Natural Antioxidants For Food & Beverage Industry

When we talk of natural antioxidants we need not think of some magical powders with herbal or natural written all over it.

- Dr. Ajit Singh Bhatnagar 

What I mean to say is that a natural antioxidant is actually natural only until it is present in its true natural form within the confines of its natural carrier. The moment we separate out a natural antioxidant from its pristine Au naturel habitat, it is no longer purely natural; but it becomes a pseudo-natural derived synthetically through chemical or physical means.

Synthetic antioxidants generally added to processed foods and beverages do not deliver the desired health benefits intended for consumers. This is due to the fact that synthetic antioxidants do not efficiently absorb and metabolise in the body and the major proportion of these synthetic antioxidants get excreted out of the body.

Natural antioxidants too, when consumed in isolated forms are found to be less effective in providing desired health benefits to consumers. It has been scientifically established through R&D that when natural antioxidants are consumed along with their natural carriers then only the desired health benefits are observed in an absolute manner because body effectively absorbs and metabolise such natural antioxidants confined in their natural carriers.

Remember, our body needs antioxidants only in nanograms (ng) to micrograms (μg) levels and for that; we need to consume natural antioxidants only in milligrams (mg) levels. Consumption of natural antioxidants in more than milligrams levels may not provide desired benefits, however, it may show adverse effects because there is a good chance that consumption of excess levels of antioxidants may turn out to provide a pro-oxidant effect in the body.