Newsweek:  Antioxidants may lead to cancer spread, study says

Rating: 3.5 Stars

• While this article’s headline, “Antioxidants May Lead to Cancer Spread, Study Says,” is accurate, the article also discusses dietary antioxidants (with an image of blueberries). Because only treatment antioxidants in much greater amounts than those found in normal diets were used in the study, discussing dietary antioxidants in this context is inaccurate and misleading. 

Washington Post: The latest study about antioxidants is terrifying. Scientists think they may boost cancer cells to spread faster

Rating: 3 Stars

• This article contains several exaggerations, including the headline. The study indicates that treatment antioxidants promoted metastasis in immune-deficient mice. While the study represents one step in learning about how antioxidants may impact cancer cells, the findings are not “terrifying” because the level of antioxidants given were much, much greater than what is found in a normal diet.
• A picture of blueberries accompanied the article, yet the study did not include dietary antioxidants like blueberries, nor did it imply that dietary antioxidants promote cancer spread—it concluded only that treatment antioxidants may promote cancer spread.
• The article quotes one study author as saying that “he would avoid supplementing diets with antioxidants, but that cancer patients should still consume normal amounts of dietary antioxidants.” Although this statement is accurate (the amount of antioxidants used in this study was higher than levels of antioxidants in supplements), it is buried at the bottom of the article. 

RT:  Antioxidants are good for you …until you get cancer and they feed the disease

Rating: 2.5 Stars

• This article does a poor job of distinguishing between dietary antioxidants and treatment antioxidants that were used in the study, thereby misleading readers who may think dietary antioxidants are dangerous. For this reason, the headline is inaccurate, misleading, and in fact, harmful because it could erroneously convince readers to avoid foods with beneficial antioxidants. The study found that extremely high levels of treatment antioxidant supplements—not antioxidants found in food—may feed cancer cells.