Quercetin the antioxidant thats everywhere!

Hello and how are you today? I wanted to write in my blog about quercetin for some time. It’s a naturally occurring antioxidant in our diet that is another one taking the natural medicine world by storm in the last two years. We all need to protect ourselves, stay strong and reduce our risk factors for illness.

This is one powerful active that you get in your diet and don’t need to spend money on in expensive supplements and potions.

Lets talk about antioxidants. They are often found in plants we eat and are phytochemicals, which are produced by plants and we know them as polyphenols, flavonoids and more commonly antioxidants.

Antioxidants work with our body to eliminate free radicals, which are toxins that contain unpaired electrons. They are travelling in our body looking for another electron to pair up with. They can pull electrons away from other molecules and this process can damage cells and DNA. Antioxidants can pair up with the free electrons stopping them from causing further damage. Antioxidants can get into the cells and harmfully carry our free radicals and eliminate them through your urine cycle.

Antioxidants are so important in our diet and we talk about “eating a rainbow” in nutritional medicine which is all about eating plant based foods that are high in antioxidants. The bright colours and the sunlight fed foods.

In my blog today I want to chat about Quercetin. It’s a super common antioxidant that is found in the pigment that adds colour to your fruits and vegetables. It is in a class of antioxidants called flavanols and our body can’t make these. They need to be eaten in our diet.  What I love about quercetin is that the fruits and vegetables that are closest to the sun have the most quercetin in them. Because it is stimulated by light and direct sunlight is a huge benefit.

You don’t need to buy quercetin in expensive supplements. Its right here in your food everyday when you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.

Flavanols  such as quercetin can not be produced in our bodies and they are best solubilised in alcohol and fatty acids/ lipids. They are poorly soluble in  both hot and cold water. Quercetin is recognised as yellow in colour, so you will find it in foods that contain the yellow pigment as part of their make up.

Where can you find Quercetin in your diet?

You don’t have to look far to find quercetin in abundance in your diet. Here are some common foods that contain this active. Citrus fruit is number one. Green leafy vegetables, seeds, buckwheat, nuts, flowers, barks, broccoli, olive oil, apples, onions, green tea, red grapes, red wine, dark cherries, all the dark berries. The highest levels of flavanols such as quercetin are  in vegetables onions and broccoli, fruits such as apples, cherries, and berries, and drinks tea and red wine.

 

Thanks Dixon dale farms for the use of this onion pic. 

Here’s a link you might enjoy showing quercetin and how important it is for your diet from the Pharmacognosy review which gives loads of extra information to help you with the process. 

Look in this link for details of the health benefits of quercetin, its great for cardiovascular health and reduces blood pressure, lowers cholesterol, relaxes blood vessels, reduces platelet aggregation,

Its wonderful for mental health improving circulation reducing inflammation, protecting brain cells from toxins lowering risk factors for degenerative brain conditions.

Its also anti cancer, anti tumour, anti ulcerative, anti allergy, anti viral and anti inflammatory, gastro protective and anti hypertensive. Its immunomodulatory and anti infective.

This is a true case of food as medicine. All those protective qualities in our diets. So good to eat fresh fruits and vegetables as the main stay of our diets. Have a balanced diet and get lots of quercetin naturally.

We have our Long table wellness day on September 19th on Sleep. There are three places left.

I popped up some new online courses this week, so check out our schedule. The next one is October 18th and we are focused on Stress relief naturally. So I hope you can join me from anywhere in the world.

Come and see me in Maleny or telehealth or Eumundi markets on Saturdays. All our clinics are free community clinics.

I’ll be away from the herbal dispensary next week Weds 1st, Thurs 2nd and Friday the 3rd September having a rest and sun baking, catching some Vitamin D, which I will write about for you in a blog soon too. The herbal dispensary will be open and my wonderful crew will help you in this time.

Have a great day

Love Dominique