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Antioxidants are another recent discovery. As cellular metabolism/energy production requires oxygen, potentially damaging (e.g. mutation causing) compounds known as radical oxygen species or free radicals may form. For normal cellular maintenance, growth, and division, these free radicals must be sufficiently neutralized by antioxidant compounds, such as certain vitamins (vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K and the aforementioned phytochemicals as well as other compounds, some of which the body itself produces. Different antioxidants are now known to function in a cooperative network, e.g. vitamin C can reactivate free radical-containing glutathione or vitamin E by accepting the free radical itself, and so on.
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