Anti-oxidants have recently become a buzzword in nutrition and cancer circles. There are a lot of news stories and nutritional supplement advertisements touting anti-oxidants as “magic bullets”that will prevent the occurrence and/or spread of oral and other kinds of cancer. In truth, of course, there is no “magic bullet” to prevent cancer — but there IS a growing body of research that shows that anti-oxidants actually provide a kind of defense against this disease. To understand how, it is important to first examine another set of compounds known as free radicals.
The human body is made up of many different types of cells, which in turn are composed of different types of molecules. Molecules consist of atoms joined by chemical bonds, formed by the electrons in an atom’s outer shell. Normally, these bonds maintain stability; if they do split, they do so in balanced reactions. When weak bonds split, however, they may do so unevenly, creating what scientists call free radicals, or loose, unbalanced atoms or molecules. Often, these free radicals come from oxygen atoms; thus the term “oxidation” – not too dissim