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What are functional foods and nutraceuticals?
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Resource Information
- Name of Resource
- What are functional foods and nutraceuticals?
- Year Created
- 2007
- Description
- Over the past several years, the relationship between what we eat and our long-term health has gained a great deal of attention. Increasingly, Canadians recognize that our food choices impact our risk for cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Knowing this, many people have begun to look at some foods in a new way; as more than just a source of basic nutrients but a means to promoting optimum health and well-being.
The terms, “functional foods,” and “nutraceuticals,” have been used to describe foods, or parts of foods that offer a health benefit that goes beyond meeting traditional nutrient needs. Understanding the potential health benefits that have been linked to functional foods and nutraceuticals is another step you can take toward enhancing your health and preventing disease.
What are functional foods?
Functional foods are foods that offer unique health benefits that go beyond simply meeting basic nutrient needs. Many also help to reduce the risk of chronic disease. Functional foods contain what nutrition researchers call “bioactive compounds,” or naturally occurring chemicals that act on our bodies. It is these bioactive compounds that offer the health and wellness benefits that have been linked to functional foods.
What are some examples of functional foods?
Many of the foods we enjoy on a daily basis contain bioactive compounds and are considered functional foods. Vegetables and fruits such as sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin and cantaloupe contain a compound called beta-carotene which helps to prevent damage to our cells and may decrease the risk for certain types of cancer. Tomatoes and processed tomato products (e.g. ketchup, tomato sauces, and salsa), watermelon, red/pink grapefruit contain a compound called lycopene that has been linked to a decreased risk for prostate cancer, heart disease and macular degeneration (serious eye disease). Oatmeal, oats, oat bran, barley and rye offer beta-glucans, compounds that may reduce blood cholesterol levels and decrease your risk for heart disease.
Bioactive compounds can also be added to foods to enhance the health benefits. Breads, pastas, and cereals made using flax seeds or flax meal are one example of this approach to food production. Flax is a source of omega-3 fatty acids, a type of fat that may contribute to maintenance of heart health, as well as brain development and vision.
Variety is the key to reaping the benefits that functional foods have to offer. Aim to choose a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, milk products and meats and meat alternatives. By taking this approach, you’ll enjoy foods that taste great, meet your basic nutrient needs and offer you a supply of the bioactive compounds that promote health.
Keep in mind that unlike nutritional supplements, whole foods, especially vegetables and fruit, contain many bioactive compounds that work together to promote health. Get the best benefit of functional foods by choosing at least the minimum number of servings recommended for your age and gender from each of the four food groups of Canada’s Food Guide.
What are nutraceuticals? How do nutraceuticals differ from functional foods?
Advances in food science now make it possible to break foods into their nutritional building blocks or parts As a result, the health promoting, bioactive compounds found in some foods can be extracted, refined and then sold as purified preparations or what food scientists call “nutraceuticals.”
Probiotics are an example of a nutraceutical. Probiotics are health-promoting microorganisms, similar to those that are normally found in your intestines. Probiotic supplements are concentrated preparations of these microorganisms that are taken to help prevent or treat disease. They are available in liquid and capsule form and in many parts of the world are routinely used as remedies for problems like diarrhea. Probiotics have also been linked to enhanced immunity.
It is expected that interest in functional foods and nutraceuticals will continue to grow into the future. While more research is needed to fully explain the role of foods or food components in preventing and treating disease it is clear that what we eat impacts our health. Make the most of your health by choosing a wide variety of vegetables, fruit, and other functional foods each day.
Written by Heidi Bates, BSc and reviewed by Denise Graven, MSc RD and Kelly Drager, BPE , RD.
