Nutraceuticals and the FDA
Vitamins Such As Riboflavin Are Important To Maintain a Healthy Body
Research has shown that a healthy human body relies upon the consumption of around 15 distinct vitamins that serve to carry out specific functions while helping the body to fight disease. Among these, vitamin B plays a significant role in the function of nerves and the metabolic processes associated with digestion. Vitamin B is unique in that it exists not in a single form but as a series of eight permutations, each of which affects the body in a different way. Though each permutation is noted as a specific subscript number of vitamin B, each permutation, or complex, has its own name: thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), pyridoxine (vitamin B6), biotin (vitamin B7), folic acid (vitamin B9) and cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12). Produced as a single vitamin supplement, these are often referred to simply as vitamin B or, more accurately, vitamin B complex.
What does Riboflavin Do?
Of the vitamin B complex, riboflavin has been shown to aid in cellular mitosis, the maintenance of the blood supply through red blood cell creation, and the continued vitality of hair follicles and skin. Riboflavin’s time-dependent stimulation of specific parts of the retina sensitive to light and dark is believed to aid in the natural bodily rhythms associated with day and night. Additionally, vitamins B6 and B9 (pyridoxine and folic acid, respectively), crucial to regulating salts and fixing DNA sequences, cannot function in the absence of riboflavin as their initiator. Many health services and professionals recommend consuming a dose of between 1 and 2 milligrams of riboflavin daily.
Chronic headaches as well as the development of cataracts may be offset by large riboflavin doses of several hundred milligrams. Moreover, women who are pregnant or who plan to become pregnant are advised to integrate normal doses of riboflavin into their diets as an aid to lactation. The absence of riboflavin from the diet is chiefly characterized by inconsistency of sleep patterns due to fatigue, problems digesting food and abnormally dry skin. Variables including, but not limited to, stress, regular physical exertion in sports and fitness, vegetarian and vegan diets, drinking and smoking all have a tendency to deprive the body of appropriate levels of riboflavin. To this extent, riboflavin is also available as a concentrated vitamin supplement independent of other vitamin B complex permutations. Food sources with a high content of riboflavin include yeast, spinach, mushrooms, nuts and liver from animals such as cattle.
What is a Nutraceutical?
Where high doses of riboflavin may be obtained from the consumption of riboflavin-rich foods, riboflavin may be said to be a nutraceutical. The word “nutraceutical” is a contraction of “nutrition” and “pharmaceutical” and has been used to describe certain nutrients and vitamins that may be therapeutically consumed through food as opposed to tablet and liquid supplements. In the most basic sense, fresh fruits and vegetables, when consumed on a daily basis for the purpose of maintaining appropriate vitamin levels, can be said to be an example of nutraceuticals. (The proliferation of “organic” foods is evidence for this.) To this extent, foods classified as nutraceuticals play a significant role in maintaining a healthy functioning body while working to prevent disease. For instance, an individual with osteoporosis or at risk of suffering from osteoporosis may consume such foods as spinach and dairy products as nutraceuticals in order to regain or maintain healthy bones.
Nutraceutical Categories
Dietary Supplements including botanicals
1. Vitamins, minerals, co-enzyme Q, carnitine
2. Gingsing, Gingko Biloba, Saint John’s Wort, Saw Palmetto
Functional Foods
1. Oats, bran, psyllium and lignin’s for heart disease and colon cancer
2. Prebiotics – oligofructose for control of intestinal flora
3. Omega-3 milk in prevention of heart disease
4. Canola oil with lowered triglycerides for cholesterol reduction
5. Stanols (Benecol) in reduction of cholesterol adsorption
Medicinal Foods
1. Transgenic cows and lactoferrin for immune enhancement
2. Transgenic plants for oral vaccination against infectious diseases
3. Health bars with added medications
What is the FDA
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is the federal authority responsible for overseeing the production and dispensing of medication as well as the safe preparation of food, does not maintain the same stringent standards for vitamin and nutrient supplements as for medicines. In this respect, foods classified as nutraceuticals are subject to similar controls as vitamin and nutrient supplements, the research foundations for which are as fluid as the numerous manufacturers of such items. In this respect, the benefits of riboflavin found in food are no different, in the eyes of the FDA, from specific riboflavin supplement concentrations.
Resources about Nutraceuticals
Official Website of the FDA
More information about Nutraceuticals from Clemson.edu
Institute for Nutraceutical Research The Institute consolidates the intellectual and physical resources of faculty at Clemson University and links these resources to a larger statewide consortium involving the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina in a unique partnership with industry.
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