Downsides to antioxidants

(Bob M) #1

If you spend any time over at Hyperlipid, you will realize that Peter D. is anti-antioxidants. This makes sense, as much of his Protons theory (the theory that sat fat causes fat cells to be insulin resistant and PUFAs cause them to be insulin sensitive) relies on ROS (reactive oxygen species) (note that ROS also affects the hypothalamus, supposedly higher ROS = more satiety). Antioxidants will blunt this.

I’m looking at my selenium pill, which I’m taking because George Henderson (https://hopefulgeranium.blogspot.com/) thinks Se is potentially helpful against covid.

But selenium is also an antioxidant and can CAUSE insulin resistance if taken at a high level for a while.

But other antioxidants are similar. In this study, they had two groups of people. One got vitamins C and E and one did not. The group who got the vitamins C and E experienced NO benefit in insulin sensitivity, whereas the group who did not take the vitamins got a benefit.

I’m slowly moving toward the Peter D.'s idea that antioxidants are overall bad, though I am about to down this selenium (covid is likely worse).

I also wonder why I do not like to take vitamin C. I take it, it makes me feel bad. I guess that’s good in this instance.

(Gregory - You can teach an old dog new tricks.) #2

I like Dr. Georgia Ede’s take on exogenous antioxidants…

Do We Need Fruit Antioxidants?

Excerpt:

This is why antioxidants are so important. All living things need antioxidants to protect them from the oxidative dangers of daily living. Luckily, Mother Nature provided us with plenty of our own human antioxidants within our bodies, many of which are quite different from plant antioxidants. These include things like uric acid and cholesterol.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Just because a chemical behaves like an antioxidant in a plant, or in a test tube, does not mean that it will behave the same way in our bodies. Many research studies show that plant antioxidants are poorly absorbed by our bodies, changed by our bodies into completely different compounds, or rapidly eliminated:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #3

We also know that exogenous anti-oxidants are less necessary when insulin is not blocking the production of endogenous ones.

(Bob M) #4

I constantly realize how complex everything is, and how many questions are left unanswered by our current knowledge – about pretty much anything.