Antioxidant intake and the exercise prolonged to exhaustion

Enhanced energy production during exercise increases free radical formation, which may cause oxidative stress. Antioxidants have an important role by balancing free radical formation. Thus, optimal adaptation to exercise requires a balance diet providing nutrients with antioxidant properties (vitamin A, C, E, Beta-carotene, copper, magnesium, selenium and zinc). Our aim was to investigate the cardio respiratory consequences of short duration exercise run to exhaustion, as a response to a diet poor in antioxidants and a diet rich in antioxidants. Seven healthy, non-smoking, active, non-athletes women were recruited. Mean age (years), weight (kg), height (m), BMI (kg/m2) and VO2max (ml/kg/min) were respectively 23.86 ± 2.27, 55.53 ± 5.32 e 161.33 ± 9.19, 21.37 ± 1.56 e 46.30 ± 10.64. Subjects ingested an antioxidant-restricted diet during 15 days (AFD) followed by the same period of an antioxidant-rich diet (ARD), containing about 1000 mg of the antioxidant nutrients. The results showed no statistical differences in cardio respiratory parameters between exercise performed after AFD and ARD, although subjects reported a perception of difficulty on performing the required boot of exercise following AFD but not following ARD, which may be consistent with a tendency for the differences observed on the studied parameters.