Text/Professor Wu, Department of Food Science, Taiwan Province Ocean University
Based on the importance of preventive health care, modern people still choose some vitamins and other nutritional health care products to adjust their physique, especially middle-aged people. For some metabolic syndrome diseases (lowering blood fat, blood pressure and blood sugar), they prevent osteoporosis, antioxidation and aging, and constantly supplement various health care foods. Many people eat more than a dozen health care foods a day. But how to choose the right health food among various health products or tens of millions of manufacturers? Should we rely on our own personal feelings? Introductions from relatives and friends? Follow the recommendation of pharmacists or marketers? How to avoid black-hearted products and choose excellent products from these exaggerated and moving advertisements? Today, I'd like to share some of my views with you based on the knowledge I have learned in the textbook, research results and personal life experience?
Do people really need health food? The human body is like a big machine, it works constantly every day, so it needs food to provide energy. But in the process of decomposing food to produce energy, the body will be accompanied by the production of some free radicals. What is a free radical? Simply put, free radicals are atoms, molecules or ions with "single unpaired electrons", which may be produced in any part of the human body, especially mitochondria, which is the main place to produce energy and free radicals in cells. There are many kinds of free radicals in human body, some of which are synthesized by human body and play an important role; Or produced in the process of metabolism; There are also from the external environment. Generally speaking, free radicals are quite active small molecular weight substances, which have the characteristics of robbing other substances of electrons. However, the substance that has been robbed of electrons becomes unstable, and then the electrons of other substances are robbed, resulting in a series of chain reactions, and finally these robbed substances are destroyed. It is known that free radicals can randomly destroy lipids, protein and nucleic acids, thus causing diseases and aging of organisms. Nowadays, it is found that free radicals are the culprit of many diseases in the body, including cancer, cataract, atherosclerosis, aging, chronic inflammation, ischemia, myocardial infarction, autoimmune diseases, etc., which are closely related to the oxidation reaction caused by free radicals.
Of course, at the time of creation, God gave the human body a system with anti-oxidation and restoration to resist and prevent the harm of free radicals. One is the innate antioxidant enzyme system [superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, CAT and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX)]. SOD can promote the transformation of superoxide anion into hydrogen peroxide and eliminate superoxide anion. Hydrogen peroxide will be reduced to water and oxygen through CAT or GSH-Px; In addition, GSH-Px can also reduce lipid peroxide to non-toxic products. So everyone has these antioxidant enzymes, but they behave differently. The other is that natural antioxidants [vitamin C (ascorbic acid), vitamin E (tocopherol), glutathione, glutathione, β-carotene] need to be obtained from food to remove free radicals in the body. Vitamin C is the main water-soluble antioxidant in cells, which can directly scavenge free radicals and terminate the chain reaction caused by free radicals. Vitamin E is an important fat-soluble antioxidant, which can effectively prevent the chain reaction of free radicals on lipid peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids in biofilm and lipoprotein, reduce the generation of oxidative stress, and then reduce the harm to the body. Vitamin C can reduce vitamin E, but the activity of vitamin C can be regenerated by GSH reduction. Therefore, antioxidant substances can complement each other and provide antioxidant protection.
Cystatin is also an antioxidant in cells, which can not only reduce lipid peroxide through GSH-Px, but also indirectly inhibit the chain reaction of free radicals, thus protecting cells from free radicals. β -carotene is a fat-soluble pigment widely existing in nature and a precursor of vitamin A, which can eliminate the free radical toxicity of singlet oxygen in the body, especially the excessive free radicals produced by white blood cells (such as phagocytes). So you need to supplement from food from time to time. However, with the change of lifestyle and diet, people work hard outside every day and lack moderate exercise and rest. Eating out with high calorie, high fat and high sugar will increase the metabolism in the body and produce a lot of free radicals, which can't supplement enough natural antioxidants compared with the lack of fruits and vegetables. Excessive oxygen-containing free radicals are produced in the body, which is beyond the scavenging range of the body's antioxidant system, which will lead to the imbalance between oxidation and antioxidation in the body and produce oxidative stress. At this time, the body's anti-oxidation defense mechanism is unbalanced, and cells are attacked by free radicals, which will cause aging, inflammation and disease under the irresistible situation of the body and cause harm to the body. Do you think it's time to supplement antioxidants to eliminate excessive free radicals in the body?
How to choose good health food? Choose "brand raw materials" as peace of mind health food.
For example, various manufacturers in the market offer a variety of products containing fish oil. If consumers only choose cheap products, but the source is not guaranteed, can you guarantee that they will eat fish oil or mixed oil with unknown ingredients? Choosing "brand raw materials" means choosing protection. A famous international raw material manufacturer must have a strong professional technical team. After long-term research and development, a series of functional experiments and safety tests, it will be put on the market, and after a series of verification, it will apply for a patent. So it is safe to choose high-quality "brand raw materials". Don't just ask for low prices and buy miscellaneous oil with unknown ingredients, which is a waste of money and suffering! There is a lot of miscellaneous oil on the market, so be careful!
Make sure that enough raw materials are added.
In addition to identifying famous brand raw materials, whether the raw materials are "sufficiently added" is another key point in choosing health food. Brand raw materials will go through many efficacy experiments in the initial research and development stage to confirm how much everyone should eat every day to achieve health care effects. Therefore, when purchasing health food, we should not only choose the brand source of raw materials, but also whether the dosage of raw materials can reach the daily recommended dosage of the original factory is the key to correct selection! In order to reduce the cost, many health foods in the market use cheap raw materials with unknown sources and worrying quality. Some just add a little brand raw materials, indicating good, or don't mark the added amount at all. Even if the source of brand raw materials is marked, it is just a scratch, and there is no original certification.
Clear product label
When consumers buy health food, they should clearly distinguish the labeling significance of original capacity, added amount, source of raw materials and recommended consumption on the outer packaging. And choose a decent company, the products developed by a strong R&D team, the packaging has detailed product name, content, ingredient list, production date, shelf life, company contact number, and perfect after-sales service and professional consultation to ensure the quality of the products you buy.
Professor Wu from the Department of Food Science of Taiwan Province Ocean University is mainly engaged in molecular biology, virology, immunology and biotechnology research.
He led a research team to develop a health food "seaweed polysaccharide", which was extracted from seaweed and proved to be effective in adsorbing enterovirus by animal experiments. At present, it has obtained the patent authorization from Taiwan Province Province.
[Author's Summary] Prevention is more important than treatment! Health food is not a medicine for patients. Its main purpose is to maintain daily life and prevent diseases. Therefore, healthy food will not have an immediate effect, but it needs long-term patient and sustained consumption to feel its preventive and health care effects. So, 1. Choose assured raw materials with brand guarantee, 2. Confirm that enough raw materials have been added; 3. Clear product labels; 4. Long-term consumption by patients according to the recommended amount is the only way to obtain health by using health food. Subject: health food, antioxidation, free radical