Nutraceuticals and Health

In recent years, a new diet health paradigm is changing which places more emphasis on the positive facets of diet. The new lifestyle embraced by people today has altered the basic food habits of the latter. Consumption of the junk food has augmented manifold leading to a number of diseases caused due to improper nutrition. Nutraceutical is the hybrid of ‘nutrition’ and ‘pharmaceutical’. Nutraceuticals, in broad, are food or part of food playing a significant role in modifying and maintaining normal physiological function that maintains healthy human beings. The principal reasons for the growth of the nutraceutical market worldwide are the current population and the health trends. The food products used as nutraceuticals can be categorized as dietary fibre, prebiotics, probiotics, polyunsaturated fatty acids, antioxidants and other different types of herbal/ natural foods. These nutraceuticals help in combating some of the major health problems of the century such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes, cholesterol etc. In whole, ‘nutraceutical’ has lead to the new era of medicine and health, in which the food industry has become a research oriented sector.

Nutraceuticals and Health explores the role of nutraceuticals in human health, disease prevention, health promotion, and as an adjunct to disease treatment. The book opens with a general background of nutraceuticals and human health, then covers health and disease areas such as cancer, lipidemia and cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome with obesity, diabetes and hypertension, respiratory health, the gut microbiome, and cognitive decline. Furthermore, it concludes by addressing the methodological issues that must be addressed in the conduct of epidemiological research on nutraceuticals in health and disease. Contributors are recognized experts in their respective fields.
Nutraceuticals are the emerging class of natural products that makes the line between food and drugs to fade. Although the use of nutraceuticals by people has a long history, only recently scientifically supported nutritional and medical evidence has allowed nutraceuticals to emerge as being potentially effective. The nutraceuticals of both plant and animal origin holds exciting opportunities for the food industries to create novel food products in future. So, it is vital for students, product developers, nutritionists, dietitians, researchers and practitioners, and regulatory organizations.