ANTIOXIDANT CAPACITY OF FOOD AND ITS ROLE IN HEALTH

Health and youth are issues that everyone cares about, but how to take care of the body to stay healthy or less susceptible to getting sick or dangerous chronic diseases while maintaining long-term youth and beauty is a problem that everyone should know and do it right.

Body is created as a complete and optimal organization. The integrity of the body allows it to maintain a normal (healthy) existence during life; including resistance to free radicals; repair arising errors such as destroying damaged molecules or organs (DiLoreto R, 2015) and adapting to adverse environmental factors (Biagianti, 2013). To ensure the integrity of the body, adequate supply of all the nutrients the body needs is crucial.

However, even when the body is fully supplied with all nutrients, under difficult circumstances such as hard work, insomnia, exposure to toxic environmental factors including microbial infections, exposure to radiation or poisoning... the body still falls into a state of oxidative stress, a condition in which the amount of toxins or free radicals in the body exceeds the body's defense/reduction ability. If this condition persists, excess toxins will cause strong destruction of many body components such as lipids, proteins on cell membranes, enzyme systems, and DNA, RNA molecules to arise diseases.

To maintain health and prevent diseases, there are two important requirements:

            - Ensure adequate supply of all nutrients to the body.

We know about the body's need for many nutrients, but no one or any research has been able to confirm how many nutrients the human body needs. Furthermore, there may be many nutrients is needed in extremely small amounts that cannot be detected by conventional analytical methods. Scientists have also acknowledged that human understanding of nature is limited: only a few bacteria in nature can be cultured in the laboratory and only a few of these (about 1 %) can grow into colonies on standard agar medium (Jung, 2020); Or we may only know about 30% of the types of matter in nature (Dang Vu Tuan Son, 2017). Therefore, the best way to ensure that the body is fully supplied with nutrients is to use foods of natural origin from agriculture.

            - Quickly resolve the body's oxidative stress.

To quickly resolve the oxidative stress situation encountered, first it is necessary to disconnect/isolate the source that increases toxins or free radicals in the body, such as curing infections, stopping receiving irritants or toxic substances (stop smoking, stop drinking alcohol, stop exposure to radiation...), reduce the intensity of heavy labor, and solve insomnia. The second solution is to support the body in eliminating and preventing toxins or free radicals that cause damage to the body. This can be achieved by using natural antioxidants from foods. These antioxidants will react with toxins or free radicals to help prevent their damage to the body and help them be safely eliminated. Therefore, understanding the antioxidant capacity of foods and the antioxidant value of foods can be a reference in choosing foods to care for and resolve oxidative stress of the body.

Antioxidants are found in food and the body

Figure 1. Antioxidants found in food and the body

The body can produce a number of antioxidants, including glutathione, ubiquinone, albumin and metallothionein, and uric acid, but most antioxidants in the body are exogenous naturally compounds such as flavonoids, phenolic acids, carotenoids, lignans, organosulfur compounds, vitamins from plant and minerals (selenium, zinc, manganese) are provided in the diet (Flieger J, 2021). In cases of oxidative stress (illness, pain, fatigue), endogenous antioxidants will not be enough to protect the body against free radicals; Increasing the supplementation of exogenous antioxidants plays a major role in protecting the body, reducing free radical damage, thereby reducing the risk of chronic diseases.

Antioxidant capacity of foods

Table 1. Antioxidant capacity of some foods

(US Department of Agriculture, 2007)

Table 2. Antioxidant capacity of some foods

(US Department of Agriculture, 2007; Carlsen MH, 2010)

Notes: Trollox: An antioxidant with a structure similar to vitamin E; ()=( number of samples analyzed)

The above results show that the antioxidant capacity of foods has some of the following characteristics:

            - Cereals and beans show higher antioxidant capacity than meat and fish. However, it should be noted that cereal brans often have very high antioxidant capacity. It indicates that the components involved in the antioxidant capacity of cereals are located mainly in the shell and outside of the grain. Thorough milling and polishing during rice processing can greatly reduce the grain's antioxidant capacity or processing cereals may not have the same antioxidant capacity with whole grain cereals.

Some types of free radicals are formed in the body, which are extremely reactive such as Hydroxyl (OH ^• ) or superoxide (O₂ ^• ). For these radicals, most chemicals that have small molecular weight and are soluble in the body can become antioxidants; This is also an explanation for lack of food being the first cause of aging and short lifespan. According to United Nations survey data, the world's average life expectancy in 2023 varies significantly by region as well as by country, ranging from a low of 57.7 years in West Africa to a high of 82.7 years in Western Europe (UNFPA).

            - Substances with high biological activity such as vitamins, polyphenols (tannin, athoxianidin...) play a large role in the antioxidant capacity of foods. Research by Jin Gan (2017) on the antioxidant capacity of maca suggested that Alkaloids and phenols are the most important substances for Maca's antioxidant capacity, in which the antioxidant effect of alkaloids seems to be higher than that of phenol.

The effectiveness of using antioxidant foods

Free radicals, which cause damage to structural and function of the body, are continuously formed in the human body; it is a byproduct of aerobic metabolism and is sometimes needed for body defense such as in immune processes (phagocytosis). Therefore, antioxidant activity also needs to be done regularly and continuously to limit damage caused by free radicals to the body as well as limit the speed of the body's aging process.

Studies on the antioxidant effects of vegetables and fruits have been conducted, showing that vegetables and fruits have the ability to inhibit the oxidation process occurring in the body (Harasym J, 2014). Research by Nemzer B (2014) shows that using 100 mg of Spectra product (mixed powder of many fruits and vegetables) has a clear effect in reducing the amount of free radicals up to 24 hours after taking it. The effect reaches a high after 60 minutes and reaches its highest level about 120 minutes after ingestion.

Figure 2. Changes in serum free radical concentrations in the placebo and treatment groups at (A) 60, (B) 120, and (C) 180 minutes (Nemzer B, 2014).

The results of analyzing the free radical content of people after drinking mixed powder of many fruits and vegetables by this author showed that: For the placebo group, some people had reduced free radical concentrations while some people had free radical concentrations increased, which shows that human body's ability to fight free radicals is different depending on the health or structural and functional perfection of the body. For the group using fruit and vegetable powder products, most study participants had reduced free radical concentrations after drinking; The level of effectiveness achieved is higher in people with a weak ability to reduce free radicals than in healthy people whose bodies have a strong ability to fight free radicals. Thus, using vegetables and fruits to fight the effects of free radicals is meaningful for all groups of people and is of great significance in people whose body's antioxidant activity is not good.

References:

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Luo, Q., Tian, Z., Zheng, T., Xu, S., Ma, Y., Zou, S. and Zuo, Z. (2022), Terpenoid composition and antioxidant activity of extracts from four chemotypes of Cinnamomum camphora and their main antioxidant agents. Biofuels, Bioprod. Bioref., 16: 510-522. https://doi.org/10.1002/bbb.2320

J. Graßmann, Terpenoids as Plant Antioxidants, ditor(s): Gerald Litwack, Vitamins & Hormones, Academic Press, Volume 72, 2005, Pages 505-535, ISSN 0083-6729, ISBN 9780127098722, https://doi.org/ 10.1016/S0083-6729(05)72015-X.

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Dang Vu Tuan Son [1] Vietnam Astronomy - Cosmology - publication date May 8, 2017

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Ngo Duy Sa - Faculty of food science and technology