Nutraceuticals

Beschreibung

Phytochemicals are components acting individually, additively orsynergistically, usually as a component of whole food, that havethe characteristics of providing protective, preventative andpossibly curative roles in the pathogenesis of cancer and otherchronic disease progressions. Nutraceutical is a term used todescribe beneficial phytochemicals. The mechanisms of action ofnutraceuticals may be one of several. Free radical scavenger andantioxidant nutraceuticals can nullify damage by any number ofbiochemical mechanisms, but some also exert benefit by enhancingimmune function. A conservative economic analysis was done in 1993 of solelyhospital care costs and the roles that three nutrient antioxidantscould exert on cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and cataracts.The study considered the potential impact of only threeantioxidants, vitamins C and E, and beta-carotene, and the possibleannual savings in hospital care costs alone, which could exceed 8billion dollars. Expert public health physicians believe that asmuch as 70% of disease is preventable. The chapters in this book were organized to reveal existing andemerging knowledge of nutraceuticals found in garlic, soy andlicorice. Lead chapters discuss the epidemiological evidence, andfollowing chapters discuss chemical or biochemical evidence at thecellular level, as well as the presentation of some clinicaldata. A major conclusion of the overall effort is that the science ofnutraceuticals is very incomplete, but that findings to date havegreat promise.

Autor*in

Paul A. LaChance

Themen in »Nutraceuticals«

Food Science & Technology Functional Food, Nutraceuticals Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals Lebensmittelforschung u. -technologie

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