Adding therapeutic levels of broad spectrum antioxidants is one of the best things you can do to see a noticeable increase in your quality of life, especially if you have any chronic conditions. Inflammation caused by free radical damage is one of the root causes of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, auto-immune disease, and nearly every other chronic illness.
If you have chronic pain contributing to your sedentary lifestyle, adding in therapeutic levels of antioxidants as a nutritional habit before exercise can be a game changer. I know countless stories of people who stopped being active because of a sports injury or arthritis. After consuming a diet high in antioxidants for a month or two, often the pain and inflammation would be reduced to a point they could go hiking, dancing, work in the garden and become their active selves again.
It is becoming common knowledge that inflammation plays a significant role in nearly every chronic condition. Most doctors, however, still do not know what causes inflammation and how to address it.
In the world of functional nutrition and anti-aging, antioxidants are all the rage. Antioxidants are a class of molecules that fight the free radicals and toxins that constantly bombard our cells, causing damage as they steal the electrons they need. Damaged cells steal from other cells, and the progression of inflammation and aging continues, out of control.
How to Reduce Inflammation Naturally
A healthy inflammatory response is an important biologoical process in the human body. When you get a cut, the inflammatory response is what comes to the rescue., The blood clots at the site of injury so you don’t bleed to death. When repairs are made, antiinflammatory compounds come to clean up the debris.
A healthy diet has an antioxidant ratio of 1:1. The Standard American Diet (SAD), on the other hand, has a ratio of 20:1 inflammatory compounds to antiinflammatory compounds. When inflammation goes up, there are not enough antiinflammatory compounds to bring it back down, leading to the variety of chronic conditions we see today.
On a basic level, reducing processed food and refined sugar, while eating more from the rainbow of fruits and vegetables is a good start to shifting this balance. Ideally choose organically and biodynamically grown local produce for maximum benefit.
How do antioxidants reduce inflammation?
Antioxidants help protect our cells and cellular function because they have an abundance of electrons. They are able to donate some of those electrons to neutralize rogue free radicals and help take them out of the body.
Broad spectrum antioxidants are the most powerful because they can handle a variety of free radicals and toxins. Catechins and epicatechins are broad spectrum antioxidants found in foods like dark chocolate, red wine, black grapes, broad beans, blueberries, raspberries and green tea.
Combining compounds like Vitamin C and Vitamin E can have a synergistic effect. One helps to protect the other as well as playing complementary roles in skin and immune health.
Many antioxidants also serve other critical roles in our bodies. For instance, Vitamin C is critical for many other functions, including collagen production for healthy skin, and can be protective against cardiovascular disease, prenatal health problems and eye disease.
Vitamin C may even help us live longer. Mark Moyad, M.D. MPH (University of Michigan) and colleagues looked at studies on Vitamin C. Most used 500 mg daily to achieve health results. That is much higher than the 75-90 mg/day recommended for adults by the FDA.
“The amount of antioxidants that you maintain in your body is directly proportional to how long you will live”.- Dr Richard Cutler, Director of Anti-aging Research for the National Institute of Health (NIH), Jun 1, 2017
Reduce your toxic load
You can also reduce your toxic load to reduce your inflammation and the need for antioxidants.
Dr Petersen, board certified anti-aging expert, has a basic equation for improving your health, one cell at a time:
Antioxidants > Free radicals
Basically, our goal is to get more antioxidants than the amount of free radicals our body produces from regular cellular activity or that we are exposed to from food and our environment.
When the ratio is out of balance due to poor diet, stress and toxins in the environment, the body stays in a state of chronic inflammation.
Obesity is a disease of inflammation. One of the ways the body protects itself from toxins is to pack fat around the toxins. Eating a diet high in antioxidants can neutralize free radicals and other toxins so they can be safely removed from the body.
How much difference can increasing our antioxidant intake make? Kerri Glassman, in her book The O2 Diet, says getting 30,000-50,000 ORAC/day, you pretty much can’t help but lose weight.
In a 50 person weight loss and lifestyle study published in The American Journal of Bariatric Medicine (December, 2011), using a cacao based high antioxidant meal replacement shake and cold pressed dark chocolate, everyone lost weight and inches, as well as seeing other health benefits. Everyone found it was a regimen they could stick with.
I have seen the power of antioxidants for myself and many others over the years, especially with whole foods and functional foods.
When it comes to maximizing our antioxidant consumption while reducing the inflammatory load, the following principles can be helpful:
- Reduce or eliminate processed food. Foods made with refined flour, refined sugar, and vegetable oils are empty calories, stripped of the vitamins, minerals and antioxidant compounds that would have been in the original plant. The refining process also adds to the rancidity of oils and free radical content of the food.
- Eat fresh fruits and vegetables from the rainbow. Dark fruits and vegetables tend to be highest in antioxidants, yet every color is due to different phytonutrients and/or trace minerals. Variety provides our body with a full spectrum of compounds that can be beneficial for health.
- Eat food raised locally with regenerative agriculture and biodynamically grown methods. Farm to table practices will provide the most nutrient value from live food.
- Supplement where needed. Our food supply has been depleted of nutrients due to modern agricultural practices, making it difficult to get enough antioxidants and nutrient dense food. Supplement with clean, bio available (easily absorbable) nutraceuticals. (Note: Most vitamin pills can go through the digestive tract, completely undigested!)
When it comes to being able to get the nutrients our body needs for health, we need to learn to choose wisely. The produce in the grocery store has been bred and grown to look perfect, not to maximize nutrition. Animals are raised to gain weight fast, often in inhumane conditions. Until we see the results of a dramatic shift in practices, even organically raised food, while being cleaner than non-organic food, are likely to contain some level of glyphosate (the main chemical in Roundup) and other toxic compounds.
To choose fruits and vegetables with nutrient dense qualities, search out food grown using biodynamic and regenerative agriculture techniques. Local farmers markets are an excellent place to get to know your local farmer. Often small farmers are not able to afford to get certified organic, but a conversation will quickly show you whether their farming practices help to build soil and bring nutrients and trace minerals into their produce and meat products.
CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture) are an excellent way you can support your local farmer. You buy a share at the beginning of the season, then get a box with a variety of produce throughout the season. As managed grazing and regenerative practices are implemented, you will see an increase in CSA’s that have sustainably raised healthy meat choices available.
Whether you grow your own or buy your produce, locally grown, freshly picked produce is bound to have more nutrition, as produce that has to be shipped thousands of miles is picked green, never getting to develop its full nutritional capacity.