Antioxidant pills block benefits of exercise

If you want to feel the full health benefits of that jog around the park, it's probably best to steer clear of antioxidant vitamin supplements, scientists have found.

Excerise is good for us in all sorts of ways, but one important bonus is that it stops our bodies from becoming resistant to insulin - a condition that can lead to diabetes. However, scientists have discovered that if people regularly pop antioxidant pills, like vitamins A and C, they don't get this benefit.

So what's going on? Antioxidants are famous (especially in skin-care adverts) for mopping up free radicals - nasty molecules that damage cells and add to the ageing process. As a result, they're usually considered to be bad news. But the results of this study show that free radicals have a nice side too, because destroying them makes exercise far less fruitful.

I think I'll be sticking to oranges...

Image: Djenan Kozic