A New Role for Reactive Oxygen Species: Can We be Aged and Thin?

Add pomegranite to the list of so-called superfoods.

Since the 1980s, we’ve been told that aging can be accelerated by a build-up of free radicals in our cells. We’ve learned that to counteract the damage that free radicals (or reactive oxygen species, ROS) can wreak on our bodies, we should consume  antioxidants like vitamins C and E, and phytochemicals.

In fact, the term “superfood” was coined for foods that contain high levels of antioxidants, phytochemicals and vitamins, foods like blueberries and carrots, spinach and kale, to name a few.

 “Hold the phone”, as a pre-calculus professor of mine used to say.  Turn off the blender and put down that shot glass of beet-carrot-lemon grass juice. This research just in: “Free Radicals Crucial to Suppressing Appetite”.

The research was published August 28, 2011 in the advanced online edition of Nature Medicine.

In this study, Yale University researchers reported that elevated levels of ROS  in the brain activated satiety-generating neurons. Continue reading “A New Role for Reactive Oxygen Species: Can We be Aged and Thin?”