Antioxidants — The 23 Billion Dollar Placebo

Interesting take on antioxidants in Slate, noting:

As it turns out, we have no evidence that antioxidants are beneficial in humans. (Though if you’re a Sprague-Dawley rat, there’s hope.) In fact, as Emily Anthes wrote last year in Slate, the best available data demonstrate that antioxidants are bad for you—so long as you count an increased risk of death as “bad.”

Medicynical Note: Before we jump on the bandwagon of antioxidant cynicism, think of the disruption of belief systems, the unemployment (naturopaths, nutritionists, chiropractors, life coaches and gurus, life extension specialists), and the depression from understanding that vitamins have very limited benefit, and perhaps do harm when taken in excess. That we don’t really have the potential to live to 130 years old, that this particular belief system has no basis.