Dietary Antioxidants and Good Health

The role of oxidative stress is well recognized now in numerous pathological states, where antioxidants can play very important role. Recent studies provide evidences that low levels of antioxidants are associated with increased risk for many pathological states and that increased intake appears to be protective. However, there are conflicting studies also, that question the rationale for synthetic antioxidant supplementation in these conditions by suggesting detrimental effects to the health. Suicidal oxidative stress produced by some of the antioxidants under certain circumstances remains the major cause of concern, as many antioxidants can act as pro-oxidants in certain conditions.Moreover, at present there are number of unanswered questions associated with practical application of synthetic antioxidant therapy like appropriate timing of administration, dose & duration of therapy, which still need to be determined. Thus, under the shadow of these concerns, the supplementation of natural dietary antioxidant resources seems to be a safe and effective approach currently. In recent times many dietary factors have been recognized to possess antioxidant action and are useful in many pathological conditions because of their antioxidant actions.1The therapeutic potentials of these antioxidant dietary factors have been reviewed in this review article.