| A Brief, Informative Guide to Phytonutrients © NIE |
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There’s no way to write a complete guide to phytonutrients, unless one has a book deal or a lot of time on their hands. We do have more than enough space to touch on a few subjects, including the key phytonutrients and their new research. First, let’s start with some up and coming phytonutrients, courtesy of author and research geochemist C. Leigh Broadhurst, Ph.D., and David Sandoval, founder of Organic by Nature (Long Beach, CA), a manufacturer of whole food nutritional products. • Activated or pre-sprouted whole grains—“They contain previously unknown antioxidant properties and the beta-glucans in activated barley can solubilize the antioxidants and make them far more available. This is science that won’t hit for another year,” Sandoval said. • Bee propolis—Broadhurst called propolis “underappreciated and underutilized.” In lieu of antibiotics, propolis and vitamin C can stave off upper respiratory infection. “I personally have not had a cold in 13 years, and my children have perfect school attendance for three years running; in fact, the younger one has never had any antibiotics at all,” Broadhurst boasted. In addition, “propolis rinses are excellent for dental hygiene and can really help prevent gingivitis and tooth decay,” she added. “New propolis-honey emulsions are available that are really easy to give to kids and the elderly. They coat and soothe the throat as well.” • Cinnamon extracts—Now available on the market to treat type II diabetes, Broadhurst believes “they should do well, and I would expect to see a mainstream pharmaceutical for diabetes developed from cinnamon in the near future. There are so many botanical products being tested and developed for diabetes now that nobody can keep track of them.” • Medicinal mushrooms—Broadhurst would like to see more people take mushroom extracts daily when stressed or during the cold and flu season. “Also, if I was a person who had been treated for cancer and wished to avoid recurrence, I would unquestionably use a variety of mushrooms in my daily diet and in the form of supplements,” she added. “Coming in the future is more use of mushroom extracts, and limonene-type terpenoids from citrus rinds, in combination with standard chemotherapy.” • Sulfated polysaccharides (in red marine algae)—“Perhaps the most powerful phytonutrients that can be scientifically validated and act upon a condition (herpes, mononucleosis, shingles) and have a wider array of benefits than any current medicine without any known side effects,” Sandoval said. “We now have secured long-term supplies,” he added. You already know plenty about the main benefits of the industry’s most popular phytonutrients. Here’s some relatively new research on these well-established ingredients: Flaxseed “A recent study found that 50 mg of SDG, the main flax lignan, per day helped slow hair loss in men,” said Jocelyn Mathern, R.D., technical specialist at Acatris, Inc. (Minneapolis), which supplies LinumLife high flax lignan extracts. “Another study found that when used topically in a cream, flax lignans reduced oil production and acne breakouts on the face.” In two of the studies, guinea pigs were used to compare the cholesterol accumulation caused by high-fat diets to those resulting from high-fat diets supplemented with grape seed extract. After 12 weeks, the cholesterol accumulation in the animals’ tissues was significantly lower in the group that received the grape seed extract. Results of the third study, done in vitro, showed that fatty acids found in coconut oil, which generally contribute to atherosclerosis, had an inhibitory effect on endothelial function in rabbit aortas. Grape seed extract reversed this effect. Activin, from San Joaquin Valley Concentrates (Fresno, CA), has also found its way into Kashi cereal and Kashi oatmeal lines. “We are also in a couple of functional beverage lines. Functional food and beverage makes up about 50 percent of our sales,” said extracts manager Phil Castro. “We are anticipating a new study to be completed within the coming year,” said Craig Maltby, director, communications at Kemin Health. Added Maltby, “New FloraGLO Lutein-inclusive supplement products we’ve tracked include a new skin health formula from GNC and a new lutein stand-alone from Natrol.” Lycopene In the study, 54 grade 1 hypertensive patients between the ages of 30-70 entered two double blind treatment periods of six weeks each. They were administered Lyc-O-Mato or a placebo. Results of the study indicated a “significant reduction in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, as well as an increase in urinary nitrate excretion, in correlation with an increase in serum lycopene levels,” according to LycoRed USA (New York City), the makers of Lyc-O-Mato. Spirulina Eric Anderson, brand manager at P.L. Thomas & Co., Inc. (Morristown, NJ), likes pomegranate, so it’s a good thing his company just introduced POM40p, a standardized pomegranate extract. “POM40p’s advantage over competitive pomegranate products originates in the fact that it is standardized to water soluble punicalagins and not solvent soluble ellagic acid,” said P.L. Thomas’s sales manager, Scott Rosenbush. “POM40p pomegranate extract provides its antioxidant benefits via an array of polyphenols present in the fruit’s seeds, husk, and juice, and like pomegranate juice POM40p is particularly rich in punicalagins.” “Pomegranate research has been conducted primarily on fresh juice, which is very rich in punicosides, collectively known as punicalagins, which are the most powerful, functional antioxidants in pomegranate,” Anderson explained, adding that 40-50 mg of POM40p provides antioxidant benefits equivalent to 50 mL of fresh pomegranate juice. VDF FutureCeuticals (Momence, IL) now offers CoffeeBerry, a name the company invented to describe the whole fruit found on the coffee plant. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Center for Aging at Tufts University measured the Oxygen Radical Absorbent Capacity (ORAC) of more than 40 fruits and vegetables,” according to information on CoffeeBerry’s Website, www.coffeeberry.org. “Compared to their measurements, a 1-g serving of our CoffeeBerry Forte Extract provides the same anti-free radical power as 625 g of fresh blueberries, 974 g of strawberries, 1,230 g of raspberries, or 2,030 g of grapes!” CoffeeBerry also releases “unusually high levels of mannose, galactose, fucose, xylose, arabinose, and glucose during digestion.” These carbohydrates, VDF claims, are among eight that are essential for the immune system to function properly. Some of the aforementioned phytonutrients end up in some pretty unusual places. Mathern says flax lignans are now being used in cosmeceutical applications, while wheat grass has found its way into shampoos. Most phytonutrients wind up in supplements or functional foods and beverages, though Broadhurst noted that the former category has declined in popularity in recent years, thanks to controversial findings over kava kava, echinacea, and St. John’s wort. “However, food-based phytonutrients have been on a steady upswing,” Broadhurst said. “These are not necessarily targeted for specific diseases (e.g., guggul for lowering cholesterol), but rather are designed to promote overall wellness. People with busy lives often have difficulty eating all the fruits and vegetables they should, and they like that ordinary foods such as flavored waters and granola bars are ‘fortified’ with beneficial phytochemicals. Take, for example, the huge upsurge in blueberry consumption that occurred after researchers announced that they were very high in antioxidants.” For a variety of reasons, several ingredient executives stressed concern over the increased popularity of functional foods. “As more of these compounds obtain GRAS status, we will continue to see growth [in functional foods and beverages],” said Anderson. “However, we continue to encourage industry to incorporate therapeutic levels of the phytonutrients, rather than just adding minute amounts to allow the addition to the label for market benefit alone.” Sandoval agreed with Anderson, saying that as more of these ingredients become popular and land in food and beverages, there will be more deception from manufacturers. “It’s cheaper to lie than to fix your product,” Sandoval said. He says more manufacturers are looking at phytonutrients in supplements, not only because these products offer a greater purity than functional foods, but they give health food stores a leg up over the discounted brands offered at stores like Wal-Mart. Sandoval cited companies such as Jarrow Formulas and Solgar Vitamin and Herb as heading in that direction. The main focus for Pizzey’s Milling this year “has been working individually with companies to explain how flaxseed can be used to enhance the labels of food products,” Pizzey said. “It’s got to be simple, it can’t be a long statement for a structure/function claim,” said Ron Martin, vice president of sales and marketing for Polyphenolics, which is trying to get a health claim for its patented grape seed extract MegaNatural for food and beverages. Pizzey elaborated. “For example, many food manufacturers are confused about the difference between the qualified health claim that fish oil has, and the structure function claims for omega-3 and cardiovascular health that can be used for flaxseed. Research shows that consumers are also quite confused by qualified health claims, and actually prefer the more easily understood structure function claims. There is also much confusion about nutrient content claims and how omega-3 from flaxseed can be used. “We have spent a lot of time and resources this year in trying to educate food manufacturers about these things,” she added. “While there is much research than can be done, I think there’s so much we can do with what we have now, that the best thing we can do right now for the flaxseed industry is get the message out about what we currently know.” Scott M. Larkin, the marketing director at LycoRed USA, said getting the approval of the food and drink manufacturers—especially the big players—is difficult, especially with the failure of low-carb foods still fresh in their minds. “The food and drink [sector] is a little slower than the supplement side,” Larkin said. “The big brand guys don’t like to do anything to jeopardize the brand. They won’t add something if there’s any chance it will affect their brand.” Much to the chagrin of doughnut munchers everywhere, phytonutrients can’t be added to every food and beverage. Products based on fruits and vegetables work best with phytonutrients, said Broadhurst. “While it would be great in theory to add a nice load of mixed carotenoids to the single-serving chocolate puddings that kids have for school lunch, in practice the pudding would be bitter and have an off-color,” she said. “The solution here would be to recognize that cocoa powder itself is filled with antioxidant phytochemicals. So in order to increase potential health benefits, we could reformulate [it] into a dark-chocolate flavor that had extra cocoa powder, and maybe even sneak in a bit of cocoa tannin extract to ‘pump up’ the phytonutrients. And in a whole milk or 2 percent milk pudding (as opposed to fat free) we could add some tocotrienols as well. Thinking along these lines you can see there is long way we can go with fortified ice creams and sorbets.” While many Americans want to have their cake and lose 5 lbs., the fleeting popularity of low-carb diets has made more Americans more conscious of nutrition labels, said Hartley Pond, technical sales manager at VDF FutureCeuticals. “The more aggressive and educated the consumer, the better for the companies that are making sound nutritional products,” said Pond, who sees phytonutrients equally represented in both the food and supplement segments. If fruits and vegetables can be made more palatable or convenient for consumers, that’s even better. “Kids who don’t learn to like vegetables usually don’t change much as adults, and pass that burden on the kids they raise later in life,” Broadhurst said. “We are now looking at the generation whose life expectancy has actually decreased due to the high incidence of childhood and young adult obesity. Obesity is directly linked to lack of produce in the diet. So, every creative solution to break this cycle is welcome.” NIE |
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