Learning about Nutraceutical
This may or may not be a term that you have heard before. Nutraceutical is a combination of nutrition and pharmaceutical. This term refers to foods that give
medical benefits to your health. You may have heard of this referring to functional foods as well. These foods have been deemed as functional foods because of the
active principals and chemicals present in them.
Some examples of foods that are considered Nutraceutical include:
- Red Wine as an antioxidant
- Broccoli as a cancer preventative
- Soy and clover to improve arterial health in women
- Ginseng and garlic are also nutraceuticals
Functional Foods
This is just a small example of the type of functional foods that are easily accessible for everyone. You will find that many of these food products that are labeled to be functional foods are created in collaboration with many of the dietary supplement companies which allows them to help promote their products as “healthy.” This is something that you need to watch out for. As with any diets or health fads today you need to be sure that you are purchasing the real thing.
Nutrification
Nutrification refers to a process where an already healthy food is enhanced to include more and more nutrients or healthy properties before it is processed. When you visit the grocery store today almost all the food you see in there has been altered in the way as described above. This brings into question if too many essential nutrients can actually cause health problems instead of preventing them. As with any alternative medicine procedures or products there is always going to be controversy by people who either do not believe or are not educated on the terms and procedures.
Further Reading
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