-oxidant."
...
"People are bored with the concept of a balanced diet, but so far it is the only one that has been shown to make a real impact on long-term health," he says.
"Nutrition isn't rocket science."
I've never seen this mentioned about anti-oxidants, but I've always wondered about it: If you take a bunch of anti-oxidant suppliments, wouldn't that slow down your metabolism? The theory is that anti-oxidants will clean up any spare free radicals floating around as by-products from the body's metabolic process, but wouldn't those same anti-oxidants slow down the metabolic process itself if taken in excess? If you slow down your metabolic rate, wouldn't that make you gain weight?
That's right folks! Eat lots of chocolate because it's full of anti-oxidants!
My mother-in-law has been taking anti-oxidant suppliments. I'm not worried though, because she is also taking Metabolite to lose weight. Metabolite increases your metabolic rate, so I figure that it will cancel the effects of the anti-oxidants. ;)
Anti-oxidants are supposed to be molecules that intercept free radicals before they can wreck havoc on you cells, garbling your DNA, and causing cancer. The science sounds good, but the practice of beefing up your anti-oxidant intake to fight cancer is subject to skepticism:
http://www.ntskeptics.org/news/news2004-05-13.htm
Not only did the group with the fruit and vegetable intake get a lower incidence of cancer, but the group taking the supplements had a higher incidence of cancer than the placebo group and the trial had to be terminated.
"Concentrating anti-oxidants in a tablet do not give you the same benefits as fruit and vegetables because you need the other vitamins found in the vegetable to get the benefits of the anti-oxidant."
...
"People are bored with the concept of a balanced diet, but so far it is the only one that has been shown to make a real impact on long-term health," he says.
"Nutrition isn't rocket science."
I've never seen this mentioned about anti-oxidants, but I've always wondered about it: If you take a bunch of anti-oxidant suppliments, wouldn't that slow down your metabolism? The theory is that anti-oxidants will clean up any spare free radicals floating around as by-products from the body's metabolic process, but wouldn't those same anti-oxidants slow down the metabolic process itself if taken in excess? If you slow down your metabolic rate, wouldn't that make you gain weight?
That's right folks! Eat lots of chocolate because it's full of anti-oxidants!
My mother-in-law has been taking anti-oxidant suppliments. I'm not worried though, because she is also taking Metabolite to lose weight. Metabolite increases your metabolic rate, so I figure that it will cancel the effects of the anti-oxidants. ;)