Genius Foods

This is a form of chemical damage that all organic matter
is subject to, like rust on iron (iron is actually a catalyst for
this same process in the human body, and may partly
explain why men get more and earlier heart disease than
women: they have more red blood cells, and more iron in
circulation) or a sliced apple that has turned brown. Leave
an apple slice on the counter for a few minutes and you can
appreciate just how quickly these chemical reactions take
place. In the body, excessive oxidation equals inflammation
and damage to cellular structures and DNA. It’s also thought
to be one of the primary mechanisms of aging.
The battle against oxidation is a constant game of tug-of-
war for all living creatures. Our own bodies, when healthy,
have built-in antioxidant defense capabilities, and ideally,
we churn out antioxidants—the aforementioned scavenger
molecules—as fast or faster than free radicals can be
created. (Many of the Genius Foods are beneficial in part
because they increase your body’s production of its own
scavenger molecules.) Chronic inflammation or diseases like
type 2 diabetes impair our ability to fight the accumulation
of oxidative stress, and this is compounded when we absorb
excess pro-oxidants from our food. It only takes a small
amount of oxidative stress to set off a nuclear chain reaction
of biochemical destruction, and the balance is a delicate
one.
This places the brain in a unique and precarious
situation. Accounting for 20 to 25 percent of your body’s
oxygen metabolism, constructed in large part by these
delicate polyunsaturated fats, and squeezed into a container
the size of a grapefruit, it couldn’t be a larger magnet for