How to protect the body from oxidation

This spring, I lived in California, and I had the opportunity to listen to a very interesting two-month course on nutrition at Stanford University. The program is called Food Facts and Fads ( «Food: Facts and Myths") and, as the name suggests, was to teach students to understand the huge flow of scientific and pseudo-scientific information on nutrition

. On some topics that we discussed, I want to tell you.




In this article we are talking about the problem of oxidation, which our teacher, Dr. Clyde Wilson, raised at every lesson.

What is oxidation?

From a chemical point of view it is a process in which a molecule donor donates an electron oxidant molecule. That is, it loses an electron donor, thereby oxidized. In principle, in humans, this process must be balanced protection system cells from damage, but often the system is not able to withstand the huge number of aggressive oxygen species such as free radicals, which oxidize (ie damage) important components of our cells.

As a result, the body experiences oxidative stress, and this is one of the reasons for many diseases. Antioxidants - a powerful force that can neutralize aggressive free radicals

. Read more about them and said my teacher. Below - the text of his article

. I see a deep irony is that oxygen which is critical for survival, at the same time can cause aging. Oxygen attacks the molecules in our body, to pick up their electrons.

It's cool if you need to start a fire: in your oven or in the mitochondria of your cells (and mitochondria - a "power plants" of the cells, their main function - the oxidation of organic compounds, and then using the energy released upon their decay). But you have to pay for the fire.

Without oxygen, your body breaks down food molecules and the inside of your body the oxygen that you do not spend on energy production, begins to harm you, accelerating aging and mitochondria, as a result, the aging of the organism as a whole.

How to protect your cells from oxidation?

To protect yourself from this, we need less cooking at a high temperature, eat more fresh vegetables and herbs, as they contain antioxidants, as well as to prevent oxidation of these antioxidants to the product use.

I recall antioxidants "sacrifice themselves" oxygen, so that he did not attack the molecules of your cells. High temperatures and long exposure to oxygen leads to the fact that the antioxidants are oxidized before they get into your body. And in an oxidized state, they are not only useless, but are hazardous to health.

In the same category as antioxidants, unsaturated fats fall because they have double bonds that are readily attacked by oxygen. The less saturated fat, the harder and faster it is oxidized. Most unsaturated fats - is the omega-3 and omega-6. That's why chia seeds and flax (they are rich in omega-3) become rancid so quickly.

For the same reason, due to oxidation, the vegetable oil much more useful if it is not heated during preparation or cooking. Unfortunately, most vegetable oils not only produce when exposed to high temperatures, but also subjected to thermal stress after production to remove odors arising during primary treatment. Therefore, it is important to buy the raw oil, produced by cold pressing method, which is stored in a sealed package.

Again, due to the oxidation completely useless to use the antioxidant powders, shakes, bars and supplements with omega-3. All their nutrients after treatment (read: oxidation) does not do any good, in contrast to omega-3 and antioxidants, consumed with the usual raw food

. To protect the natural sources of antioxidants and unsaturated fats from oxidation, they need to store and prepare.

For example, do not prepare for a long time and at very high temperatures, and in the latter case, be used for preparing saturated fats, eat more fresh vegetables and greens (and blackened throw), to keep vegetable oils to a dark place in a sealed package, and chia seeds and flax - in refrigerator in a sealed package.

Author: Julia Kornev