GA 2017

Dietary antioxidants, such as plant polyphenols and antioxidant vitamins, ranked high on the research agendas of the life and medical sciences in the 1980s and 1990s, because of the discovery that patients suffering from a large number of different disorders, including cancer, diabetes mellitus, obesity, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, have higher concentrations of reactive species in the affected tissues. Disappointingly, many large randomized clinical trials with high doses of these antioxidants did not find a reduction in the risk for these diseases. While this was surprising for many scientists, it could have been anticipated, given the known low oral bioavailability of many dietary antioxidants. Most of them are poorly absorbed and undergo almost complete phase II metabolism, during which water-soluble molecules are attached to those functional groups in particular that are responsible for their antioxidant activity. Of what benefit, then, are antioxidants in food? What are the hurdles for the exploitation of their health benefits and how can these limitations be overcome? And, most importantly, are we directing our attention at the right molecules?