Nutraceuticals: the link between nutrition and medicine

Abstract

Nutrition science during recent decades has been focused on the detection and understanding of deficiencies. With increasing knowledge of the existence and action of vitamins, specific recommendations were given with the aim of avoiding classical deficiency diseases such as xerophthalmia, beriberi, etc. A further step was the epidemiological evidence that diet contributes to the risk of certain diseases. The major finding was the correlation of a high fat intake with several kinds of cancer and cardiovascular disease. The consequences were special lowfat and low-cholesterol foods. However, the increasing knowledge about micronutrients including vitamins, minerals, and further compounds (carotenoids, flavonoids, anthocyans, etc.) on a molecular level together with results from epidemiological studies opens a new and exciting field of nutrition science, nutraceuticals (NC), as a link between nutrition and medicine. Nutraceutical is a term coined in 1979 by Stephen DeFelice (1). According to DeFelice, it is defined “as a food or parts of food, that provide medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease.” Subsequently, several other terms (medical food, functional food, nutritional supplements) were used. Nutraceuticals may range from isolated nutrients, dietary supplements, and diets to genetically engineered “designer” foods, herbal products, and processed products, such as cereals, soups, and beverages. The increasing interest in nutraceuticals reflects the fact that consumers hear about epidemiological studies