This spring I was living in California, and I had the opportunity to take a very interesting two-month course on nutrition at Stanford University. The program was called Food Facts and Fads and, as the name implies, was supposed to teach students how to make sense of the flood of scientific and pseudoscientific information about nutrition.
I want to tell you about some of the topics we discussed.
This article is about the problem of oxidation, which our instructor, Dr. Clyde Wilson, brought up in literally every class. What is oxidation? Chemically speaking, it's a process in which a donor molecule gives an electron to an oxidizer molecule. That is, the donor loses an electron, thereby oxidizing. In principle, in the human body, this process should be balanced by the cellular defense system, but often this system is unable to withstand the enormous amount of aggressive oxygen forms, such as free radicals, which oxidize (i.e. damage) important components of our cells. As a result, the body experiences oxidative stress, which is one of the causes of many diseases. Antioxidants are a powerful force that can neutralize aggressive free radicals. That's what my instructor is talking about in more detail.
I see a profound irony in the fact that oxygen, which is critical for survival, can at the same time be the cause of aging. Oxygen attacks molecules in our bodies to take away their electrons. It's cool if you need to light a fire: in your oven or in the mitochondria of your cells (and mitochondria are the "energy stations" of cells, their main function is to oxidize organic compounds and then use the energy released in their decay). But you have to pay for fire. Outside your body, oxygen destroys food molecules, but inside your body, the oxygen that you don't use to get energy starts to harm you, accelerating aging of mitochondria and, as a result, aging of the body as a whole.
How do you protect your cells from oxidation?
To protect ourselves against this, we should cook food at high temperatures less often, eat more fresh vegetables and greens, as they contain antioxidants, and avoid oxidizing these antioxidants before eating foods. As a reminder, antioxidants "sacrifice themselves" to oxygen so that it does not attack your cell molecules. High temperatures and prolonged exposure to oxygen cause antioxidants to oxidize before they even enter your body. And in their oxidized state, they are not only useless, but become dangerous to your health.
Unsaturated fats fall into the same category as antioxidants because they have double bonds that are easily attacked by oxygen. The less saturated a fat is, the stronger and faster it oxidizes. The most unsaturated fats are omega-3 and omega-6. This is why chia and flax seeds (they are rich in omega-3) become rancid so quickly.
For the same reason, because of oxidation, vegetable oils are much healthier if they have not been heated while being obtained or prepared. Unfortunately, more often than not, vegetable oils are not only produced under high heat, but they are also heat treated after production to remove the odors from the initial processing. This is why it is so important to buy unprocessed, cold-pressed oil that is stored in an airtight container.
Again, because of oxidation, it is completely useless to consume antioxidant powders, shakes, bars and supplements with omega-3 fatty acids. All of their health benefits are useless after processing (read: oxidation), unlike omega-3s and antioxidants consumed with regular, unprocessed foods.
To protect natural sources of antioxidants and unsaturated fats from oxidation, they need to be stored and cooked properly. For example, do not cook for a long time and at very high temperatures, and in the latter case, use saturated fats for cooking, eat more fresh vegetables and herbs (and throw away the darkened ones), store vegetable oils in a dark place in an airtight container, and store chia and flax seeds in the refrigerator in an airtight package.
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