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Should we call them "Superfoods"... or are they just foods · Scientific Health: Education and Human Performance

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Well, thanks for joining today.
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We're going to talk a little bit about some stuff based off of a few questions
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that got brought up with a conversation I was having the other day with some students
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regarding free radicals and the need for antioxidants in the diets
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based off of the things that we eat and the things that we do on our daily basis.
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And some of them were asking my opinions about all of these supposed superfoods
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and superfood supplements that are out there in the market
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because they were talking about what they heard is that
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we need all of these various types of superfoods and various types of supplements
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to help control inflammation, help improve their health, help get rid of
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I think they called it gut bloat in terms of their overall health.
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And so there's a few things we have to remember, a few things that we have to
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when we look at stuff that goes in there is it goes back to what we've been
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talking about for a long period of time.
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Does it really matter what we eat?
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And because we don't focus on a lot of the nutritional aspects
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as relates to what we eat because of the guise of diet
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based off of calories and not based off of nutrients, we get a misunderstanding
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of some of the science and principles that are out there that have led to all of these
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supposed superfoods and all of these different types of bad diets.
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And a lot of what these have come out
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in terms of the market is that they make these kind of claims.
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And what I remember is that if I'm going to make astronomical claims,
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I need to have astronomical support.
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And so one of the things that we have to fall back on is the fact that
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a lot of the claims of benefits might not be true.
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So in order to take a look at what we're talking about,
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we talk about superfoods and antioxidants.
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The first question we have to kind of address is what are superfoods
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and what are antioxidants and should I be eating antioxidants?
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Well, here's the kind of kicker.
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Here's the thing about a lot of these things.
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Superfoods is a marketing gimmick.
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It's a marketing ploy.
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It's a statement about marketability
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based off of supposed benefit that you might get from specific types of foods,
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based off of some of the chemicals that might be present within the foods.
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And most of the chemicals that are being reported as being the,
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quote unquote, active ingredient within these superfoods
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are predominantly antioxidants.
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And so just doing a quick Internet search,
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you get what are the 20 best superfoods?
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What are the 50 best superfoods?
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What are the 80 best superfoods?
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Here are the 10 best superfoods.
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What does superfoods actually do for you?
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And it comes down to the fact that I think we're misusing the word super here.
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When we say superfood,
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what we're basically indicating is that there's some food out there
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that has some sort of special nutrient benefit to it.
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And if that's the case, then we would have the scientific evidence
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to say that this is the food
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that will provide the greatest nutritional benefit for you.
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And that just doesn't seem to be the case.
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What the marketing play of superfood is meant to imply
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is that this kind of food, this food additive,
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this food preservative, this supplement
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is somehow having some sort of excessive nutrient value
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relative to other things that you might eat.
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And what they're typically doing is that they're typically giving us foods
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that somehow match an antioxidant food.
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The food sources that we have that are being labeled as superfoods
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are food sources that have chemicals
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that have been indicated as being an antioxidant
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or are involved with metabolic processes within the cells of the body
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that help control for radicals.
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But the problem is, is that the way in which most of these
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quote unquote superfoods are sold
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is that they're sold as some sort of supplement, some sort of powder.
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Drink this, and once again, I'm not going to name any company here
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because I don't want to give anybody free airtime.
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And a lot of the propoted benefits that come about
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from some of the supplement companies is sketchy at best.
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If I eat the food source as the food source,
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I get greater nutritional value from it than when I grind up
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that food source and turn it into a dry powder
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and then mix it into a liquid and drink it.
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It's not always the case, but it is the predominant trend,
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particularly with where we're discussing these quote unquote superfoods
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coming from, is that once I take the foods out of the quote unquote
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natural environment, out of the actual food itself
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and turn it into some sort of supplemental thing, some sort of powder.
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The benefit that I could get from that food drops.
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There are some of this labeled superfoods where this isn't the case.
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There are some things that we turn into teas that do have
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some of the antioxidant properties that we see within superfoods
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that we don't get if we were to chew on the leaves
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and not steep the leaves in terms of brewing tea.
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Same thing with the extracts that we get from coffee
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and from the coffee nut.
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Where if I was to chew on the coffee bean,
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I would not get the same properties that I get from the extracted oils
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and the extracted esters that come out of brewing of coffee.
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However, for most of the other things that we label as being superfoods,
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that's not the case.
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Most of the nutritional value that we see with these things
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that are labeled as quote unquote superfoods comes from them
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being in their food source, not in their product.
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They're in their source, not in their powder source.
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Now, the other thing we have to have here is a big huge caveat
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on this superfood label, particularly when it comes to the claims
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of purported benefits, is that we have very limited empirical evidence
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to support many of the claims that are out there.
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If you look at individual chemical compounds that might be found within the foods,
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the chemical compounds based off of a actual specific dose recommendation,
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we will see some actual chemical physiological responses to them,
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but we don't know those dose variables when we talk about in terms of
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either a supplement or as the food source itself.
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I've yet to see any empirical study looking at the claimed superfoods.
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There are a number of books out there, but the books that are out there
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are not peer reviewed in terms of scientific methodology
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and analysis of the findings to actually ensure that the claims
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being put out are the claims that are true.
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We can stipulate that superfood is nothing more than a marketing ploy
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in order to try to get us to purchase specific things
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because somehow by eating this thing or drinking this powder,
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we're somehow going to be healthy.
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I'll have a little bit more comment on that near the end of the talk here.
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But what about supplements and what about eating things that are going to provide
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my body with extra amounts of antioxidants?
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And this is where we have a catch-22, and I'll explain why
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as we go through the presentation here.
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The actual empirical science tells us is that when I am physically active,
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whether that's doing endurance training or doing any type of strength training,
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so doing what people call cardio or doing running or jogging or lifting weights
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in terms of the resistance training or lifting weights and running
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or doing any of the type of cardio for the endurance training,
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if I'm physically active and if I'm eating a variety of different types of foods
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where I'm going to be able to not just be eating a single type of food
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or single type of food source, but be eating multiple types of food sources,
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utilizing various types of exercise regimens and physical activity regimens.
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So if I'm able to stay relatively physically active,
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eat a variety of different types of foods, and do a few other things,
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like avoiding foods that are high in trans fats.
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Once again, we don't want to eat more than maybe a gram to two grams
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of trans fats in a total day.
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Avoiding things like smoking, avoiding heavy amounts of drinking.
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If I can avoid trans fats, if I can avoid smoking, if I can avoid heavy drinking,
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then I don't need to eat additional foods
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indicated as having large amounts of antioxidants.
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And I definitely don't need the supplements that are supposedly
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going to contain large amounts of antioxidants.
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One of the problems with taking the supplements with antioxidants
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is that we actually don't know the true amount of bioavailable chemicals
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that are known to be antioxidants within the supplements we're taking.
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We may know how much is there, but we don't necessarily know
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how much will pass through the liver and allow for circulation throughout the body
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to provide antioxidant properties to the body.
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Antioxidant properties within the chemical reactions
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necessary to control for radicals for the rest of the body.
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There's different types of chemical reactions that take place
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in terms of chemical reactions that allow for things to be active within the body,
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what we refer to as being bioactive.
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But we also don't know how much of the stuff that we're taking
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in the supplements will be absorbed, which is sometimes referred to as bioavailability.
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And so as long as I'm avoiding those factors,
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the trans fats to a high amount, trying to avoid smoking,
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and it really doesn't matter what kind of smoking, just avoiding the smoking,
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and avoiding high amounts of alcohol consumption,
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staying relatively physically active,
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then I don't need to over consume the antioxidants
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and I definitely don't need to worry about the supplements that contain antioxidants.
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And why is that?
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Well, it goes into how the, how the free radicals are going to form within the body.
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And what antioxidants happen to be, because remember,
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all of these quote unquote superfoods are going to basically be foods
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that contain antioxidants within them.
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And the antioxidant supplements, the antioxidant foods that we're going to be consuming
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are meant to be consumed in such a way as to help control free radicals.
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And it falls back onto the chemistry part of the science that the body uses
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in order to maintain optimal states, what is sometimes referred to as homeostasis.
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And the type of reactions that most often are going to be involved within the body
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are sometimes referred to as redox reactions, scientifically,
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reduction and oxidation reactions.
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And what the reduction oxidation reactions are doing is that they are reactions that are
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happening between molecules, between atoms, where electrons are bonding together
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and splitting apart within the molecules.
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In this, sometimes the molecules will gain and sometimes molecules will lose their strength.
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Sometimes molecules will lose electrons.
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In the gaining and losing of electrons, we undergo reduction and oxidation.
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And so if I'm in a reduced state, that means that I have gained electrons.
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In the case of how the body works, we usually look at it in terms of hydrogen ions.
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In the oxidized state, I have lost electrons within the reactions.
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And so a lot of the metabolic processes that the body is going to use
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will undergo this reduction and oxidation reactions where we'll have molecules in a reduced state
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and molecules in an oxidized state.
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And sometimes we get reactions that occur too quickly for full reduction and full oxidation to take place.
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And when we get that, reactions occurring a little too quickly to get full reduction and full oxidation,
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that's where we get free radical formations.
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And the free radical formations occur when we get an unpaired electron within the atoms of the molecule.
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And the way which electrons work, and I know this is going to get a little beyond what most people
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want to hear about in terms of the science here, is the way in which electrons work is that they
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spin around the nucleus of the atom.
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And as they spin around the nucleus of the atom, they move in a kind of a piston-like action
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within their, what we call the orbit, the spinning around of the nucleus of the atom.
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And they're paired up.
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So if one is spinning in an upwards direction,
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its paired electron within its orbit is spinning in the downward direction.
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And what this does is this keeps everything stable within the molecule.
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But when we have these reactions occur too quickly,
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what ends up happening is that the unpaired electron is out of sync with how it should be
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orbiting around the nucleus.
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And what it's going to do is it's then going to try to sync with some other atom.
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It's going to seek out other electrons that it could somehow pair with in order to get
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its piston action to balance itself out.
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Very similar to how the pistons in your engine is going to sync so that we have a balance within
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the engine of our car in terms of the internal combustion engine.
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And so these molecules, these free radicals, are going to come about from reactive reactions,
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reactions of reduction in oxidation that occur,
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where we're looking at three principal atoms that will generate our free radicals,
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our reactive species.
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Sometimes referred to as reactive oxidative species.
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And these are going to be our reactive oxygen species, our OS, our reactive nitrogen species,
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our NS, and our reactive sulfur species, our SS.
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Now for simplistic purposes, we usually will simplify this down to reactive oxidative species,
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ROS, or reactive oxygen species, ROS.
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Now we have to remember is that the free radicals themselves,
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even though we talk about it as being oxidative species,
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is not necessarily an indication that is oxygen,
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nor is it going to come from the oxygen reactions within the cell.
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And so these molecules, because they're unstable,
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because they're missing the electron to pair up within the piston action that's taking place,
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they start to wobble.
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And it's that wobbling that occurs that leads to an oxidized state for the free radical.
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And what it's attempting to do is it wants to go out and wants to bond onto something
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so that it gets out of this oxidized state.
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So it's able to get reduced or it's able to get stabilized.
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And so that wanting to bond onto other things,
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the constant interaction with other molecules within the body triggers metabolic stresses.
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It triggers metabolic stresses as what that molecule is attempting to do is attempting
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to pair with every other molecule it comes in contact with,
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regardless of how stable that molecule happens to be.
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And there's various types of free radicals that can come about
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that will generate different types of metabolic stresses based off of where we see the radicals
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within the body, whether they're intracellular within the cells themselves,
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or if they're interstitial between the cell tissues,
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or if they're in circulation within the fluids of the body, particularly within the blood,
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leading to different types of damages that can take place.
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And so what this is going to lead to is the body not wanting to be out of bounds,
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and the body is going to do something in order to help keep the body in balance.
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And what it's going to do is it's going to generate molecules
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that are meant to temporarily stabilize this radicalized molecule,
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this molecule that is in that oxidized state trying to find some sort of electron
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to stabilize that wobble that it happens to have.
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And it does this through the generation of the antioxidant.
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And what the antioxidant is, is it's a stable molecule that has an extra electron within
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that electron's orbit that it can temporarily give to the free radical.
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So what it does is it kind of binds to the free radical in such a way so that it becomes stable,
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and it becomes stable long enough either to be metabolized into something else,
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or be excreted from the body, either through respiration, breathing out,
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or through sweat, or through urine, or through excretion of bile into the intestines.
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And so what the antioxidant is going to do is it's going to temporarily bind onto
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this free radical, and it's going to temporarily bind onto the free radical
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so that we're able to reduce the metabolic stress that's taking place.
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And that's great if we're able to keep our body in balance.
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And we're able to keep everything in balance because we're going to have distinct things
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that are going to be able to produce antioxidants for us,
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which means we don't have to be constantly eating them.
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So within the body, we're going to have a whole bunch of things that are enzymatic
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and a whole bunch of things that are non-enzymatic.
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We have enzymes and coenzymes.
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One of the ones that everybody hears about is something known as CoQ,
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and Co stands for coenzyme. And so CoQ is one of those coenzymes that will act as an antioxidant.
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And that is predominantly found within the cells as a means to control radical formation
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in the energy pathways, in the pathways that are meant to produce ATP for the body.
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But we'll also see it within the cell structure,
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the cells of the liver and cells of the kidneys that are attempting to quote unquote detoxify.
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But then we also have other things that are non-enzyme, non-coenzyme things such as flavonoids,
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metal binding proteins, an amino acid known as gluthinine.
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Then we have some other things like uric acid, melatonin, bilirubin, polyamines.
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And then we have the
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coenzymatic factors such as vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin E, and a few of the vitamin Bs.
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All of these are going to be antioxidants that the body has,
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that the body is either able to generate from other metabolites or produce itself.
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And so what we have to remember here is that we're attempting to control the radicals with
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those antioxidants. Now here's the problem. If I have too many antioxidants or if I have too many
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free radicals, we're indicating here if I have enough too many free radicals, but the antioxidant
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itself can act as a free radical because once again it has that unpaired electron,
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something we'll talk about here in a few minutes.
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If I have too many free radicals, I'm going to have to use a few different
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in a few minutes. If I have too many of those free radicals, I enter a state of oxidative stress.
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It's this state of oxidative stress that we're trying to control.
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Oxidative stress is one of the key factors when it comes into quote unquote aging and is a key
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trigger in a lot of the non-communicable inflammatory issues, stress response disease setup,
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where I am sick, but quotes around the sick, where I am sick, but I'm not contagious. So
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non-communicable disease typically comes about from oxidative stress. Now the other thing comes
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about from oxidative stress is what we typically think about when we think about quote unquote aging.
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So when I am quote aging, end quote, I am building up oxidative stress. One of the ways in which we
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can see how much oxidative stress is occurring is to look at grain of hairs, the loss of the melanin
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pigmentation within the hair follicle due to accumulation of super oxides. Other things to
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look at in terms of oxidative stress as it relates to non-communicable diseases are a lot of the wear
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and tear breakdown that we might see within the body as we get quote unquote older. And so what
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are some of these things that are going to contribute to oxidative stress? The accumulation
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of super oxide formations. Super oxide formations are a lot of the peroxides that can form within
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chemical reactions. Low density lipoprotein oxidized molecules. This is where we have to worry about
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high amounts of LDL levels within our cholesterol molecule measures within our cardiovascular
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functions leading to atyloscorosis, quote unquote hardening of the arteries. And that is because the
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LDL oxidized molecule, the oxidized LDL molecules is a free radical and can lead to oxidative stress
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within the cardiovascular system. A whole host of lipid peroxides as well as nitrous
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theels. And nitrous theels are going to come about from excessive amounts of protein degradation,
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breakdown of proteins and reactions with nitrates and amino acids. Now it can't just be just because
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of accumulations. We have a whole bunch of antioxidants that are naturally occurring within
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the body, both enzymatic as well as non-enzymatic. If I start losing my antioxidant molecules
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because I'm in a constant state of stress or I'm in a constant state of oxidative stress,
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or if I am constantly being sick, I'll see a loss of my antioxidant molecules from within my body.
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And so a reduction of things like cytochrome C, coenzyme Q within the liver NADPH or NADBH2,
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superoxide demutase, luthionine peroxidase. Those two are very important enzymes within
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the antioxidant reactions. Reduction of specific antioxidant vitamins such as vitamin E,
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vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin A, and then a few of the vitamin Bs.
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A loss of luthionine from our diet can also lead to oxidative stress or a loss of the ability to
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produce luthionine can lead to excessive oxidative stress.
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And so when we look at this, what is the outcome of either having too many radicals or
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not enough antioxidants? When we're in a state of oxidative stress, we have an increased risk
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for developing things like metabolic diseases, cancers, and cardiovascular disease.
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When we talk about metabolic diseases, one of the ones that everybody knows about is type 2 diabetes,
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which everybody somehow links to the type 2 diabetes syndrome.
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Cardiovascular disease is predominantly going to be due to atherosclerotic changes,
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quote unquote stiffening of the arteries, which leads to hypertension, high blood pressure.
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Oxygen is a very important enzyme in the blood, and it's a very important enzyme in the blood.
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So, we're going to be looking at the type 2 diabetes syndrome,
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which leads to a high blood pressure. Oxidative stress can actually cause changes in gene
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expression, and particularly expression of distinct oncogenes. And oncogenes are the genes that
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are going to trigger cancer growth within the individual.
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And so what are some of the various types of oxidative stress diseases that we might have?
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Things like retinol degeneration, macular degeneration, possible cataract formations within the eye.
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Early, quote unquote aging, excessive inflammation, susceptibility to infection,
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early wrinkling,
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dermatitis within the skin, expression of things like eczema, risks for skin cancers,
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expression of possible autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.
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Within the bones and within the joints of the body, development of osteoarthritis,
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what people usually refer to as simply arthritis.
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Cardiovascular, we can have hypertension. We can have what's referred to as cardiomyopathy taking place.
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That is where the muscles of the heart are going to be affected.
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And then we have cardiomyopathy taking place. That is where the muscles of the heart will grow larger than what the muscles of the heart should grow.
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So as to overcome the excessive blood pressure that the heart has to pump against.
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The high blood pressure and the cardiomyopathy can lead to heart failure.
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We can get cirrhosis of the liver. We can get renal nephritis, inflammation within the nephrons of the kidney.
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We can get chronic kidney diseases.
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What is very interesting is that a lot of the neurodegenerative diseases that we wanted to attribute to specific things
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seem to come about due to excessive oxidative stress, particularly dementia,
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Alzheimer's disease, increased risks for people who have bipolar issues, expression of bipolar issues,
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people who are susceptible to migraines.
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Excessive oxidative stress can trigger migraines.
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One of the ways in which migraines can come about is associated with fluctuations of
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estrogens within the body and that has to deal with estrogen's ability to regulate antioxidants and control oxidative stress.
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And so there is some susceptibility, particularly for females, within menstrual cycles when we have estrogen spikes and estrogenators
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high amounts of estrogen and low amounts of estrogen to have migraine issues, particularly within their menstrual cycles.
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And so a lot of these issues with oxidative stress and the need to have antioxidants has led to recommendations by registered dieticians
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and by many of the dietician associations that we need to eat foods with antioxidants, which is true.
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We do need to eat foods with antioxidants.
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And this is where we get the adage that we should be eating the rainbow.
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And when we say eat the rainbow, we want to make sure is that we're eating foods that have a variety of colors within it.
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And that's because the colors that we see, particularly within our fruits and vegetables, is going to provide the base materials necessary to build the antioxidants that we need within the body.
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Especially if we have any of the warning signs that we would need additional antioxidants, such as being sedentary, eating foods with high amounts of trans fats,
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eating foods with high amounts of saturated fats, smoking, drinking.
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But what that doesn't mean is that we have to have more antioxidants within the diet than what we should have within the diet.
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And so what are the antioxidants going to do to help with oxidative stress?
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They're going to help to temporarily bind on to those free radicals.
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And so what are the ones we're going to get from our diet that are going to help us to get rid of the antioxidants?
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The ones that are going to help us get rid of the antioxidants that we're going to get from our diet that are beneficial to us?
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Things like vitamin C, coenzyme Q, beta carotene and vitamin A, vitamin D, our flavonoids, our retinols, zinc.
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Are all antioxidant molecules or parts of antioxidant molecules that we can get from our diet.
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But once again, that doesn't mean that we have to over consume them.
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We need to consume them, but we don't need to over consume them.
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And the indication that some of these quote unquote superfoods have higher amounts of these
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molecules and minerals within them relative to other foods is not an indication that it's going to provide any additional benefit
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than we might get simply from eating the rainbow, eating foods that have multiple colors.
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Not just eating beige.
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And by eating beige, we're simply saying, don't just eat one type of food.
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But the thing we have to remember is that most of the antioxidants that we're going to be utilizing in our body come from the body.
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And we're going to try to keep everything in balance.
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This means that if we start to over consume the antioxidants, the body is going to slow down the rate at which we're producing those antioxidants.
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We're going to try to keep everything in balance.
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The body wants to make sure that we don't have too much.
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We don't have too little.
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We want to be just right.
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I usually talk about this in terms of making sure that we are baby bear.
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Not too hot, not too cold.
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Just right.
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Not too soft, not too hard.
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Just right.
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A lot of people mistakenly think about this as being in the Goldilocks zone, but it's not really about being in Goldilocks zone.
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It's about being in the baby bear zone because the body wants to be baby bear.
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It doesn't want to be too much.
31:10
It doesn't want to be too little.
31:11
It wants to be just right.
31:18
And so when we have normal consumption of antioxidants, when we're eating a colorful diet,
31:24
when we are physically active, we're able to produce the antioxidants that the body needs.
31:32
The more active we are, the more antioxidants the mitochondria within the cells will produce to help us out with any type of free radicals that might come from our energy metabolism.
31:43
If we are eating all of the stuff that we should be eating, meaning that we're not eating beige,
31:49
the liver is getting all of the nutrients the liver needs to get in order to make sure it's able to do its detoxification reactions
31:58
and it's able to do its reactions to eliminate any of the super oxides and free radicals that might come about from
32:05
the detoxification reactions so that we're able to stay relatively healthy.
32:15
And so remember, we want to keep everything in balance.
32:17
Everything needs to be kept in balance so that we don't go too far to one side or too far to the other side.
32:25
And the amount that we eat for these antioxidants is going to be the amount that we eat for the rest of our body.
32:34
The amount we eat for these antioxidants, the amount we eat based off of our need, is very, very small.
32:43
We're talking milligrams and micrograms for most of them.
32:47
And if we over consume them, it can lead to issues.
33:05
And the issues that can come about include things like oxidative stress.
33:08
There was a story that came out 20, 30 years ago now, almost 40 years ago now,
33:18
about consuming vitamin C as a means to prevent cancer.
33:22
And that's because if we can reduce oxidative stress, we can reduce any of the genetic
33:31
issues that can come about from oxidative stress on the genes.
33:34
And vitamin C is a very good antioxidant at controlling oxidative stress on DNA.
33:43
But what the research showed is that if we actually wash cells with, if we give these cells too much of the antioxidant,
33:51
it actually causes oxidative stress that the vitamin C was supposed to counterbalance.
33:56
And so it actually doesn't reduce the cancer risks.
34:04
There was, and once again, this statement came out almost 50 years ago now,
34:09
about consuming vitamin C in order to offset symptoms of the cold, the common cold.
34:17
And that's because when I get sick, I increase my oxidative stress and vitamin C
34:22
is going to help reduce that oxidative stress.
34:25
And somehow it's going to make me healthier or it's going to offset the cold and make the cold go away faster.
34:33
And we found out that that's not true.
34:36
There is no empirical evidence to support those two things.
34:43
Now there's this add zinc to diet when you get the cold.
34:48
And you do, and you may need more zinc when you are sick,
34:52
as zinc is a co-factor that comes into play with immune function and regulation of oxidative stress,
34:59
as well as activation of some enzymes within the immune pathways.
35:04
But once again, you don't need excessive amounts of it.
35:07
And the problem is that all of the supplements that are out there tend to have excessive amounts of all of these substances.
35:14
And so why is it that having too much is a bad thing?
35:19
And that's simply because they're going to try to make stable molecules
35:24
in the same way that the radicals are going to try to make stable molecules.
35:28
And in doing this, they're going to create more radicals within the cells
35:33
and within the body than what would have been there normally.
35:35
And so why is exercise going to control ROS formation?
35:42
And once again, it doesn't matter what type of exercise that we do,
35:45
whether it is body weight exercising or endurance exercise
35:53
or weightlifting, resistance to weight lifting,
35:58
or resistance training.
36:04
It doesn't matter how we exercise.
36:07
Exercise is going to help control ROSs,
36:09
is going to help control ROSs by regulating mitochondrial functions
36:15
and by generating additional antioxidant molecules coming away from the mitochondria.
36:22
But beyond that, exercise is going to help control the mitochondria.
36:27
And in doing that, exercise is going to help with controlling ROSs
36:31
by increasing a few things and decreasing a few things.
36:35
It's going to increase the antioxidants coming away from the mitochondria.
36:41
It's going to help with increasing the clearance of lipids
36:45
and nitrogenous oxidizers from the blood.
36:48
It's going to start metabolizing those
36:50
and creating the chance for those molecules to become free radicals.
36:57
It's going to increase the conversion of the low density lipoproteins
37:01
to the high density lipoproteins.
37:04
And that has to deal with what the lipoproteins are doing for the body
37:08
in terms of moving things around, which we'll talk about in a different talk.
37:15
By increasing the rate at which metabolism is taking place during exercise
37:19
by increasing the flow rate of blood around the body
37:24
and excretion of materials either onto the skin through sweat
37:30
or by increasing the filtration of blood
37:33
following exercise at the kidneys or at the liver,
37:36
we're able to clear things that might become free radicals.
37:41
But we're also able to reduce the things that can become free radicals.
37:46
And that is key point here.
37:48
We're going to decrease stuff as well.
37:52
We're going to decrease inflammation signals.
37:54
If I can decrease inflammation signals, I decrease the hormonal signals
37:58
that can lead to free radical formations.
38:03
And by reducing inflammation signals, I'm able to increase
38:10
my level of health and reduce my level of oxidative levels.
38:15
My level of oxidative stress.
38:19
So why do I need to avoid alcohol?
38:25
Why do I need to avoid trans fats?
38:28
It's not about what's happening at the tissues within the body.
38:31
It's about what's happening specifically at one spot, and that's at the liver.
38:35
It's all about what's happening at the liver in terms of metabolism in the liver
38:40
that's attempting to quote unquote detoxify and eliminate metabolic wastes.
38:48
And what is happening within the liver is that we're going to have a whole host
38:51
of metabolic functions that come into play here.
38:55
And as the metabolic functions that come into play, we're going to produce waste products
39:03
and we're going to produce super oxides and free radicals.
39:07
When we look at the production of the super oxides and we look at the production of the
39:12
free radicals, all of these things will be eliminated from the body.
39:16
They're either going to be eliminated from the body through transportation to the sweat
39:19
glands to be released as sweat, transportation to the kidneys to be released as urine,
39:26
or are going to go into the formation of bile to be excreted into the intestines
39:32
to be eliminated from the body to be removed from the body during defecation.
39:39
Now, if you look here, we have distinct free radicals that are going to form.
39:45
And the distinct free radicals are forming is based off of the rate of the transformation steps.
39:54
The rate at which we are undergoing reactions to the body is going to be
39:59
the rate at which we are undergoing reactions of the toxic material of the metabolites in circulation
40:10
that are going to lead to super oxides and free radicals,
40:14
ROSs, RNs, RSSs.
40:18
And what we're going to attempt to do is we're going to attempt to use our enzymes
40:22
and our coenzymes and our cofactors in an attempt to temporarily bind onto these radicals.
40:29
And there's a reason why I want to bind onto these radicals,
40:32
because we want to reduce oxidative stress within the liver cells.
40:39
We want to reduce the oxidative stress within the liver cells until we can get these
40:42
molecules out of the liver and out of the body.
40:48
And that's because when we have an excessive amount of metabolic stress taking place within
40:55
the liver, we end up having oxidative stress injury.
41:00
And oxidative stress injury triggers an inflammatory response taking place within the liver itself.
41:06
And this inflammatory process within the liver is going to activate a specific type of cell,
41:12
what's sometimes referred to as a stellate cell.
41:14
And what the stellate cell does is it starts to cause clots to form within
41:19
a region of the liver known as the sinusoid.
41:23
And what this does is this causes a blockage of flow in an attempt to protect the hepatocytes,
41:29
the liver cells, from experiencing any type of additional injury.
41:37
And what this clot formation ends up doing is it ends up blocking the cell
41:41
and what this clot formation ends up doing is it ends up blocking blood flow through the liver.
41:48
But the problem is that blood flow is going to keep coming into the liver
41:52
and it's going to cause additional stress.
41:55
And the additional stress is going to cause additional activation of stellate cells,
42:00
which is going to cause additional activation of the clotting issues that take place,
42:05
which leads to something known as fibrosis.
42:07
Fibrosis, if it becomes excessive, is where oxidative stress within the liver itself
42:14
leads to cirrhosis.
42:16
This is where we can get two distinct types of cirrhosis or two distinct types of liver
42:21
diseases taking place due to oxidative stress.
42:25
It can come about from excessive consumption of ethanol, alcohol,
42:32
which is referred to as alcohol fatty acid liver syndrome,
42:38
or it can come about from excessive consumption
42:44
of non-alcoholic factors, which will lead to oxidative stress,
42:51
which include things like excessive consumption of trans fats,
42:55
excessive consumption of carbohydrates, in particular fructose-based carbohydrates.
43:04
And fructose is one of the units of the sugar that we find within table sugar, sucrose,
43:12
is the table sugar, which is made up of a glucose and a fructose.
43:17
If I'm consuming a large amount of sugar,
43:20
I'm going to be consuming a large amount of fructose. If I'm consuming large amounts of
43:24
things that have what's usually as high fructose syrup,
43:27
the most prominent type of high fructose syrup is high fructose corn syrup,
43:33
which adds just a few percentages more fructose than what we get from normal sucrose.
43:41
But what that does is that causes additional oxidative stress to the liver,
43:45
which triggers additional activation of stellate cells, which causes that same type of fatty acid
43:50
issue to develop, leading to possible cirrhosis of the liver, all due to fibrotic changes,
43:58
clotting, in an attempt to save the hepatocytes from having additional oxidative stress.
44:07
So, what we're seeing is that the liver is not going to be able to
44:10
save the hepatocytes from having additional oxidative stress.
44:17
And so, if I'm able to consume additional amounts of
44:24
the enzymes, coenzymes, and cofactors necessary to limit the amount of oxidative stress taking
44:32
place within the liver as the liver is doing its detoxification reactions,
44:37
I'm going to be able to limit the amount of either fatty acid, not to be non-alcoholic fatty acid,
44:46
or alcoholic fatty acid liver issues coming about within the liver, leading to the fibrosis
44:53
and the eventual cirrhosis that can take place within the liver disease issues.
44:59
And this is where, if I'm eating large amounts of trans fats, if I'm eating large amounts of high
45:06
sugar, if I'm consuming large amounts of alcohol, but I'm not counterbalancing that with the
45:14
consumption of antioxidants, I'm going to have the excessive oxidative stress taking place
45:20
and the potentiation to have cirrhosis or anti-oxidation.
45:26
And the potentiation to have cirrhosis or I'm going to have an increased relative risk for developing cirrhosis.
45:37
Okay. We also said something about avoid smoking. Well, why do I need to avoid smoking? Now, here's the thing.
45:45
Most of the smoking research is strictly about tobacco smoke.
45:49
But we have recently noticed with the change in materials being smoked that it doesn't matter
45:56
what is being smoked, whether it is tobacco smoke, hemp smoke, or the vape smoke, the electronic
46:05
e-cigarettes or the vape pens. It doesn't matter what's being smoked. All of them are going to
46:11
increase oxidative stress within the respiratory tract, within the lungs, within the trachea,
46:20
and within the bronchioles. And what this is going to do is this is going to trigger inflammation
46:25
within the respiratory tract, but it's also going to be able to be absorbed very quickly because of
46:31
the types of cells that we have within the lungs, which is going to trigger ROS and radical formations
46:38
outside of the lungs by triggering immune activity within the respiratory tract.
46:46
We're going to get high amounts of inflammation taking place within
46:49
the lungs, high amounts of inflammation taking place within the respiratory tract
46:53
due to what's referred to as the volatile chemicals that we see within the smoke material.
47:00
When we say volatile chemicals, what we're talking about is we're talking about chemicals that are
47:04
airborne. And so a lot of times we can actually see the same type of issue come about
47:14
from people who are exposed to things that are very similar to smoke but are not actual smoking
47:23
things. So people who are exposed to car exhaust and large amounts of car exhaust, people who
47:31
are firefighters that are exposed to burning buildings or anything that happens to be combustible,
47:41
auto mechanics, people who go to auto racing, are exposed to large amounts of exhaust of
47:50
burnt hydrocarbons, burnt fuels that increase the volatile chemicals in the air that can trigger
47:57
the same ROS issues that can come about from smoking. It's one of the reasons why if you're
48:04
an outdoor exerciser like myself, you want to make sure you look at the air quality index
48:10
relative to when you plan to go and work out outside and modulate your activity based off
48:15
of what the air quality index is telling you because that's the indication of the level of
48:20
volatile chemicals in the area that you're going to be exercising in. And what's that oxidative
48:26
stress going to lead to? The oxidative stress is going to lead to the cancers, lung cancer,
48:33
respiratory cancer, COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, emphysema. We could see
48:41
things like bronchitis come about. We could see things like asthma come about. Asthma is
48:46
an immune response and the more oxidative stress that I have taking place, the more likely I am
48:51
to have an asthmatic response taking place. If you can't avoid trans fats, if you can't avoid
48:58
trans fats, if you over consume alcohol or if you cannot avoid over consuming alcohol,
49:07
if you can't avoid smoke, and remember it's not just about you being the smoker, it's avoiding
49:13
the smoke, then we know that taking the antioxidants might be of benefit to you. Things to remember
49:21
in terms of a take home message. Illnesses lead to increased ROSs, but consuming antioxidants does not
49:29
prevent illnesses. Vitamin C and zinc do not prevent getting the common cold. Poor physical
49:40
activity leads to increased ROSs by increased inflammation due to issues referred to as over
49:48
fatness. These issues are countered by increase of activity independent of any changes that we
49:57
might see in body weight or body composition. What we have to remember here is that health
50:03
issues are highly complex and to attribute health to a single factor is an oversimplification
50:15
health issues are highly complex and to attribute this to a single factor is an oversimplification
50:25
and a misrepresentation of the principles of science.
50:29
We have a number of issues that will feed onto each other and interact with each other,
50:37
leading to one's overall health. And because of the way in which the body functions and the way
50:47
in which we function interact with others within our environment, it is almost impossible to
50:54
indicate a single factor as the root cause for any of the health issues or as the underlying
51:02
principle reason for alleviating health issues. Well, thanks for watching. Thanks for listening.
51:09
Hopefully you gained a little insight into some of the aspects of human physiology and health
51:15
that gets misrepresented within a lot of the issues that we're going to be discussing today.
51:22
That gets misrepresented within a way the way in which we talk about stuff. If you like what we
51:28
produce, if you like what we put out, please remember to like and click the subscribe button
51:33
so that you can stay update with everything that we are putting out there. If you have specific
51:39
superfoods or specific antioxidant substances that you'd like to learn more about,
51:44
please drop it in the comments and we'd be more than happy to address those for you.