Nutraceuticals

Nutraceuticals are compounds found in plants (also called phytochemicals), or animal derivatives that are natural, bioactive chemical compounds both have health promoting, disease preventing or medicinal properties. Some are sold as supplements, antioxidants, food ingredients, beverage components, etc. They have been somewhat unstable regarding value, as the effects are being studied, and values regarding their safety and efficacy change from time to time, as new studies are reported.

For instance, a leading nutraceutical at this time is certain elements in chocolate. This phytochemical complex has been found to reduce cholesterol plaque in blood vessels. It operates much like statins, the pharmaceutical group that reduces cholesterol in blood. It is technically an antioxidant found in cocoa. Obviously richer in dark chocolate, it is being sold in some forms as a nutraceutical, and marketed as a “healthy” food by many companies.

For a number of years, lycopene, the antioxidant compound in tomatoes was heralded as a material that helped to avoid prostate cancer, and ketchup was seen as an almost magic bullet. This is in some dispute recently, and is less actively marketed for that reason. Nutraceuticals are in a growth stage: as new studies are analyzed popularity of a specific food rises and falls. But the general concept of eating a variety of foods every day includes many nutraceuticals and is positive.