Here's a kinda lengthy interesting article...
"Warding off the diseases of aging is certainly a worthwhile pursuit. But evidence has mounted to suggest that antioxidant vitamin supplements, long assumed to improve health, are ineffectual. Fruits and vegetables are indeed healthful but not necessarily because they shield you from oxidative stress. In fact, they may improve health for quite the opposite reason: They stress you."
Antioxidant vitamins don’t stress us like plants do—and don’t have their beneficial effect.
getpocket.com
The end of the article has a disclaimer...
"Even within the hormetic idea, Halliwell sees the attempts to bore down on the individual chemicals as problematic. “That’s worked very well in pharmacology, but it hasn’t worked at all well in nutrition,” he says. He doesn’t think any single phytonutrient will explain the apparent health-promoting benefits of fruits and veggies. “Variety seems to be good,” he says. That critique speaks to a larger problem: It’s often unclear how lab research on simple organisms or cell cultures will translate, if at all, into recommendations or therapies for genetically complex, free-living humans."
Always wise to take things regarding health and human biology with a big heaping cup of salt. Lots of people are promoting "Do these one or two things, and live 20 years longer without disease", yet those promoters get sick and die just like everyone else. I'm particularly skeptical of pills and supplements. IMO, all they serve to do is separate people from their money, and provide a false sense of security. "I took my snakeoil this morning, so I can eat McDonalds for breakfast and lunch, sit on my ass, and still be super healthy!".
The "paleo" diet as I understand it has the right idea, but the wrong execution. Thousands of years ago, meat wasn't easy to come by. It took a lot of work, and didn't last that long. That being the case, I'd say we evolved to have lots of vegetables(in the broad sense, anything vegetarian), a little meat, and lots of moving your ass. Also, not much thinking. Needing a science degree to eat healthily is bollocks. If you have to put much thought into it, you're probably doing it wrong.
I also suspect people do better with foods and lifestyles that are culturally appropriate. The almost pure meat diet of an arctic aboriginal won't work as well for people living in a hot jungle, or even a temperate climate. "Their people"(wherever they may be) evolved with subtle differences that allowed them to thrive off what was available, and won't be generally appropriate.
Anyway, food(Hah!) for thought. The article's interesting, and not technical.
