Functional Nutrition | Bioactive Compounds | Nutraceuticals (2024)

Understand how food goes beyond basic nourishment to impact overall health. This section covers bioactive compounds, nutraceuticals, and the role of diet in managing specific nutritional needs. Learn about personalized nutrition approaches that support energy, performance, and wellness through targeted dietary interventions.

Vitamin B12 and Its Role in Health and Wellness

Vitamin B12 is a water-soluble vitamin, also known as cobalamin, this cannot be made in the body and needs to be ingested through food, supplements, or medication. It is essential for red blood cell formulation, keeping your nerve and brain function healthy, production of DNA, and maintaining cell metabolism. Vitamin B12 is absorbed by the… Read more »

Insights on Nutrition for Eye Health

Author(s): hellio

Have you ever heard of the phrase “carrots can help you to see in the dark”? This long-standing belief originating from the second world war has been passed around millions of households throughout generations.1 This begs the question – can the food we consume improve our visual health? Not only is good nutrition important for... Read more »

The Benefits of Reducing Alcohol on Health and Mindfulness: In Conversation with Dr Lisa Ryan and Derek Brown.

Dr. Lisa Ryan, Head of Department of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition at Atlantic Technological University and Scientific Advisory Council member of KHNI discusses the benefits of reducing alcohol on health and mindfulness with Derek Brown, a renowned author, wellness coach, bartender and Founder of Positive Damage. Discover key insights into the benefits of reducing alcohol,… Read more »

The Importance of Hydration

Author(s): Hilary McCahill, BSc, RD

The importance of hydration lies in its role in allowing the body to perform our internal processes effectively and efficiently. Learn more about hydration’s impact on physical health and mental health.

Benefits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids: What Does Science Say?

Author(s): Monica Olivarez Martin, PhD, Crisdell Codeghini MS, BPharm, Izaskun Monslave, PhD, MBA

We summarize the science of the varied roles of omega-3 fats in health, how much people consume, and the difference between fish and algal sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Acacia’s Role as a Functional Fibre

Author(s): David Carr and Liz Lalor, BSc

Choosing fibre sources can be difficult because different fibres have different health benefits as well as different functional properties in food. This article provides an overview of Acacia fibre, including its origin, high digestive tolerance, and examples of how it can help formulation of different foods and beverages.

Does Intermittent Fasting Work? A Science-Based Answer

Author(s): Heather Nelson Cortes, PhD

Does intermittent fasting lead to weight loss and how does it compare to other weight loss methods? We look at science to find the answer.

What Does Energy Really Mean?

Author(s): Heather Nelson Cortes, PhD

Energy can mean physical energy from calories, stimulation from caffeine, or mental focus from ingredients like adaptogens. Finding the best solution means knowing which benefit different consumers are looking for during each time of day.

Replacing Refined Grains with Whole Grains for Heart Health

A newstudy found that consuming a high number of refined grains, such as croissants and white bread, poses risks for heart health. Increasing whole grain intake is a major opportunity to improve public health.

The Dairy Matrix: Beyond Individual Nutrients

Author(s): Aoife Marie Murphy, PhD

Is dairy fat healthy or unhealthy? Why do we see recommendations to reduce saturated fat intake, while at the same time see headlines from studies showing full-fat dairy may be healthy for us? The answer lies in the fact that food can often be more than the sum of its parts. Dairy, saturated fat &… Read more »

Soy’s Role in Health

Author(s): Aoife Marie Murphy, PhD and Michael Kemp, PhD, RD

Soy has received more attention in the past few years due to the growing popularity of plant protein and plant-based diets. However, there have also been mixed messages about soy in the media over the past few decades, which leaves many people confused about soy’s role in health. “Is soy unhealthy or healthy?” is the… Read more »

Nutrient Density Formulation Tips for the Food and Beverage Industry

In our recent article, we described the “Quality Calorie concept” from the British Nutrition Foundation, which is an approach to looking beyond total calories to improve total nutrient density of the diet. Many of the approaches described in the Quality Calorie concept can be adapted by the food and beverage industry to make a substantial… Read more »

Nutrient Density and the “Quality Calorie Concept”

Author(s): Gemma Velayos, MSc

Anyone who has ever been on a diet will be familiar with the terms ‘reduced calories’ or ‘counting calories’, but what about the other parts of a healthy diet, beyond calories? Nutrient density has a large role to play in a healthy diet. The high obesity rates globally suggest that on average, we consume too… Read more »

The Impact of Social Isolation on Eating Behaviour and Nutrition

Author(s): Caoileann Murphy, PhD, RD

Staying at home with minimal human contact can significantly increase our feelings of loneliness. People of all ages may experience loneliness. However, older people, particularly those living alone and advised to “cocoon”, are especially vulnerable. Loneliness and social isolation can negatively impact our mental and physical health (1), in part through adversely affecting behaviours like… Read more »

Quarantine Comfort Food: Healthy Hacks and the Science Behind Them

Circumstances surrounding COVID-19 mean many people are at home more than usual. One way to stay connected to family, food, and mental health is to cook some of your favorite dishes. However, when we’re less physically active during isolation, the extra calories that come with comfort foods may not be so comforting. Here are some… Read more »

Tips to Determine if a Sugar Should be Labelled “Added” or “Naturally Occurring”

Author(s): Noemi DiMartino & Wenjing Li, M.S.

What is the difference between sugar and added sugar? For those in the food and nutrition world, added sugar might be something we hear about every day. Global dietary recommendations continue to recommend reducing added sugar intake, legislation taxing added sugar content of foods or beverages is increasingly common, and the update to the nutrition… Read more »

Encouraging Healthier Choices in Restaurants Using Behaviour Change Theories

Author(s): Caoimhe McQuaid, BSc

Dining out of home and calorie-rich restaurant menus are often blamed as a main driver of the obesity issue worldwide. World Health Organization global estimates that more than 1.9 billion adults aged 18 years and older are overweight (WHO,2018). What if we could make healthier choices in restaurants more obvious and easier to make for… Read more »

Whole Grains At-A-Glance

Whole grains are consistently linked to health benefits, yet few people around the world eat enough of them. Only 8% of adults in the United States meet their recommended intake, for example. The International Food Information Council recently published a great summary on whole grains that answers key questions like: What makes a whole grain… Read more »

Fiber Can Improve Weight Loss and Diet Adherence

A recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition has found that during weight loss, those who increase their fiber intake the most lost the most weight and are also able to stick to their recommended diet plan more effectively than people who do not increase their fiber intake. In the POUNDS Lost (Preventing Overweight… Read more »

Nutrition Benefits of Grass-Fed Dairy

Author(s): Niamh Hunt, PhD

Dairy products from grass-fed cows are in growing demand among today’s consumers, driven mostly by perceived health benefits and animal welfare concerns.1 This prompts the question: Are dairy products from grass-fed cows really better for us? Scientists at Teagasc Moorepark Research Centre, Cork and the APC Microbiome Institute, University College Cork have explored this and… Read more »

Why Are People Excited About Personalized Nutrition? A Story Hidden in Watermelon Juice

Author(s): Nathan Pratt, PhD, RD

I often find myself wondering “what difference would personalized nutrition make?” Even if you could tell someone what food is healthy specifically for their genetics or lifestyle, so what? People have known for decades to eat more fruits and vegetables to improve their health, yet most people aren’t doing it. Scientists are debating every day… Read more »

Which Low-Calorie Sweetener is Best for Weight Management? Results From a New Study

Low-calorie sweeteners are go-to solutions for sugar reduction in foods and beverages, but it can be hard to know which one to use. They all have different taste characteristics, as well as different impacts on health. A recent study from researchers at Purdue University studied which low-calorie sweetener is the best for weight management, the… Read more »

The FODMAP Diet for IBS – An FAQ

What is the FODMAP diet? The FODMAP diet is an eating pattern designed to help people with irritable bowel syndrome or other gastrointestinal discomfort choose foods that can help them with their symptoms like bloating and abdominal pain. Many consider it to be the next wave of the gluten-free trend. Researchers from Monash University in… Read more »

Webinar – Proactive Health: Combining Healthy Halos and Science

This webinar explores ways to connect consumer perception to strong science when creating proactive health solutions.

What is Vitamin K2, and What Role Does It Have in Health?

Author(s): Nathan Pratt, PhD, RD

Vitamin K is well-known for its role in blood clotting, but the less well-known vitamin K2 may have important roles in bone health or even heart disease. When people think about vitamin K, they might think about the shot infants get in their foot right after birth because their bodies can’t make the vitamin yet.… Read more »

Blueberries and Health – Is the Whole Greater Than The Sum of Its Parts?

Interest in functional foods has led to a question in the world of nutrition – is it a specific nutrient or chemical in a food that makes it healthy, or something more? For example, several studies have been published showing no effect of multi-vitamin and mineral supplements on reducing chronic disease risk, despite fruits and… Read more »

Nutritional Strategies to Promote Muscle and Joint Health

Author(s): Barbara Lyle, PhD

Nutrition plays a critical role in healthy aging, especially for muscle and joint tissues. Keeping these tissues healthy can improve quality of life as we age by helping us maintain mobility and independence.

Are Vitamin and Mineral Supplements Worth Taking?

For every 4 people you walk by on the street, 3 of them are taking some kind of dietary supplement. For some, they are taken ‘just in case’, to cover any potential gaps in their diet. Others may feel a multivitamin/mineral supplement provides them all of the nutrition they need in a day. Among those… Read more »

Intermittent Fasting Can Work, But Not a Magic Bullet

Intermittent fasting, a weight loss strategy which involves greatly restricting food intake on certain days of the week, has gained a lot of attention recently. In a recent article onFood and Nutrition, dietitian Taylor Wolfram explored the science behind intermittent fasting and found that it probably isn’t the magic bullet everyone is looking for, but… Read more »

What is it About Legumes and Pulses?

Author(s): Nathan Pratt, PhD, RD / Wiwid Paramita, PhD

Legumes are some of the most nutritious foods on earth and one of the most environmentally sustainable protein sources. Read about legumes and how to incorporate them into products.

Author(s): Aisling Aherne, PhD, RNutr & Aoife Murphy, PhD

Media coverage on the role of red and processed meat in a healthy diet is a constant back and forth between claims it will cause cancer to claims it can improve health. We sat down with two of our nutrition experts, Aisling Aherne, PhD, RNutr and Aoife Murphy, PhD, to see what their guidance would… Read more »

Baru Almonds Shown to Improve Body Composition and Blood Lipids

A study in the journal Nutrition found that overweight women who ate a handful of Baru almonds (20 grams) every day for 8 weeks lost more abdominal fat and had better HDL cholesterol levels than women who ate a similar diet without the nuts. This study adds to the body of evidence showing the positive… Read more »

Which Nutrients Help with Joint Pain? A New Study

In a study published in the journal Rheumatology, researchers examined the role between nutrition and osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is a condition driven by inflammation, resulting in joint pain. It is one of the fastest growing causes of disability worldwide. Here’s what the researchers found to be effective at reducing osteoarthritis symptoms. Fish oil Omega-3 fatty acids… Read more »

Avocados and Heart Health

Science shows that avocados may benefit heart health by increasing our HDL cholesterol. Avocados and other foods high in monounsaturated fats are often part of heart health recommendations as a replacement for foods high in saturated fats. A new scientific review published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which included 18 studies, explored the… Read more »

To Improve Blood Pressure, Nutrition Guidance Should Come From Dietitian, Study Shows

In the healthcare process, many professionals have the opportunity to give dietary advice to help a patient improve a condition like high blood pressure. Due to the complex relationship between nutrition and conditions like hypertension, the presence of dietitians on multidisciplinary care teams leads to better results than when a dietitian is not present, according… Read more »

MCTs and Coconut Oil for Weight: What Does Science Say?

Author(s): Rebecca Kinsella, MS

In the past decade, foods like coconut oil and bulletproof coffee have been in the headlines of countless nutrition news articles. One of the most common questions dietitians get asked is “what’s the truth about coconut oil, is it healthy?”. Scientific studies have shown that consuming certain types of dietary fats can reduce the amount… Read more »

Your Scale isn’t Telling the Whole Story When it Comes to Weight Loss

Worried about holiday weight loss? A new study shows that our scales may not be giving us the whole picture. A long-term diet study published in the journal Circulation used MRI imaging technology to map the differences in where people store fat during 18 months of low-carb (Mediterranean-style) or low-fat diets, with or without moderate… Read more »

Study Shows Medical Students Undertrained but Overconfident on Nutrition

A new study found that many medical students lack the knowledge to properly counsel patients on nutrition, yet still feel confident to provide recommendations to patients. This is a concerning combination, since primary care physicians are a main source of health-related information for much of the population. Specifically, the study found only 12% of students… Read more »

The Knowns and Unknowns of Food Sensitivities

‘Free-from’ trends like gluten-free and lactose-free are becoming increasingly common with consumers, leaving many scientists and health practitioners scratching their heads. After all, the rate of diagnosed food allergies aren’t increasing. Nevertheless, gluten-free has grown to an industry worth almost $2 billion. If you speak to a dietitian about the role of ‘free-from’ foods in… Read more »

Gluten-Free is Not the Answer for Heart Health for Those Without Coeliac Disease

Looking to protect your heart health? A new study published in the British Medical Journal found that a gluten-free diet is not the answer, assuming you do not have Coeliac Disease. These days, gluten-free diets have become a popular trend. Although Coeliac Disease rates are not “on the up” (less than 1% of the population… Read more »

The Return of Ancient Grains

Ancient Grains are a group of grains from plants like quinoa, millet, and sorghum. Consumer demand for ancient grains has grown fast, in part, because of consumers’perceived “sensitivities” to grains that contain gluten. According to new researchin the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, eating bread made with ancient grains as part of a… Read more »

Have Consumers Changed How Much Sodium They Purchase?

Reducing sodium intake to promote vascular health has been a key public health initiative for decades. Awareness campaigns and reduction in sodium content of packaged foods by food manufacturers have been the main strategies of this public health initiative. In a recent study, researchers at the University of North Carolina asked the question “Did the… Read more »

What Contributions Do Dairy Foods Make to Healthy Diets?

With June underway, you may have seen more information about dairy than you’re used to in other months. June 1st is World Milk Day and June is National Dairy Month in the United States, which might make some of us wonder what’s the big deal with dairy? Dairy is included in many global dietary recommendations… Read more »

What Digestive Health Benefits Do Consumers Want?

Author(s): Caroline Cummins, MS, RNutr

This blog explores the consumer perspective and market of digestive health. Read What Does Digestive Health Really Mean?to learn more about digestive health and some of the terms used in this blog, like microbiome and FODMAPs. Optimum digestive health has been a mainstay consumer desire for over 20 years, but it has been experienced an… Read more »

Kerry Partners with World Food Programme to Improve Nutrition of School Lunches in Honduras

Kerry’s partnership with the World Food Programme is set to improve nutrition of meals at school by working with local communities, farmers, and national stakeholders.

Does Low-Fat Still Matter?

Author(s): Mindy Hermann, MBA, RDN

After decades of emphasis on the importance of low-fat diets, guidelines are now shifting toward emphasis on the quality of fat instead of the quantity.

Snacking: Indulgent or Essential to a Healthy Diet?

Author(s): Mindy Hermann, MBA, RDN

As the lives of consumers become more hectic, the frequency of snacking is on the rise. Research shows that the type of snacks selected determines if snacks are a help or a hindrance to a healthy diet.

Forging New Frontiers for Nutritional Beverages

Author(s): Declan Goode

Obesity is the most common nutritional disorder in the world; 65% of the world’s population live in countries where overweight and obesity are major contributors to mortality.

Delivering Nutrition as Nature Intended

Author(s): Satya S Jonnalagadda, Ph.D., MBA, RD

Breast milk is undoubtedly the best option for infants, but there are times when a mother’s milk is not available. In such cases, infant formula takes the lead and offers a nutrient-packed alternative.

Packing Real Fruit and Vegetables into Foods and Beverages

Author(s): Travis Barlow, BS

It can be challenging to deliver the nutrition of fruits and vegetables into foods without compromising on the taste consumers expect. The technique of vacuum freeze drying is one way of overcoming this challenge.

Moving From Weight Management to Weight Wellness

Author(s): Barbara Lyle, PhD

The prevailing though behind weight management in recent years has moved from dieting for weight loss to preventing weight gain with lifelong behaviors.

Science Supports Soy for a Healthy Diet

Author(s): Michael Q. Kemp, PhD, RD

Soy is a plant that originated in Asia and is now grown in many places around the globe. The plant’s beans (the soybeans) can be eaten on their own (like edamame) or used to make soy foods (like tofu, miso, tempeh, soy milk and soy sauce).

What is the science behind gluten-free? A handy FAQ

Author(s): Michael Q Kemp, PhD, RD

Read the science behind why some people choose to eat a gluten-free diet.

Dairy Science and Consumer Perception Realign

Author(s): Mindy Hermann, MBA, RDN / Nathan Pratt, PhD, RD

Dairy delivers outstanding nutrition benefits across all life stages and its future is looking positive among consumers. Learn dairy’s role in health and how to capitalize on the favorable shift of dairy among consumers.

Snacking Under the Nutrition Lens

Author(s): Mindy Hermann, MBA, RDN

Learn how to change snacking from an eating occasion associated with high calorie food to one that helps deliver the nutrients our body needs in an convenient way.

Tipping the Balance toward Moderation

Author(s): Satya Jonnalagadda Ph.D., MBA, RD / Sheelagh Pentony

The more we learn about nutrition science, the more we see that the traditional “diet” technique typically leads to regaining of weight. Small, cumulative behavior changes are much more effective, making moderation key.

Could Obesity Undermine Memory Training in Older Adults?

Obesity may influence our ability to retain or improve our memory as we get older.

Avoid Fad Diets in Your New Year’s Resolution

Tips on finding realistic approaches to weight loss instead of fads that sound (and are!) too good to be true.

The Expanding Need for Functional Foods

Kerry authors explore the roles that functional foods, individuals, government and the food industry can play in the fight against obesity in a new article published on AP Food Online.

The Gradual Magic Bullet for Cardiovascular Disease

Improving diet and lifestyle continues to be a vital component in the strategy to prevent cardiovascular diseases.

FDA modernizes Nutrition Facts label for packaged foods

In May 20, 2016, the U.S. FDA took a major step in making sure consumers have updated nutritional information for most packaged foods sold in the United States to aid informed decision-making.

Functional Nutrition | Bioactive Compounds | Nutraceuticals (2024)
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