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With the change of lifestyle, people's lives are becoming more and more busy. , there are more and more people eating outside, and most of the food eaten outside is high in calories, fat, and sugar. Unknowingly, it has caused the global obesity population to increase day by day, and chronic diseases and cancer have also become invisible factors in people's life span. Killer. Health is wealth, and the pursuit of health must start from daily life. Therefore, preventive health care has become a very important topic in modern people's health care. But do people really need supplements to regulate their bodies?
Text/Professor Wu Changzhe, Department of Food Science, National Taiwan Ocean University
Based on the emphasis on preventive health care, modern people still choose some vitamins and other nutritional health products to adjust their physique. , especially middle-aged people, for metabolic syndrome diseases (lowering blood lipids, lowering blood pressure, lowering blood sugar), preventing osteoporosis, antioxidant and anti-aging, they constantly supplement various health foods, eating more than a dozen kinds a day. There are also many people who sell health food. But how do you choose the health food that suits you among the various health products or tens of millions of manufacturers? Should it be based on one's own personal experience? Introduction from relatives and friends? Follow the recommendation of a pharmacist or marketer? How can we avoid unscrupulous products and select high-quality products from these exaggerated and moving advertisements? Today I would like to share with you some of my opinions based on what I have learned in textbooks, research results and personal life experiences? Do people really need health food?
The human body is like a big machine, constantly running and working every day, so it needs food to provide energy. But when the body breaks down food to produce energy, it will be accompanied by the production of some free radicals. What are free radicals? Simply put, free radicals are atoms, molecules, or ions with "a single unpaired electron". They may be produced in any part of the human body, especially mitochondria, which are the main location for energy generation in cells. It is also the main place where free radicals are generated. There are many kinds of free radicals in the human body. Some are synthesized by the body itself and have important functions; some are generated during metabolism; some come from the external environment. Free radicals are generally very active small molecular weight substances that have the characteristic of robbing electrons from other substances. The substance that has been robbed of electrons becomes very unstable, and then robs the electrons of other substances, thus producing a series of chain reactions. Finally, causing the destruction of these looted materials. Free radicals are known to randomly destroy lipids, proteins and nucleic acids, thereby causing disease and aging of organisms. Current research has found that free radicals are the culprit of all diseases in the body, including: cancer, cataracts, atherosclerosis, aging, chronic The occurrence of diseases such as inflammation, ischemia, myocardial infarction, and autoimmunity are closely related to oxidative reactions caused by free radicals.
Of course, when God created creation, he equipped the human body with an antioxidant and repair and recovery system to fight and prevent the harm of free radicals. One is the innate antioxidant enzyme system [Superoxide Dismutase (Superoxide Di***utase, SOD), Catalase (CAT), Glutathione Peroxidase (GSH) -Px)]. SOD will convert superoxide anions into hydrogen peroxide to eliminate superoxide anions; hydrogen peroxide will then be reduced to water and oxygen through CAT or GSH-Px; in addition, GSH-Px will also reduce lipid peroxides to Non-toxic product. Therefore, everyone has these antioxidant enzymes, but their expression is different.
The other is to obtain natural antioxidant substances [vitamin C (ascorbic acid), vitamin E (tocopherol), glutathione (GSH) and β-carotene] from food. To remove free radicals from the body. Vitamin C is the main water-soluble antioxidant in cells. It can directly scavenge free radicals and terminate the chain reactions caused by free radicals. Vitamin E is an important fat-soluble antioxidant that can effectively prevent free radicals from carrying out lipid peroxidation chain reactions on polyunsaturated fatty acids on biological membranes and lipoproteins, reduce the generation of oxidative stress, and thereby reduce Harm to living organisms. Vitamin C can reduce vitamin E, but the activity of vitamin C can be regenerated by GSH reduction. It can be seen that antioxidant substances can complement each other to provide antioxidant protection.
Glutathione is also an intracellular antioxidant. It can not only reduce lipid peroxides through GSH-Px but also indirectly inhibit the chain reaction of free radicals, making cells immune. Damage from free radicals. β-Carotene is a fat-soluble pigment widely found in nature. It is the precursor of vitamin A. In the body, it can eliminate the free radical toxicity of singlet oxygen, especially the excess produced by white blood cells (such as phagocytes). Many free radicals. Therefore, it needs to be supplemented with food from time to time. However, with the changes in lifestyle and diet, people work hard outside every day, coupled with the lack of moderate exercise and rest. High-calorie, high-fat, and high-sugar eating out will increase the metabolism in the body and produce a large number of free radicals. Compared with the lack of Vegetables and fruits cannot provide enough natural antioxidants. Excessive oxygen-containing free radicals are produced in the body and exceed the elimination range of the body's antioxidant system, which will cause an imbalance between oxidation and antioxidants in the body, forming oxidative stress. At this time, the body's antioxidant defense mechanism is imbalanced, and cells are free due to When the body is unable to resist the attack of radicals, it will cause aging, inflammation and disease, causing harm to the body. So do you think we should supplement antioxidants to eliminate excessive free radicals in the body? How to choose good health food?
Choose safe health foods with "branded ingredients"
For example, various manufacturers on the market have launched products containing fish oil. There are many varieties. If consumers only choose Cheap product, but no guarantee of source. Can you be sure that what you are eating is fish oil or miscellaneous oil with unknown ingredients? Choosing "branded raw materials" is equivalent to choosing a guarantee. A branded 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 are carried out before it is launched on the market, and a patent can be obtained only after a series of verifications. Therefore, they choose to control quality at all levels. Only the "branded raw materials" are guaranteed. Don't just ask for a low price, but buy miscellaneous oil with unknown ingredients. You will spend money in vain and suffer! There are really a lot of miscellaneous oils on the market, so you have to be cautious!
Confirm that sufficient amounts of raw materials are added
In addition to identifying branded raw materials, whether the raw materials are added in sufficient amounts 』This is another important point in choosing health food. Brand raw materials will undergo multiple efficacy experiments during the original research and development stage to confirm the amount that each person should consume daily to achieve health benefits. Therefore, when purchasing health food, you cannot just choose the brand source of raw materials. Whether the added amount of raw materials can meet the original manufacturer's daily recommended dosage is an important key to the correct selection! In order to reduce costs, many health foods on the market use cheap raw materials of unknown origin and of questionable quality. Although some claim to use brand raw materials, they only add a little bit, which is just fine, or do not indicate the amount added at all, even if It indicates the source of the brand's raw materials, but it is just a fake and fake trick, and it has not obtained the certification of the original manufacturer at all.
Clear product labeling
When purchasing health food, consumers should clearly distinguish the labeling on the outer packaging such as capacity, added amount, source of raw materials, and recommended consumption by the original manufacturer. significance.
And choose products that are run by decent companies and have strong R&D teams. The packaging should be marked with detailed product name, contents, ingredient list, manufacturing date, shelf life, company contact number and other information, and have complete after-sales service and professional Consultation to ensure that you buy a product with guaranteed quality.
Professor Wu Changzhe of the Department of Food Science, National Taiwan Ocean University specializes in: molecular biology, virology, immunology, biotechnology
He once led a research team to develop the health food "algae polysaccharide" ", extracted from seaweed, has been proven by animal experiments to effectively adsorb enteroviruses, and has now obtained Taiwan patent authorization. [Author's summary] Prevention is better than treatment! Health food is not 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 requires continuous and patient consumption for a long time before you can feel its preventive and health-care effects. Therefore, 1. Choosing safe ingredients with "brand guarantee", 2. Confirming the addition of sufficient amounts of raw materials, 3. Clear product labeling, 4. Consuming the recommended amounts patiently for a long time is the only way to achieve health through health food Dharma door. Topics: health food, antioxidant, free radicals