The role of functional foods in treating chronic diseases
By dominguez // 2019-12-18
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In this article, researchers from Wuhan Sports University in China summarized several widely investigated bioactive components used as functional foods, such as resveratrol, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), curcumin and trehalose. This review appeared in the journal Food Science and Human Wellness.
  • Functional foods, specifically natural or processed foods containing bioactive compounds, provide health-promoting effects beyond basic nutrition. They also act as preventive agents or supplementary treatments for chronic disease.
  • The bioactive components of functional foods have pleiotropic effects, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hypolipidemic, blood sugar-regulating, cytoprotective and neuroprotective activities.
  • Autophagy is a highly conserved cellular process involved in the clearance of aberrant components in eukaryotic cells. It plays an essential role in health-promotion, as well as the prevention and treatment of various diseases.
  • When cells are put in a stressful environment, autophagy is triggered, accelerating the clearance of damaged cells, toxic protein aggregates and dysfunctional cell organelles to maintain homeostasis.
The researchers believe that functional foods containing phytonutrients like resveratrol, curcumin and EGCG can regulate autophagy and should therefore be developed further for the treatment or prevention of chronic diseases. Read the full study at this link. Journal Reference: Xie J, Liang J, Chen N. AUTOPHAGY-ASSOCIATED SIGNAL PATHWAYS OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS FOR CHRONIC DISEASES. Food Science and Human Wellness. 2019;8(1):25–33. DOI: 10.1016/j.fshw.2019.03.002
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