Antioxidants

If you are exercising vigorously, antioxidants are essential. Otherwise, you will start to get small, nagging colds that you can't seem to shake. This is because vigorous exercise produces a lot of free radicals that will depress your immune system. The antioxidants bond with the free radicals and render them harmless (so science thinks as of 10/18/97).

I found this to be true while I was doing a lot of hard road and mountain miles on my bikes. However, for less vigorous exercise, it probably doesn't make much of a difference. Taking antioxidants does give you a psychological boost, though. I think this is important for staying healthy.

Preventive Nutrition's Cell Protector Formula available from General Nutrition will provide the recommended amounts of vitamins and minerals when three tablets a day are taken. It does not provide the peptide and amino acid.

Below are the antioxidants and recommended amounts. The table is based on information from Serious Cycling by Edmund R. Burke.

Antioxidants

Substance	Amount	Comments
Vitamin A	10,000 - 20,000 IU/day	Beta Carotene: 10 mg/day
Vitamin C	1,000 mg/day
Vitamin E	400 - 800 IU/day
Glutathione	50 mg/day	Minimum amount. This is a peptide.
N-Acetyl-Cysteine	50 mg/day	Minimum amount. This is an amino acid.
Selenium	200 - 400 mg/day	Amounts above 800 mg/day are toxic. Seleno-L-Methionine absorbs better.
Zinc	15 mg/day	Minimum amount.
Bioflavonids	No recommended amounts.