Tea, polyphenols, and you - PART I: THE ANTIOXIDANT HYPE:

I don't know about elsewhere, but here in America the health market has a new marketing power word: antioxidants. I go to the grocery and I see jucies, teas, fruits, nuts, and so many other foodstuffs proudly displaying their antioxidant content on their bags and containers. I knew there was a new fixation when my 15 year old brother said he should be eating more antioxidants to keep him healthy...

If you're reading this, then you surely have a slight (probably borderline obsessive) interest in tea. With that said, I'm also fairly confident that you have run across the terms antioxidant, polyphenol, and maybe even free radical. If you're familiar with what these terms mean, great! You're more informed than most employees that sell the products. If not, don't fret, I'll keep things (fairly) simple and hopefully clear up some of the mystery behind why tea (and anything containing a significant amount of antioxidants for that matter) is so good for your body.

So what the heck is an antioxidant anyhow? Well, one could surmise that it is something that prevents oxidation, but that isn't necessarily helpful. Perhaps an explanation of oxidation is first in order: oxidation describes a chemical reaction in which an atom in question loses some number of electrons to another atom (conversely, the atom that gains electrons is said to undergo reduction). So it now seems that an antioxidant is something that would prevent the loss of electrons, either in itself or of other atoms/compounds. More helpful, but what's so bad about losing electrons that we should be seeking out these antioxidants anyway? For that, we move on to some little annoying things known as free radicals.

Free radicals are single, unpaired electrons that are extremely reactive. Electrons like to move in pairs. If there is an unpaired electron orbiting an atom an extreme instability occurs: the atom will essentially react with just about anything to gain another electron to stabilize itself. It would be all fine and dandy if the reaction stopped there - one reactive atom neutralizing itself never hurt anyone. But it doesn't. If the free radical strips an electron from a happy, stable atom with perfectly paired electrons then the stable atom now has an unpaired electron instead - it will go on to react with another, which will react with another, which will react with another. Every time the radical stabilizes itself, another is formed. If this happens on a strand of DNA, mutations can occur, new unwanted genes can be expressed, babies cry, anarchy ensues, the whole nine yards. There are numerous articles outlining the correlation between radical DNA damage and cancer. Now you can see the problem! This process will go on indefinitely until the free radical reacts with another free radical by sheer chance and neutralize themselves, or until the radical pulls an electron from a compound that somehow has a way of stabilizing it's new unpaired electron. Remember how antioxidants prevent the loss of electrons? Here is where they shine - antioxidants will absorb the free radical without much fuss thereby preventing the oxidation of other molecules. Or, as the marketing geniuses prefer to put it, PREVENTING CANCER! I'm skeptical that it's that simple but antioxidants are pretty beneficial when it's all said and done. The reaction to the left shows the typical steps involved in a radical reaction: first the radical is formed (initialized here by light), then the radical reacts with a stable molecule (ethane in this example), and finally the radical is propagated, or recreated via either a bromine radical (not shown) or the ethane radical (shown). The last step would be termination of the radical (not shown) by 2 radicals, of either molecule, reacting with each other to stop the propogation. In a controlled solution, this termination would naturally occur until all the radicals are eliminated. However, when a non-intentional radical reaction occurs in your body, chances are that the radicals formed won't simply cancel each other out. Hence the need for antioxidants (specific proteins and enzymes help to control this also).

Before we all go out and start a witch hunt for free radicals, it should be pointed out that not all are bad. Radicals play important roles in normal cell function - without some we would have never evolved past yeast. It's only when radicals are created when they aren't supposed to that the problems start. 'Bad' radicals are formed from UV exposure (wear your sunblock!), gamma ray exposure (cosmic radiation that you can't exactly help), and the spontaneous decomposition of volatile compounds in the body (hydrogen peroxide is a prime example).

More information than you would ever need? Yes. Interesting? Hopefully (I find it so). Now that we know what antioxidants are and why we need them, I suppose the next logical step would be to explain why tea leaves contain such a high concentration of them, what they do for the plant, and how they work inside of us. Stay tuned for part II.