I’d basically written off diet as “not that important”. I’d tried all sorts of diet ideas over the last few years. But, nothing had really worked at all. But, I decided to read up on it anyway…
Plants need to defend themselves against mold and bacteria. Neither has aerobic respiration. This means that mold doesn’t produce free radicals, and as such, they don’t have a natural defence mechanism against free radicals. So, this is how plants fight mold/bacteria. It’s also largely how are immune system works. Our neutrophils often create respiratory bursts to kill off invaders. A respiratory burst is just a bunch of free radicals which kill the invading cells.
Plants do the same thing. Because the mold/bacteria doesn’t have any natural defences towards the free radicals, plants can use chemicals that have a low redox potential (don’t want electrons that badly). It’s advantageous to use chemicals with low redox potentials so you don’t damage yourself as you’re killing the invading mold/bacteria.