Today’s post is a long but Heather the science geek wanted to shed a little light on all of this antioxidant stuff that we hear about and give a bit more in-depth background to support the take home message: eating plant-based whole foods, not relying on antioxidant supplements, is paramount to your recovery and will help you soak up all those hard Ironman training sessions.

A paradox in metabolism is that while the vast majority of complex life requires oxygen for its existence, oxygen is a highly reactive molecule can damage living organisms by producing reactive oxygen species (ROSs – nasty things like the RUSs in the Princess Bride). ROSs are highly reactive ions or small molecules that have unpaired valence shell electrons. Huh? what? Basically they are just hyped up molecules that have all this energy and want to react with stuff so they grab at anything… say lipids in the membranes of your mitochondria. Enough unquenched, super excited, ROSs nipping at things and you can get cell death. Because of this, organisms contain a complex network of antioxidant metabolites and enzymes that work together to prevent oxidative damage to cellular components like DNA, proteins and lipids. Reducing agents, (I’m double-O-carotene) like Beta Carotene and vitamin C neutralize ROS’s and prevent them from causing damage – “leave that cell membrane alone, it’s me your after!”

In general, antioxidant systems either prevent too many nasty ROSs from being formed, or remove them before they can damage vital components of the cell. However, just like all ‘zee Russians’ aren’t bad guys in Bond films – some reactive oxygen species do have useful functions in cells, such as signaling. The function of antioxidant systems is not to remove oxidants entirely, but instead to keep them at an optimum level.

Continue reading Exercise and oxidative stress – get your antioxidants from whole foods