China
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Chinese traditional medicine and diet 1
Published in Vivienne Lo, Michael Stanley-Baker, Dolly Yang, Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine, 2022
Exacerbating the problem is the current fashion for super or power foods, those products that come with the promise of increased vitality, sexual vigour, youth and longevity. Many of these claim an evidence base in modern nutritional science. Chinese green tea is advertised as rich in anti-oxidants good for combatting cancer, garlic prevents bacterial infections, epimedium (yinyang huo 淫羊藿: also known as horny goat’s weed) has the same active ingredient as Viagra (Lo and Re’em 2018). Perhaps the latter have grains of truth and will continue to be popular, but many of the power foods, like gouji berry, enjoy a very short celebrity status outside China, as the global market for superfoods is nothing if not faddish.
Epilogue
Published in Nirmala Chongtham, Madho Singh Bisht, Bamboo Shoot, 2020
Nirmala Chongtham, Madho Singh Bisht
Bamboo shoots, the young culms, have been a delicacy and important food commodity for many centuries in China, Japan and Korea, Thailand, Myanmar and north-eastern and other parts of India. Though bamboo shoots are not a part of the traditional cuisine in North America, Europe and other countries, the popularity of Chinese and Thai restaurants worldwide has given an opportunity to people in many countries to taste the edible bamboo shoots. In some countries, particularly in China, bamboo shoot processing has become a multibillion-dollar export business supplying shoots to countries including Japan, the United States, Australia and many European countries. Scientific studies have proved that this traditional food is one of the best health foods with all necessary nutrients for good health. A growing awareness of the correlation between diet and health, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle, an aging population and ever-increasing health care costs, has driven people towards health food with high nutrients packed with minerals, vitamins, anti-oxidants and fiber with health beneficial phytochemicals, also known as ‘superfoods’. Superfoods increase the vitality of the human body and improve overall health by strengthening the immune system, thereby preventing a multitude of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis and cancer. Bamboo shoots in particular possess all of the properties that signify a superfood—nutrients including vitamins and minerals, phytochemicals with anti-oxidant properties and fiber.
Food as medicine
Published in Geoffrey P. Webb, Nutrition, 2019
Superfoods are essentially ordinary foods that are rich in particular nutrients, polyunsaturated fatty acids or dietary fibre or rich in other plant chemicals (phytochemicals) that have been claimed to be antioxidants or to have other beneficial effects upon health.
Dietary supplement use and its associated factors among gym users in Southern Brazil
Published in Journal of Substance Use, 2023
Patrícia Molz, Raquel M. Rossi, Diene S. Schlickmann, Caroline Dos Santos, Silvia I. R. Franke
Study participants answered an online questionnaire based on Lacerda et al. (2015) and Attlee et al. (2018), which contained information on dietary supplementation (supplement type, objective and indication of use, and dietary prescription), as well as demographic and lifestyle questions (sex, age, smoking, alcohol intake and presence of disease), and questions related to sports practice (frequency and duration of exercise). The online questionnaire consisted of open and closed-ended questions, multiple-choice questions, and in some cases, participants were able to choose more than one alternative as an answer. For the question about the types of supplements used, after the participants cited the supplements used, those were classified according to the following categories: i) sports supplements, ii) medicinal supplements, iii) ergogenic supplements and iv) functional supplements or superfoods (Garthe & Maughan, 2012).
Development of a Natural Product Rich in Bioavailable Omega-3 DHA from Locally Available Ingredients for Prevention of Nutrition Related Mental Illnesses
Published in Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 2020
Christina N. Charles, Hulda Swai, Titus Msagati, Musa Chacha
Basically, an ideal ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 ratio for most people is 4:1 – that’s 4 omega-6s for every 1 omega-3 (38). Conversely, nutritionists and anti-aging experts suggest that the ratio should go even further, maintaining a 1:1 ratio or higher in favor of omega 3 s. Moreover, unlike Plumpy’nut, the optimized formulation contains essential fatty acids from non-animal sources. Microalgae is a major source of preformed omega-3 fatty acids in the present formulation. This ingredient in the optimal formulation also provides other functional compounds that can benefit the brain health across the entire lifespan (39,40). This makes the present formulation a future promising product for all consumers including vegetarians, especially in areas with high episode of mental health illnesses. Because of its high content of functional compounds with high biological value, the World Health Organization (WHO) has regarded microalgae as a future human superfood, especially for the developing world. The present innovation takes advantage of Tanzania being one of the best countries with natural conditions that favor growth of this natural superfood (microalgae) in Eastern Africa region (41).
Anti-inflammatory Effects of Northern Highbush Blueberry Extract on an In Vitro Inflammatory Bowel Disease Model
Published in Nutrition and Cancer, 2020
Kyle Driscoll, Aparna Deshpande, Rupali Datta, Wusirika Ramakrishna
Blueberries have been described for decades as a “super food” and publicized for their health benefits against oxidative stress and chronic conditions (12–14). These effects are known to come from secondary metabolites, which are divided primarily into three groups that include terpenoids, alkaloids, and phenylpropanoids and other phenolic compounds (15). Blueberries are an abundant source of the phenolic class of bioactive compounds. Over ten compounds have been identified, with the content varying dependent on genetic and environmental factors (16,17). For instance, highbush blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum) contain 15 different bioactive compounds, mainly delphinidin, cyanidin, petunidin, peonidin, and malvidin derivatives, with variation existing in the number of hydroxyl groups, amount of methylation, as well as type and location of sugar molecules. Wild blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium), had higher chlorogenic acid compared to cultivated varieties (18).