Nutrisciences 101

If you’re talking “nutrisciences”, then it helps to understand some of the common terms:

Nutrisciences

An umbrella terms referring to the study of naturally occurring compounds that alter biological activity to provide therapeutic benefits, nutritional value, and health protection to humans and animals. Such fields would include the study of nutritional genomics, nutraceuticals, functional foods, and traditional food science technologies as examples.

Bioactive

A bioactive (a biologically active compound) is a molecule or compound that has biological activity at a tissue or cell level. With a definition like that, you can understand why many substances can be considered bioactives. Bioactives can have beneficial or detrimental effects. In the context of health research, bioactives are studied for their commonly accepted health benefits.

Scientists at NRC-INH will be determining how bioactives impact human and animal health. They will be focussing primarily on the areas of neurologic (nervous system) disorders, obesity-related disorders, and infection and immunity. For example, Dr. Michael Mayne, Lead Scientist at NRC-INH, Dr. Mayne is investigating how flavonoids (bioactivies which are anti-oxidant compounds) affect neuron life and death. Flavonoids are a class of compounds found in plants such as blueberries, apples, and strawberries to name a few. Research into the role that flavonoids play in the health of neurons could lead to important discoveries in the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease.

Nutraceutical

A nutraceutical is a product isolated or purified from foods that is generally sold in medicinal forms not usually associated with food. A nutraceutical is demonstrated to have a physiological benefit or provide protection against chronic disease.*

Functional Food

A functional food is similar in appearance to, or may be, a conventional food, is consumed as part of a usual diet, and is demonstrated to have physiological benefits and/or reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions.*

Nutritional Genomics

The study of how health and diseases are influenced by the interaction between nutrition (what we eat) and our genome (our entire gene set).

* Courtesy of Health Canada