WELL & GOOD

SCIENTISTS CALL FOODS THAT ARE GOOD FOR THE BODY ‘FUNCTIONAL’. MARKETERS CALL THEM ‘SUPERFOODS’. WELCOME TO THE HEALTH-GIVING WORLD OF NUTRACEUTICALS

Welcome to the health- giving world of nutraceuticals

NUTRACEUTICALS. THE WORD — a joining of nutrition and drugs — was coined in 1989 to refer to compounds in food that medicate rather than feed us. Also known as “bioactives”, they are a key reason, as I argued in my last column, that healthy food is healthy. Lightly processed fruit and vegetables are the natural vectors of nutraceuticals. This is why, ever since they first started studying diet patterns, epidemiologists have tied them to good health and long life, and health advocates have told everyone to eat more of them.

Some nutraceuticals lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol, and, all importantly, damp down inflammation. Inflammation is what happens when the immune system attacks, and it is vital for overcoming life’s inevitable infections. Unfortunately, as we age, the immune system attacks the wrong things, which is where heart attacks and cancer come from. One of the best reasons for manipulating nutraceutical intake is fending off life’s significant diseases.

Nutraceuticals are the force behind superfoods. Superfoods is a term more loved by marketers than scientists, who prefer the more restrained “functional food”. But they mean the same thing — a food particularly noteworthy for its nutraceutical load, food that delivers more than essential nutrition, food that medicates you.

There are numerous nutraceuticals. Some come from well-known options such as blueberries and olive oil.

Some come from foods that are not as well known in our part of the world but get traction because the nutraceutical message is getting around. Seaweed, for instance. Others are one step removed from the food you recognize, like the leaves of an olive tree, not just its fruit. Or the pips of grapes. And some, such as tree sap (except for maple syrup), aren’t seen as food at all.

There are themes. Practically all come from plants. The obvious exception — omega-3 oil in fish — is not really an exception because it comes from algae (plants) at the bottom of the ocean food chain. Fish just eat it before we eat them. Omega-3 is a fat, but most nutraceuticals are polyphenols, which means they are various arrangements of six carbon rings, with different side arms. Most are bitter, which is intriguing. Nature is not enticing you to eat them. If you tried to eat raw chocolate from the tree, you would spit it out. I tried wormwood tea researching my book, The Internal Flame, and I couldn’t finish it. I have no idea why tea sellers stock it.