Dr. Pragya Khanna
Referring to the importance of nutrition, the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi in ‘Mann Ki Baat’ on 30th August’20 urged that September, 2020 be celebrated across the country as the ‘Nutrition Month’. This was to lay stress on how nutrition plays an important part in the overall development of the body and that the food we eat also influences our mental and intellectual development. He also said that there was a need to increase awareness regarding nutrition.
While already in approbation to his opinion I fully endorse the notion that ‘good nutrition is essential to good learning.’ I write this to draw your attention to the new forthcoming concept of Nutraceuticals which is very much in vogue today in the field of Food and Nutrition.
In ancient India many distinctive types of foods were known and were valued owing to their use in treatment or prevention of diseases and the understanding of these different nutriments was prudently passed down the generations. Traditional expertise not only about the therapeutic effects of food, but it’s processing and preservation have also been long recognised for many generations in India.
According to Ayurveda, the type of food taken is responsible for diverse characteristics in an individual including physical, mental and emotional states. Therefore to stay healthy, sustaining a stable healthy diet was considered essential. Today it is well known that the constitution of the human body keeps getting altered throughout life and necessitates unique eating practises at different stages to sustain normal physiological functions. During the varied phases of life, our ancestors used diverse foods that were healthy, salubrious and packed with nutrition. Not only in India but ethnic practices relating to food as medicine were prevalent across the globe. The success of these traditional therapies was fundamentally due to the art of balancing and harmonizing the influence of one selection of food with the other.
As is well known the human lifestyles have changed radically over the last few decades due to economic growth, industrialization and ever-changing work ethos which have pushed people into the fast food culture with more pre-cooked, instant and scrumptious meals, but with decreased quantity and quality of nutrients. At the same time, rapid urbanization, fast industrialization and chemical revolution has led to pollution of air, water and soil, thereby, leading to an increased incidence of lifestyle related disorders such as diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, obesity, cancers to name a few.
Today, a time has come when health is on the minds of more people than ever before. Modern day’s busy, health-conscious shopper is gradually reaching for products that stimulate gut health, good digestion, reduced inflammation, good neurological function and a healthy metabolism. People assess their health and wellness thoroughly and try integrating a balanced and poised set of lifestyle habits that define a more over-all sense of feeling well. Also, the easy access to unlimited information is making people increasingly conscious of their dietary needs. This current inclination has led to certain new conceptions such as nutraceuticals, nutritional therapy, phytonutrients and phytotherapy
Among these Nutraceuticals are the pharmaceutically amalgamated products that are thought to retain both nutritional as well as the medicinal value and are intended to improve the physical and mental health.
The term “Neutraceutical” was coined in 1979 by Stephen DeFelice for a range from herbal products, isolated nutrients, dietary supplements to genetically engineered “designer” foods, and processed products such as cereals, soups, and beverages.
The most common, modern classification of nutraceuticals is based on their uniqueness as Traditional Nutraceuticals comprising of Nutrients, Herbals, Phytochemicals and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs), Probiotics & prebiotics, Nutraceutical enzymes and Non-traditional Nutraceuticals including Fortified Nutraceuticals and Recombinant Nutraceuticals.
Used in nutritional therapy based upon their chemical structures and biological functions, and marketed in concentrated forms as pills, capsules, powders and tinctures either as a single substance or as combination preparations, these include vitamins, lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, etc. depending on their emphases. There is a lot of scientific data to give support to many of these products and their therapeutic services.
You may agree that although the concept of a healthy and vigorous body and robust immune system have been part of India’s culture since ancient times, the idea of boosting immunity was not that prevalent before the corona pandemic times.
Immunity became a catchword right during the COVID-19 emergency and building the body’s immune defence through food and herbal blends and amalgams or even stark lifestyle changes are today among the top priorities. Although there is no scientifically proven direct link between one’s lifestyle and heightened immune function, there is a rising agreement on the need to live a more balanced life.
India is a land of herbs and spices that are rich in medicinal properties and they have been part of every Indian kitchen and grandmothers’ remedies. Given the present situation, where the only antidote against coronavirus is to have a strong immune system, buyer discernment has changed radically towards protective healthcare and medication. Individuals are now eager on investing in immunity building treatments that are herbal/natural to fight various microbial infections.
It will certainly surprise some that the popular brands like Delhi-NCR based milk supplier Mother Dairy lately launched haldi or turmeric milk to boost immunity. Also, following the trends, south India-based Dairy Day has launched its “Dairy Day Plus Haldi Ice Cream”, which contains haldi with honey as per the claim.
Then there are combo meals, with all the key ingredients like broccoli, spinach, bell peppers, garlic, dark chocolate, lime, parsley, cinnamon, etc., in vogue nowadays. It is not just food, herbal concoctions or kadha that make use of the kitchen spices are observing a great demand, which have encouraged Unani medicine-backed Hamdard Laboratories to consider induction some of their earlier products, in a new way, like Joshina, Imyoton, Infunza, Kulzum, and Chyawanprash etc. that contain constituents like tulsi, mulethi, amaltas, unnab, saplstan, amla, giloy, neem, etc., known for their preventative nature and capacity to fight chronic illnesses, as per reports.
It is due to the lack of proper medicinal assistance, a general cynicism about allopathic medicines and food fads that make nutraceuticals extremely popular. No surprise the market is thriving, with new products being launched every day.
However, the question is do we really need them?
Although there are numerous herbal supplements that aid good health, in a recent study, published in British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, it was noted that it’s very vital to gauge the safety of nutraceuticals and such substances and the mechanism of their action on the body before recommending them.
There are numerous challenges and alarms related with nutraceuticals that should be taken into consideration, like the supposed safety and efficiency of nutraceuticals needs further research, the lack of internationally shared regulations and the in-vivo and in-vitro studies that would prove the neutraceutical product claims have largely been ignored.
Although, several nutraceuticals, functional foods and naturally occurring compounds that have been scientifically investigated and reported in numerous studies revealed that these products are exceptionally active, have tremendous effect on cell metabolism and often have little adversative consequence. However, as a final point, it is established that the term “neutraceutical” is still poorly defined across the globe and from a regulatory standpoint not clearly classified either as a category of food or pharmaceuticals. Consequently, it is a challenging mission for the regulatory authorities in the different parts of the world. Nonetheless, clear and common regulations for nutraceuticals will be required in the near future to cope with fast developing trends and demands in the global market.
There is an extensive range in traditional health foods of India since the local health foods have evolved according to the climate, culture, and cropping practices of a particular region. A national research project in India is recommended to technically and systematically document the health benefits of traditional and ayurvedic health foods across various regions so that a databank can be generated for conservation of knowledge on processing, preservation and dietary guidelines of it for the benefit of both the Indian and international communities. |
