Nourish With Intent

Good morning. Happy Saturday. Welcome back to Cadre. I hope everyone's having a wonderful morning so far. Let's see if anyone wants to pop in. We have plans to help a friend move as soon as I'm done here. So that's what I'm up to this weekend. All right, well, today, and I apologize for not adding this on, a little more info on my live today, but today I wanted to talk about antioxidants and why we need them, why we should care, just kind of a little bit of an overview. I'm gonna try to not get too much into the science y stuff of it all because it can get to be a lot, but in general, I just wanted to talk about benefits of antioxidants.

I saw a couple people pop in here, so good morning to you all. Good morning. Speak wonder. Good to have you back. I saw a couple other names that I don't think I've seen before. So good morning to you as well. All right, if you are new here, I haven't done this in a couple weeks, but I want to do another little, like, fun fact question. Good morning. Anila in the chat, just because I'm curious, drop your favorite fruit or vegetable because it will pertain to what we're talking about today. Mine is probably strawberries, and my husband hates me for it because he hates strawberries with a passion.

But I think those are one of my favorites. Okay, while you guys are sharing your favorite fruit or vegetable with me, what a dietitian thing for me to have done. Um, let's talk about antioxidants, why we should care, why we want them, do we even need them? And I'm sure many of you have heard that term. You may even know plenty about it. They were all the rage, I think, like, 15 years ago. That's kind of where the, like, wine and chocolate for health came from, at least in my lifetime. But what are they?

Why should we care? So, to understand why we need antioxidants, we have to kind of understand something called free radicals. So, antioxidants are important to us because they protect our body's cells from something called free radicals. And free radicals are highly reactive and unstable molecules that essentially can steal electrons and hydrogens from chemical structures of other cells in our bodies, like proteins, like fats, and that prevents those proteins and fats and even DNA from working normally.

So we use antioxidants. We want to eat antioxidants because they are essentially going to be the thing that sacrifices themselves to these free radicals so that we can excrete them rather than them, kind of like scavenging on all of the cells that we want to be functioning properly. So that's a little bit of a backstory there. Free radicals are caused by things from our environment as well as things in our own body. So air pollution, industrial chemicals, if you've ever been around, like, you know, we think about, like, that train derailment and implications of that on health, uv.

So sun exposure, x ray exposure, as well as, like I said, those things that our bodies are doing on their own, even just digestion, when we exercise, we release these free radicals or create them. And even our mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, as it's making energy for us, we can get free radicals as a byproduct of that? Essentially, yes. And, you know, to answer that, antioxidants can help clear out the toxins in a way, because those free radicals can kind of just, like, get in the way of our normal functioning.

So, um, medication chemicals. Like, do you mean, do antioxidants interfere with medications? Is that what you're asking? Or, like, the byproduct of just ingesting medications? Because some medications, through the digestion, will produce free radicals as well. And then we eat the antioxidants and get them out. So you want to expand on that? You can. Otherwise, if I answer your question, that's great, too. I love all these answers. All of these foods are also very high in antioxidants. Apples, fresh squeezed orange juice.

Love that. Do you have a favorite orange for orange juice? For me, it's carra caro oranges. I think those are my favorite blueberries. Speak wonder. Love a good blueberry snap peas. I'm a little bit allergic to, so I do eat them sometimes, but I can't eat very many. Ooh. Valencia. I don't know that I've ever had valencia orange juice. I love orange juice. I even bought a juicer this last year because I was like, I want to make fresh squeezed juice. Okay, good questions. If you have more questions, keep dropping them, and I'll try to answer them.

So, yes, essentially, these antioxidants help to protect our bodies from these molecules that can just kind of damage and interfere with the normal functioning of our body's cells and metabolic processes. When we have an imbalance of free radicals and not enough antioxidants, we get something called oxidative stress, which is maybe another term that you've heard. If not, it is something that has been found to not necessarily cause, but play a role in chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, neurological diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, like macular degeneration, cancer.

So all of these things, again, it's not the cause, but it has been found to be correlated with. So anytime we see something like that, again, it's just putting more work on our body and it's stressing out our body. So antioxidants, great thing to include. Our bodies do actually produce some antioxidants on their own, but it's not a ton. The one, if you've heard of bilirubin before, that is one of them. There's a couple others, but then we also eat our other antioxidants. So some of the nutrients that are antioxidants include vitamins c, e, and vitamin a, specifically in vitamin a, something called carotenoids or beta carotene, if you've ever heard that.

And lycopene is another really commonly talked about one. And you don't need to remember these. I will post some little graphics if you want to have them to reference. I'll put them in the community tab. So you don't need to, like, remember all of these, or you can come back and look at them. I'll get to the more important part in a second. Lutein, selenium, manganese, polyphenols, if you've heard that term before. And phytoestrogens is another one that is found in most commonly soy products. Plant based foods are the best sources.

And there's always kind of this question, you know, should I eat my foods? Is it better for me cooked or uncooked? And the answer to that is, it depends. Different nutrients. It depends on the cooking. So something like lycopene, which is found in your red fruits and veggies, that is actually more bioavailable when it's cooked. So think your like, tomato sauce, tomato paste that has higher amounts of lycopene than just your whole tomato from the vine. Beta carotene, kind of those carotenoids, some of the things we find them in are sweet potato and carrots.

Carrots, you're gonna eat raw. Sweet potatoes, you're probably not gonna eat raw. Your digestive system probably not gonna like that very much. Vitamin C, some of it does get destroyed when cooking. So if you're thinking about that again, this is why I always recommend as a dietitian, we're eating a variety of food and a variety of types of foods and preparations, if possible. So where do we get our antioxidants? I have kind of broken this up into color. There's a couple different ways you can do it, because a lot of the antioxidants are found in different colors and different foods, and this was just the simplest way for my brain to think about it.

But your brain might have a better way. I will say most of these antioxidants do play a little bit of a different role. So aiming to get again, that variety and incorporate all different types of these foods into your diet, whether that's day to day or week to week, having things on rotation with whatever works for you and your grocery planning and your budget and your just, like, overall capacity for thinking about this. But I've broken it down into colors to kind of exhibit the importance of eating the rainbow to be really cheesy today as a dietitian.

So starting with red, your red fruits and veggies, like I said, primarily when we think of those, we're going to think of lycopene and vitamin C. And both of those are shown to be cardio protective to kind of help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, things like that. So strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, cherries, apples, beets is another really good one. I am also allergic to cherries, so I like to kind of replace those with beets, watermelon, red peppers, red onion.

Those are your reds in terms of orange and yellow. I did already mention this a little bit, but those are going to be your carotenoids. So beta carotene, your vitamin A class, also something called beta cryptozanthin. Those, again, are cardio protective as well as can help protect against age related eye diseases. Those are going to be carrots, papaya, sweet potatoes, mango, banana, winter squash, cantaloupe, even corn. It's kind of an orange and yellow category. There's also other nutrients in all these colors.

But specifically to antioxidants is what I'll stick to today. Then when you think of green, that's gonna be, again, vitamin C, so similar to what's found in the red. And also carotenoids, so similar to the orange and yellow. And then also something called lutein, which is another antioxidant that can help with eye related concerns. And all of those are also have shown to potentially help protect against cancer. So anti inflammatory. I sound really annoying because it's kind of all the buzzwords, but eat the rainbow is really important.

Speak wonder. I also love mangoes. I'm sad in the winter when I can't get a good mango. They're so good. Frozen mangoes. Though. So leafy greens, broccoli, kale, kiwi is another one. Even things I think people don't tend to think of, like green tea and even green herbs. So your mint, basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, those greenhouse herbs also contain those antioxidants. Another one that is maybe more popular, the blue and purple has something called anthocyanins, which can. There's been some research to show, it's believed to help prevent blood clots and protect against cellular aging.

So kind of all of these as antioxidants can help do that. But specifically these anthocyanins, that is, speak wonder. Your blueberries, blackberries, eggplant, fig, plum, more herbs like lavender is included in that. And then purple cabbage, things like that. And one fun fact that I like to kind of challenge the eat the rainbow idea with, even in myself, I remind myself of these things sometimes. White and brown. I know we all make fun of the beige plate. We don't make fun of it, but there's that classic trope.

But white and brown foods also contain antioxidants as well as many other nutrients. But your onions, cauliflower, garlic, leek, parsnips, even mushrooms, which aren't known for being super nutrient dense because they're fungus, good source of vitamin D, though those have something called flavonoids. So those also are in the category of antioxidants that help reduce inflammation and can help protect against heart disease. Oh, my gosh. Speak wonder. I love that. Where did you go to school that you had a mango tree?

Was that in Colorado or was that before you were out here? Southern Florida. Okay, that makes more sense. I was gonna say, I don't know that I've ever seen a mango tree in person in my life, but I would love to. That's so fun. Oh, I love it. Nuts and seeds are another one that kind of fall under this, like, brown white category. But they are a very good source of vitamin e, as are oils, seeds. They contain tocopherols, if you've ever seen that on, like, a packaging. It's another name for vitamin e.

And the last one I will say, and then I'll probably call it for today because it's a lot of information. But spices are another one I think that people count out, but are a really great source of antioxidants. Specifically. You've probably heard these for anti inflammatory properties. Turmeric is a big one. Cumin, ginger, cinnamon, cloves. And then even one of my personal favorites, cocoa. Cocoa powder. Cocoa. The cocoa plant in general has flavanols that are supportive, shown to be supportive of cognition.

So mostly I just wanted to talk about and kind of challenge this idea that you have to eat, like, specific foods to get benefits, when in reality there's so many foods that contain, you know, vitamin C and lycopene and polyphenols and all the jargon that I just said, you don't have to eat right. If someone comes up to you and they say, cherries are a superfood, there's a lot of benefits. And if you are like me and are allergic or you just hate them, you don't have to eat that food. You can eat beets, you can eat apples, watermelon, whatever.

You don't have to eat just one thing. That one thing is likely not going to be a magic pill, so to speak. It's important, and it can be really beneficial to eat the rainbow, eat a variety of foods, but also eat what you can afford, eat what's accessible to you. Kind of pointing out, like, speak, wonder that mango. I love mango. I can't get mango year round unless I'm buying it frozen. But sometimes I want fresh fruit or I want to put it in a salad or on my taco. And that's where being able to have that flexibility and say, okay, well, the seasons have shifted.

Maybe I'm making squash. You know, you stay away from tomatoes on night shake. Yeah, see, and like, I. Hopefully it's helpful to know, you know, I don't have to eat tomatoes. I know a lot of people love them. I personally just don't have, like, the taste of them. So I don't eat them for that reason. But if you like strawberries or you like red peppers or onions, right, you can get a lot of those same nutrients. You don't have to be prescribed to this one specific regimented way of eating. There is flexibility to still get all of the nutrients that are benefiting our bodies and helping protect against chronic disease and help our bodies function their best.

So that's what I've got for you guys today. Like I said, I'll put a couple fun graphics. They are not my own. I have not made my own. I don't try to reinvent the wheel. But if you want to take a look at those, I'll put a couple. I think I have to post them separately. I don't think I can post them all, like, in one, but I'll put up a couple, like, antioxidant reference photos for you. Yeah. I hope you guys have a wonderful rest. Of your week. Thanks for being here. Always love getting to interact with questions, with comments.

For me, it's really fun to feel like you're here instead of me just talking up myself for 20 minutes. So hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend. Stay safe, stay cool if it's hot where you are, and we'll see you back here next week. Saturday. Not sure what I'm going to talk about yet, but I will do better and try to put it as a as a note on next week's livestream. So have a good one you all.