THE 2ND GOLDEN-AGE OF NUTRITION - PHYTOCHEMICALS AND DISEASE PREVENTION

Nutritionists in the developed world have slowly moved away from concern over avoiding deficiency disease to focusing on the affluent diet and chronic disease. Until recently however, with the exception of fibre, only the nutrients in foods were considered to be important and traditional dietary advise focused on the entire diet, not individual foods. New insights into the many biologically active non-nutritive dietary components (phytochemicals), however, makes this perspective outdated. Foods can no longer be evaluated solely on their nutrient content and certain individual foods, because of their unique chemical constituents, may warrant being singled out for their health benefits. Phytochemicals may come to be viewed as the vitamins and minerals of the 21st century and phytochemical research as the beginning of the second golden age of nutrition.