Perhaps an excess of antioxidants is simply excreted

Secondly, just because antioxidants are involved in doing something good, why should eating more of them necessarily make that process more efficient? I know it makes sense superficially, but so do a lot of things, and that’s what’s really interesting about science (and this story in particular): sometimes the results aren’t quite what you might expect. Perhaps an excess of antioxidants is simply excreted, or turned into something else. Perhaps it just sits there doing nothing, because it’s not needed. After all, half a tank of petrol will get you across town just as easily as a full tank. Or perhaps, if you have an unusually enormous amount of antioxidant lying around in your body doing nothing, it doesn’t just do nothing. Perhaps it does something actively harmful. That would be a turn-up for the books, wouldn’t it?