Antixodidants In Food -- Too Much Of A Good Thing?

[Jingthing]

I like to do what I can that is easy to promote being healthy.

There is a lot of press these days about the health promoting qualities of various foods containing antioxidants.

For example --

green tea

dark chocolate (or any chocolate flavanol source such as un-Dutched cocoa powder, which is what I use)

shiitake mushrooms (must be cooked)

turmeric

Well I consume all of those most every day (some days don't have the mushrooms, but the majority of days I do).

Now I am wondering, are there any issues with consuming TOO MUCH antioxidants?

What made me think about this is that I heard people undergoing chemotherapy are sometimes advised to eat a shiitake mushroom broth. So that sounds like serious medicine for sick people. Maybe healthy people shouldn't be having such strong medicine all the time. I really don't know, and actually don't expect that modern science really knows the answer definitely either.

Edited October 24, 2010 by Jingthing

[473geo]

one theory would appear to agree with your thinking.........

Vattan explained that some antioxidants are capable of killing harmful bacteria in small doses. So, as with antibiotic drugs, overuse of antioxidants such as those found in oregano, rosemary, thyme, curries, and red pepper can make bacteria resistant to treatment

Source:

http://www.naturalnews.com/010451_antioxidants_food_bacteria.html

[billzant]

Dear Jingthing,

How are you?

I am no expert.

There are always going to be people who will write papers about this and that. Is the purpose of their writing always to contribute to truth, understanding and well-being?

I would agree with you that the issue on eating all natural foods is balance. But our own systems have a way of balancing themselves, I would trust myself to balance how much green tea, turmeric and shiitake mushrooms to have - I don't eat dark chocolate.

Do you want someone else to give you a number?

Isn't it better to learn to trust yourself on these things? When we eat all the foods with additives sweeteners etc, our systems lose balance and we lose the ability to judge for ourselves. if we eat healthily we can regain our own balance and trust our own judgements.

Hope you are keeping well,

All the Best,

Bill Z

[WeeGB]

I eat blueberries almost every day, which are also supposed to be full of antioxidants, but I do it because I like them.

I think one of the problems with life today is that there are so many 24 hour news media outlets, that they have to be filled with whatever news is available. As health is a major part of most peoples lives, it follows that health related news is a major topic on most news outlets. It's hard to tell the good from the spurious, and sometimes the downright scary......remember the chicken flu scare, the swine flu epedemic that never happened? The scariest for me, was a news item that cheese on toast and coffee gave people cancer...guess what I was eating as I read it??

Personally I try to eat as much natural food as I can, fruit and vegetables by the bucket full, and exercise every day. I'll probably get run over by a bus tomorrow.