Back to Michael Pollan this morning - nearing the end of the book - his short treatise on Vitamin C and micronutrients and antioxidants is interesting. I've heard about them for ages but didn't know what they were doing that is so important.

Humanoids apparently at one time made their own Vitamin C because it is an antioxidant we rely on to catch free radicals released into our systems by things like inflammation (a defense mechanism).

—atoms of oxygen with an extra unpaired electron that make them particularly eager to react with other molecules in ways that can create all sorts of trouble. Free radicals have been implicated in a great many health problems, including cancer and the various problems associated with aging. (Free-radical production rises as you get older.) Antioxidants like vitamin C harmlessly absorb and stabilize these radicals before they can do their mischief.[163]

We can synthesize some of our own antioxidants, but apparently we've been eating leaves of green things for so long we stopped making our own vitamin C.

He follows up on the next page about "scores of studies" that show people who eat a pound or more of fruits and vegetables a day have half the cancer rate of what we have in the US.

There are some calculations to be made; I don't know that I'll get a pound a day, but I'll get a good mix in small doses. Working on it along with the healthy fats and protein. Eliminating as many of the "seed oils" and sticking with olive, avocado, butter, etc. Aiming to get the nutrients through food, not supplements.