Functional Foods:You Need To Know These Stuff

           

Functional food is any food that has a positive effect on a person's health. Food is either an antioxidant, detoxifying, blocking or suppressing agents. We will start with the antioxidant agents.

Normal functioning of cells depends on the proper balance of pro-oxidant and antioxidants, the former promotes the release of oxygen to provide energy for cells while the latter, helps to neutralise and counteract free radicals. Free radicals could promote lipid per-oxidation of the membrane lipids. Note that natural antioxidants are easily absorbable in the human system. We have talked so much about antioxidants foods on CNB(you can read our previous CNB Fruity/Veg posts).

Let us look at Some Functional Foods with Antioxidant agents.
Tea and Coffee: A cup of tea supplies around 200mg of flavonoids, the antioxidant potency in a cup of tea is 400% greater than a cup of orange juice.
Studies have shown that colon cancer appears to show negative association with tea consumption. polyphenols can stop the damage that free radicals do to cells, it will also neutralize enzymes that are essential for tumour growth, then deactivate cancer promoters. 


Cereals: Selenium in cereals and millet is a trace element that plays an important role in cellular function.

Soya proteins: Isoflavones and phytooestrogen in soya are protective agents against cancer and heart disease.

Vegetables and fruits: B-carotene and tacopherols in veggys are known as high value, low volume chemicals. The green vegetables are exceptionally rich source of B-carotene.

Dry Fruits and Nuts: The phenolic compounds in nuts helps protects against chronic disease. Let me say say here that Walnuts have the highest antioxidant activity followed by brown raisins.

Spices: Carotenoids and curcumin present in spices like ginger and turmeric all has the ability to stimulate protective enzymes involved in metabolism. It also helps in the care of diabetics, especially in the care of the eye.

 Here are some other foods that are considered as rich sources of antioxidants.(In a short list)Garlic
Oats
Onions
Ginger
Herbs and Spicies
Sweet Potato
Soyabean
Thyme
Turmeric. ,..To be continued

Do you have questions and suggestions?? You can add your comment via the comment section.
Enjoy!