Importance of Food and Nutrients as Medicine for Health and Wellness-An Overview Vissavajjhala Prabhakar* Director, Pre-Clinical Biology, Sugen Life Sciences Pvt Ltd, Tirupati-517505, Andhra Pradesh, India *Author for correspondence: Email: pvissavajjhala@gmail.com
Online published on 16 January, 2015. Abstract The alarmingly increasing trends of global overweight, obesity among both the adults as well as the children need an immediate attention for nutritional intervention as billions of dollars are spent for the treatment of obesity and related diseases every year with clinical and pharmaceutical interventions. Apart from the inherent genetic reasons, which are very small in quantity, diet induced obesity along with sedentary life style are the major reasons for such trends leading to metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is characterized by insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, proinflammatory status, endothelial dysfunction, dyslipidemia resulting in several cardiovascular diseases. Not only consuming the right foods, but even avoiding the wrong foods is equally important in nutrition. Hence, improper intake of foods both quantitatively and qualitatively contributes to the increasing trends of overweight and obesity among the population where nutritional intervention can help restoring normalcy with reference to the elevated clinical biomarkers associated with these complications. Several nutrients from natural foods, fruits and vegetables comprising of a wide range of phytochemicals, high fibre that help lowering blood glucose, cholesterol, hypertension, improving heart health and lowering the incidence of some cancers emphasize how food and nutrients serve as medicine for the cause of enhanced quality of life, maintaining health and wellness. Certain aspects of epigenetics with regards to nutrients that influence gene expression especially, with reference to cancer further emphasize the concept of food as medicine on one hand and on the other, call for the approach and necessity for the implementation of ‘personalized nutrition’. Top Keywords Overweight, obesity, metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, dyslipidemia, nutritional intervention. Top |