What is Nutraceuticals
The word Nutraceuticals is derived from the words, “nutrients” and “pharmaceuticals”. The name was created in 1989 by Stephane DeFelice, founder and chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine. It is also used to describe any product derived from food sources that provide extra health benefits. Nutraceuticals can be called by that name if the products are of natural origins, contain beneficial health benefits, must pass a stability and toxicology analysis and chemical analysis and reproducible studies must be carried out for their bioactive properties.
Nutraceuticals consist of two general categories which are dietary supplements and functional food. Dietary supplements are products that contain concentrated bioactive from a food source processed in a suitable dosage form. Next, functional foods are any food or ingredient that provides a health benefit other than basic nutrition. Functional foods can be traditional, nutrient-rich natural foods and non-traditional, which are artificial foods prepared by adding bioactive components to help health and wellbeing.
Benefits are:
- Prevention and treatment of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and inflammatory disease.
- Improves eye health.
- Improves immune function.
- Improves gut health as it is shown to influence inflammation pathways and reinforces gut defense mechanisms.
- Supports reproductive health as it helps male infertility and dysfunction, prevents damage to sperms, preconception, and pregnancy outcomes in women, and supports during menstruation.
- Improves mental health.
References
Dr. Tomislav Meštrović, M. Ph. D. (2022). What are Nutraceuticals. News Medical Lifesciences.
Meena Azzollini. (2021). What Are Nutraceuticals? Verywell Fit.
