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The DNA of antioxidants

Hardly a week goes by without news of antioxidants' health-promoting benefits. Experts believe these nutritional substances may help prevent heart disease, fight certain cancers, ward off dementia, and even slow certain aging processes.

There are thousands of antioxidants found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes, meats, poultry, and fish. Even foods once not known for being especially healthful, such as chocolate, coffee, and red wine, are now recognized as potent delivery systems for beneficial antioxidants.

However, the growing number of antioxidants being discovered (so far, there are more than 4,000 known flavonoids, and that's only one class of antioxidant) and the continual discoveries of new antioxidant food sources cloud understanding of these substances.

"Most people know that calcium is good for bone health, for example, but they don't know specifically what antioxidants do or how these chemicals benefit human health," says Milton Stokes, R.D,. a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.

Read on as we simplify the latest science to answer those questions for you.

Antioxidants 101

We need oxygen to live. It travels from the lungs to every corner of the body, helping cells metabolize food into energy. But oxygen has a downside. Normally, the molecules in our cells have a full set of electrons, which keep them stable (think of them as a fortress surrounding a castle). But when these molecules come into contact with oxygen (i.e., they are "oxidized") they lose an electron, converting to an unstable type of molecule known as a free radical.

"Free radicals, if left unchecked, assault whatever cell constituents are nearby, including proteins, fats, and DNA," says Joe Vinson, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton. "Once those molecules are attacked, their structure and function are changed and they don't work as well."

Ingeniously, Mother Nature created an instant free-radical fix. Antioxidants disable free radicals by donating electrons to replace those lost during oxidation. Some antioxidants can be manufactured by your body; others must be obtained from food. Dietary antioxidants fall into two groups. The first is made up of certain familiar vitamins and minerals, like vitamins C and E, selenium, and zinc, that have antioxidant capabilities. The second consists of the thousands of organic compounds found in plant foods that have functions like giving grapes their purple skins or cabbages their slightly sulfurous odor. They have names like anthocyanidins, catechins, lutein, quercetin, and resveratrol.

Preventing oxidation may have earned antioxidants their name, but we now know these substances do more than disable free radicals. Antioxidants also help reduce inflammation, keep arteries flexible, and preserve the genetic material every cell contains to prevent mutation. Each antioxidant also offers unique perks. For example, flavonoids in berries may help improve artery health, while lutein in spinach may help prevent macular degeneration.

Sorting out food sources

To measure a food's antioxidant content, scientists test it in a lab, where they usually measure equal quantities of each food they test. However, that amount may not be close to the serving size we usually eat. Realizing this, many-but not all-researchers convert their findings to common portion sizes before publishing the results of their work. That's one reason why Monday's health news may place blueberries on top of the antioxidant heap, while Thursday's may claim broccoli contains the highest levels of the compounds. Cooking Light: USDA's rankings of food antioxidant content

Also, several kinds of tests are used to measure a food's antioxidant power, another reason for the multiplicity of findings. The most popular test is Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC). ORAC measures an antioxidant's ability to protect against the most common free radical in human plasma, the peroxyl radical.

ORAC is a helpful starting point to guide consumers to foods that are rich in antioxidants as part of a diet that contains many different antioxidant-rich foods, especially since new antioxidants are being discovered all the time. But most nutrition researchers view antioxidant-counting surveys critically. How a food behaves in a test tube is one thing; how it behaves in our bodies is another.

"We don't know as much about what happens during digestion, absorption, and metabolism," says Ronald L. Prior, Ph.D., a research chemist with the USDA's Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center. "Some of these compounds may be absorbed well and others not as well." Anthocyanidin-rich blueberries are a good example. They may be antioxidant powerhouses in a test tube, but we don't absorb their antioxidants well and their effectiveness in our bodies is short lived. To gain the full benefit, you'd likely need to eat more of them than foods with a lower ORAC score that contain more readily absorbable antioxidants, such as kiwifruit or grapes.

What's more, antioxidant levels vary among different samples of the same food. For example, all apples don't have the same amount of quercetin and all lettuces don't provide the same dose of lutein. "The variability has to do with the climate, the nutrients in the soil, and storage conditions," Vinson says.

Eating for optimal nutrition

When it comes to dietary antioxidants, variety and timing are the key points.

Experts agree-while there's no formal recommendation for the amount of antioxidants we need-the best way to obtain them is from a varied diet. The reason? Antioxidants work synergistically and may provide a greater benefit together than they do individually. Consider a recent European Journal of Clinical Nutrition study that found the total antioxidants in a person's diet had a more substantial impact on plasma beta-carotene levels than the amount of beta-carotene in a person's diet. Researchers surmise other antioxidants pitch in to "spare" beta-carotene so it can work harder when it's needed. The same is true for other antioxidant vitamins. By consuming antioxidant-rich foods, you end up protecting or recycling compounds like vitamins C and E, increasing their levels so they're more available to function.

Unlike many other nutrients, you can't store antioxidants, so you have to keep replenishing the supply. "The important thing is getting antioxidants throughout the day and keeping levels high because they go down very quickly," Vinson says. Even small amounts can provide significant benefits. When German researchers recently looked at the impact of small amounts of polyphenols in dark chocolate on blood pressure, they found that just 0.2 ounces of dark chocolate shaved three systolic points and two diastolic points off hypertensive subjects' blood pressure.

As for supplements? Experts aren't as enthusiastic. Supplements are not substitutes for a healthy diet. "People tend to focus on a single nutrient because that's what research may be highlighting," says Jeffery Blumberg, Ph.D., director of the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at Tufts University. "But the benefits of eating lots of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains can't be overemphasized. You need to have diversity in your diet, and there is no pill that provides it all."

The unknowns about antioxidants provide another reason to focus on food sources. "Because the science of nutrition is still evolving, we have to accept that everything there is to know isn't known," Stokes says. "Until then, just eat healthful whole foods." Cooking Light: Nine nutritional authorities share their perfect foods

The ABCs of antioxidants

Although scientists speculate that many antioxidants are as yet undiscovered, others are increasingly well known. Below are antioxidants you may have read about; they're categorized by family of associated compounds and listed with some of their most common food sources. Cooking Light: Why different colored foods are important

Carotenoids

Beta-carotene: Orange/yellow fruits and vegetables (carrots, cantaloupe); dark leafy greens (spinach, kale)

Lycopene: Red-fleshed fruits and vegetables (watermelon, tomato)

Lutein/Zeaxanthin: Romaine lettuce, dark leafy greens, citrus fruits, corn, egg yolks

Flavonoids

Anthocyanidins: Berries, grapes, wine

Catechins: Tea, cocoa

Flavonols: Tea, cocoa, coffee, berries, grapes, apples, wine

Flavonones: Citrus fruits

Isoflavones/Phytoestrogens (daidzein, equol, enterolactone, genistein): Soybeans, whole wheat, flaxseed

Quercetin: Apples, tea, capers, citrus fruits

Organosulfurs: Cabbages, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower

Selenium: Brazil nuts, red meat, tuna

Sulfides: Onions, garlic, leeks, chives

Vitamin C: Citrus fruits, bell peppers, broccoli, kiwifruit

Vitamin E (tocopherols): Wheat germ, mono-unsaturated oils (sunflower oil, safflower oil), tree nuts (almonds, hazelnuts), peanuts

Vetting antioxidant tests

Many over-the-counter tests claim to evaluate a person's free radical levels by measuring by-products of free radical metabolism via a urine sample. However, assessing antioxidant status isn't that simple. No single test will provide the total picture of what antioxidants may be busy doing inside your body. "What you want to measure is antioxidant concentration in a localized part of the body, like the surface of your arteries where antioxidants help neutralize free radicals, which accelerate atherosclerosis [hardening of the arteries]," Vinson says.

A simpler insurance policy? Following U.S. Dietary Guidelines, which recommend a minimum of four-and-a-half cups of produce and three ounces of whole grains each day. "If you're eating a varied diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, you're getting enough," Vinson says.

China Growth Moderates, But Inflation Rages On

The People's Bank of China ordered all Chinese lenders to set aside more reserves in an ongoing attempt to clamp down on excess lending, after the country reported on Wednesday that its inflation rate remained above 8% in March.

The central bank on Wednesday lifted the country's bank reserve ratio by 0.5%, the third such hike in this year. Banks will now be required to hold 16.0% of their deposits in reserve, effective April 25.

The National Bureau of Statistics reported Wednesday afternoon that China's consumer price index was up 8.3% in March this year; the inflation rate for the first quarter as a whole also stood at a worryingly high 8.0%. Although the March CPI was lower than the 8.7% recorded in February, which was a 12-year high, the figures are still far above the central government's annual target of 4.8%.

Sizzling food prices, which soared 21% in the aggregate in March on a yearly basis, were still the major problem for Chinese nationals, accounting for 6.8 percentage points of the monthly CPI increase. Housing prices and rents went up 6.6% on average in March, pushing up the inflation gauge by one percentage point further.

Beijing's statistics bureau reported at the same time that the country's gross domestic product grew 10.6% year to year in the first quarter, to 6.2 trillion yuan ($886.6 billion), moderating somewhat from the annual growth rate of 11.9% in 2007.

The economic engine continued to roar in the first quarter, regardless of disruptions caused by heavy snowstorms around the time of the Lunar New Year in late January/early February. Even so, a weaker U.S. economy and a stronger yuan lowered the first-quarter trade surplus, exerting drag on the growth momentum of the world's fourth-largest economy.

Breaking down domestic output by sector, primary-product industries (agriculture and related) generated 472 billion yuan ($67.4 billion) in the first quarter, up 2.8% from the previous year, while secondary industries (manufacturing) produced 3.1 trillion yuan ($442.9 billion), up 11.5%, and tertiary industries (services) contributed 2.6 trillion yuan ($371.4 billion), up 10.9% year on year.

Although higher prices and production costs might put a crimp in the Chinese economy, Citigroup said China's comparative advantage in manufacturing will not disappear. The brokerage noted that China's still relatively low labor costs, the economies of scale from extended production chains and the vast potential consumer market will likely maintain the competitiveness of Chinese products for a long time.

Citigroup predicted that China's own domestic market would pick up the slack if export industries falter. "Consumption benefiting from strengthened household income could boost domestic demand that would be positive for China's sustained growth. Upon completion of the transition, China could become a net importer rather than a net exporter," it said in a note published on Wednesday.