In a counter-intuitive article in the New York Times, which quotes researchers in Germany and Boston, exercise and antioxidants don’t mix. “If you exercise to improve your metabolism and prevent diabetes, you may want to avoid antioxidants like vitamins C and E.”

Dr. Michael Ristow, a nutritionist at the University of Jena in Germany, said, “If you exercise to promote health, you shouldn’t take large amounts of antioxidants. … antioxidants in general cause certain effects that inhibit otherwise positive effects of exercise, dieting and other interventions.”

It seems that exercise encourages muscle cells to metabolize glucose by combining carbon atoms with oxygen. In the process, highly reactive oxygen molecules are released which then attack various parts of the body damaging the tissues.

The Jena team found that in the group taking antioxidant vitamins, like vitamins C and E, there was no improvement in insulin sensitivity and almost no activation of the body’s natural defence mechanism against oxidative damage.

Once again, what we thought was done and dusted has been called into question by more research.

However, the advice does not apply to fruits and vegetables, Ristow said, even though they are high in antioxidants, it may be that other substances they contain outweigh any negative effect.

Andrew Shao of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association of dietary supplement makers, said, “I wouldn’t change recommendations for anyone based on one study. This is one small piece of the puzzle.”

The amount of oxidative damage increases with age, and according to one theory of aging it is a major cause of the body’s decline.

The findings appear in this week’s issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

John Evans

Research shows that drinking a glass of cherry juice a day offers the same health benefits as 23 portions of fruit and vegetables.

The catch is that it only applies to American Montmorency tart cherries.

British and European varieties only seem to contain about 20 percent of the antioxidant levels of the U.S. fruit — however, the juice can be bought in the UK in health food stores, under the name of CherryActive.

The research by Dr Robert Verkerk, compared the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of 25ml of diluted cherry juice concentrate with various fruits and vegetables. The result was an overwhelming thumbs-up for the cherries.

A leading British nutritionist, Patrick Holford said, “A recent BBC2 Horizon documentary showed the longest-living people in the world all achieve a very high intake of antioxidants, measured as over 6,000 ORAC units a day.”

One glass of Montmorency cherry juice contains 8,260 units.

Life really is a bowl of cherries, it seems.

Do you always go for the healthy options at parties and buffets, like fondues and raw vegetable (crudite) dips?

Raw vegetables and salads with dip

Think again, they may not be so healthy after all.

Shared dips and fondue type dishes are said to be swarming with other people’s germs. A research study shows that when the same crudite or dipper is used more than once, tens of thousands of bacteria are transferred from the mouth to the dip for each double-dip.

We can overdo the hygiene sometimes, and a certain exposure to external germs are said to be good for the immune system.

However, if your immune system is compromised in any way, or there’s a particularly nasty ‘flu bug around, avoid dips like the plague.