Presented at the 23rd Annual Nutritional Medicine Today Conference, May 1, 1994, Vancouver, Canada.

Antioxidant. The word itself is magic. Suggesting some type of all-encompassing protection against cellular wear and damage, the scientific-medical community has now embraced a once reviled theory. Using the antioxidant concept as a spearhead in proposed mechanisms for staving off so-called "free-radical" reactions, the rush is on to mine claims for the latest and most effective combination of free-radical scavenging compounds.

Without disputing or supporting the concept that aggressive oxygen species are the new culprit for most illnesses (superseding the microbial causative drama of the 19th century), we must acknowledge that such "radicals" have definitively been shown to damage all biochemical components such as DNA/ RNA; carbohydrates; unsaturated lipids; proteins; and micronutrients such as Carotenoids (alpha and beta carotene, lycopene), vitamins A, B₆, B_]2, and folate.