Do Antioxidants Help Us Avoid Heart Disease?
The women were then divided into 5 groups, based on their antioxidant capacity. Because Sweden keeps comprehensive health records on everyone, the scientists were able to use that information to look at fatal and non-fatal heart attacks among the participants in the study. They also adjusted the data for other factors, such as weight, smoking, alcohol use, family history of heart disease - and food supplement use.
The bottom line is that the woman who consumes a variety of high antioxidant foods is healthier. The women with the highest intake were getting 44% of their antioxidants from 6-7 servings of fruits and vegetables daily, 18% from 3-4 servings of whole grains, 14% from 3-4 servings of coffee and 4% from less than one serving of chocolate per week.
In addition, there was a Landmark Study in the US in 2007, involving supplements that provide a full spectrum of naturally-occurring antioxidants (Nutrition Journal 2007). The men and women who used those had been taking Shaklee supplements for over 20 years - at least a multivitamin, B-vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids to achieve a "holistic approach" to antioxidant nutrition. Their results were far better than the other 2 groups. One was of people who used a different multivitamin and the other group was of non-vitamin users. If you'd like to know more about the study, let me know. It was conducted by epidemiologists at the Univ. of California at Berkeley.
