Oxidative stress is mainly the result of eating a diet that is too high in calories and too low in antioxidants. In most cases it is made worse because of the “anti-nutrients” that are inevitably part of the typical American diet: sugar, sodas, junk and processed food, saturated fat, processed meat, and mercury-contaminated fish.

Nutritional deficiencies and sugar imbalance (due to insulin resistance) worsen the oxidative stress of caloric overconsumption. It becomes quite clear that the “nutritional abuse” we pile on ourselves is in itself a multifactorial (and systemic) issue.

This is a big ball of wax, wrapped in a layers of ever-increasing misinformation about what foods are supposed to be good for us. (And I’m not even including here the profound “medicalization” of the idea of health.)

There are no simple answers. Effective solutions must include correct, science-based nutritional knowledge. More importantly, we need to develop the ability to understand and manage the change process within ourselves (”eating better and exercising more”). We need adopt  a vigilant attitude against the social norm of unconscious, recreational eating.

Everyone’s swimming against the tide…