Nutraceuticals and functional foods in health promotion and disease prevention

The effect of dietary factors on health status has been recognized since antiquity. Although some of the dietary phytochemicals and bioactives have traditionally been considered as "antinutrients", their beneficial effects in human health promotion and disease prevention has recently been acknowledged. While nutraceuticals, sometimes referred to as natural health products, are often used in medicinal forms as tablets, capsules or liquid, functional foods are those that resemble the traditional food, as such, but confer benefits beyond their nutritional role. Among diseases of concern, cancer and coronary heart disease (CHD) are high on the list. In this respect, phenolics of plant origin, as an example, have been found to act as free radical scavengers, inhibitors of cholesterol oxidation and DNA breakage, among others, thus serving as potential cancer preventing agents. The type of phenolics involved depends on the species as well as other variables. On the other hand, marine foods have often been considered as "heart food" because of the role of their omega-3 fatty acid constituents in lowering of triacylglycerol and cholesterol levels and hence the incidence of CHD. This overview provides a detailed account of food phenolics and marine oils in human health and disease prevention.