The article “Anthocyanin antioxidants from edible fruits” focused on presence of anthocyanin antioxidants in red-purple color fruits. I hope readers of this article do not develop bias that red-purple color fruits are only sources of antioxidants. There are many other places to find these antioxidant compounds.
Before talking about other foods that contain antioxidant compounds, I want to make one point. In the paper, it said sugars and ascorbic acid (which is vitamin C) can mask the antioxidant activity of anthocyanin. However, the paper did not mention the level of masking the antioxidant activity. Moreover, Diaion HP-20SS resin was used to separate Vitamin C and carbohydrates from anthocyanin in this paper but we do not go through this separation process when we eat fruits in real life. And I believe there is no such fruit that contains pure anthocyanin. So, what acts as Diaion HP-20SS in the human body is something that needs explanation.
Fruits that were studied in this paper were vitamin C rich food. Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin found in all body fluids, so it seems to be the most interesting subject to be studied in food chemistry. Besides citrus fruits and berries which are red-purple color, vegetables such as green peppers, broccoli, raw cabbage and potatoes contain good amount of antioxidant compounds. So it is not just the red-purple color fruits that contain antioxidant compounds. Antioxidants in vitamin C foods cannot be stored by the body so it is necessary to consume regularly. Vitamin E food also contains powerful antioxidant compound and can be stored in the liver and other tissues because it is a fat-soluble vitamin. Thus vitamin E is promoted for a purpose such as delaying aging. Important sources include nuts, seeds, whole grains, and vegetable oil. Selenium is another food source of antioxidants. It is the mineral that fight cell damage by oxygen derived compound and thus may help protect against cancer. Good food sources include fish, red meat, grains and eggs. It seems almost all kinds of food contain antioxidants.
In addition, people in these days are so concerned about calories, fats and etc when consuming foods. Labeling of IC50 value on food product might happen in the near future.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
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2 comments:
agree with your thoughts on antioxidants found in fruits. Although the paper discusses how they were able to separate and measure the levels of antioxidants this could be very different from how these antioxidants could actually behave in a biological system. If a fruit has high levels of antioxidant activities but is difficult to be absorbed into the body then that fruit is simply not very beneficial. In the world today, everyone is constantly worrying about aging and thus they spend a tremendous amount of money on cosmetic procedures as well as creams and supplements. If individuals could develop a healthy habit of eating both fruits and vegetables then there wouldn’t be a great need for dangerous surgical procedures carry out in the name of beauty. Beauty needs to radiate from the inside out and I don’t mean for this to apply to personality in the least sense. If antioxidant fruits could help slow down the aging process that could be detected externally, they could help individuals internally thereby increasing their longevity.
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