Dietary Supplements and its consequences

A dietary supplement is defined as manufactured product intended to supplement the diet when taken by mouth as a pill, capsule, tablet, or liquid. A supplement provides the nutrients either extracted from food sources or synthetic, individually or in combination, in order to increase the quantity of their consumption. The class of food and nutrient compounds comprises of vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids and amino acids. Dietary supplements may also contain substances that have not been confirmed as being essential to life, but are marketed as having a beneficial biological effect, such as plant pigments or polyphenols.
The research studies claims that 24 products labelled as containing higenamine or the synonyms "norcoclaurine" or "demethylcoclaurine" and found unpredictable and potentially harmful quantities of the stimulant ranging from trace levels to 62 mg per serving. Out of the 24 products tested, only five out of 24 listed a specific quantity of higenamine on the label, and none of those five quantities were accurate. Based on the labelled directions for use, consumers could be exposed to up to 110 mg of higenamine per day. The health risks of higenamine remain poorly understood, but as a beta-2 agonist, it has been prohibited and therefore poses a risk to healthy individuals and competitive athletes' careers posing a critical condition based upon food and nutritional immunology.


Some plants, such as ephedra, contain stimulants. Intake of excess dietary foods containing too much of the stimulants found in ephedra, it can have life-threatening consequences. Dietary supplements leads to an estimated 23,000 emergency department visits each year in the United States, and weight loss and sports supplements contribute to a large portion of emergency department visits. Higenamine is a natural constituent of several traditional botanical remedies, such as aconite root and Aristolochia brasiliensis. While higenamine is considered a legal dietary ingredient when present as a constituent of botanicals research identified concerning levels of the stimulant and wildly inaccurate labelling and dosage information. The research points to the need for independent testing and certification of dietary supplements, additionally dietary supplements must be produced in a manufacturing facility that is inspected twice a year to comply with the U.S. FDA's Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) requirements.
                            

Food packaging chemicals causing harmful to individuals over long term

The synthetic chemicals used in the packaging, storage, and processing of foodstuffs might be harmful to human health this is because most of these substances are not inert and can leach into the foods. Despite the fact that some of these chemicals are regulated, people who depend
upon packaged or processed foods are likely to be chronically exposed to low levels of these substances throughout their lives. Exposure to food contact materials i.e., substances used in packaging, storage, processing, or preparation equipment -- "is a cause for concern for several reasons."

It includes the fact that known toxicants, such as formaldehyde, a cancer-causing substance, are legally used in these materials. Formaldehyde is often present, albeit at low levels, in plastic bottles used for fizzy and cold drinks and melamine tableware. Secondly, other chemicals that disrupt hormone production also crop up in FCMs, including bisphenol A, tributyltin, triclosan, and phthalates. And, the result shows that a total number of known chemical substances used intentionally in FCMs exceed 4000.
Furthermore, potential cellular changes are caused by FCMs, and in particular, those with the capacity to disrupt hormones, are not even being considered in routine toxicology analysis, which prompts most of the scientists to suggest that this "casts serious doubts on the adequacy of chemical regulatory procedures." After obtaining the results scientists admit that establishing potential cause and effect as an estimation of lifelong and largely invisible exposure to FCMs will be no easy task, largely because there are no unexposed populations to compare with, and there are likely have wide variations in exposure levels among individuals and across certain population groups.
But some sort of population-based assessment and biomonitoring are urgently needed to tease out any potential links between food contact chemicals and many chronic conditions like cancer, obesity, diabetes, inflammatory and neurological disorders, particularly given the known role of environmental pollutants.
Food packaging containers like ZnO nanoparticles are present in the lining of certain canned goods for their antimicrobial properties and to prevent staining of sulfur-producing foods. In most of the study, canned corn, tuna, asparagus, and chicken were studied using mass spectrometry to estimate how many particles might be transferred to the food. It has been found that the food contained 100 times the daily dietary allowance of zinc.

It is difficult to say what the long-term effects of nanoparticle ingestion are on human health, especially based on results from a cell culture model, it is seen that our cell culture results are similar to results observed in animals and that the gut microbial populations are affected.  
                       
                                                

Nutraceuticals and Medicinal Foods

Medical foods have now been developed for a range of diseases, from neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (e.g., Souvenaid by Nutricia) to general physiological disorders such as hypertension, viral infections and inflammation. Ailments such as food intolerance, insomnia or fatigue, are also treated by specific medical foods.
Leaps forward in advancements are driving the route in the improvement and acknowledgment of significant worth included items and prepared nourishments, hereditarily built sustenances, elements of critical wellbeing esteem, medicinal substances for exceptional dietary use, dietary enhancements, phytochemicals, home grown items and nutraceuticals, and their linkage to wellbeing and infection. This auspicious acknowledgment interfaces to some degree with the way that one of every three utilizing some type of option and corresponding treatment.
 This trend has brought a tremendous increase in the number of products with anecdotal evidence of potential health and their medical benefits and has led to major concerns about consumer safety and fraudulent claims. Moreover, the dramatic shift in consumer readiness, combined with increasing eagerness to protect health care costs, has become an important issue for policy makers, regulatory bodies, scientific and medical communities, and companies, to make sure of the appropriate measures are taken for documenting science-based, product-specific health claims. This commentary highlights key issues of product safety, efficacy, health claims, and regulatory barriers that must be addressed objectively as a new industry evolves from this powerful consumer trend.
New eating habits along with actual trends in production and consumption have a health, environmental and social impact. The potential of functional foods andfood supplements in mitigating health problems, especially in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, is discussed. Certain members of gut , probiotics play a role in the host health due to its involvement in nutritional, immunologic and physiological functions. The potential mechanisms may alter a host’s health with Nutritional Therapy and Treatments


2nd International Conference on Nutrition, Food Science and Technology April 08-09, 2019 | Abu Dhabi, UAE

Food and Nutrition Research builds the integral relationship between the food and a nutritional benefit which brings together outstand...