nutraceutical

Also nu·tri·ceu·ti·cal

[noo-truh-soo-ti-kuhl]

noun

1. a bioactive compound occurring as a food component, additive, or product, including vitamins, dietary fiber, herbal extracts, carotenoids, and probiotics: nutraceuticals are said to promote health and well-being, allegedly helping in the prevention and treatment of disease.

nutraceutical

/ ˌnjuːtrəˈsjuːtɪkəl /

noun

1. another name for functional food

Word History and Origins

Origin of nutraceutical¹

Blend of nutrient ( def. ) and pharmaceutical ( def. ); coined by Stephen DeFelice, U.S. endocrinologist, in 1989

Example Sentences

Lodhi said this raises the possibility that a dietary intervention based on these fatty acids -- such as a food, probiotic or "nutraceutical" intervention -- could boost this heat-production pathway and the beneficial effects it appears to have.

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Among a diverse array of natural products, mushrooms have emerged as a rich reservoir of bioactive molecules with potential pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications.

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Nutraceutical makers can perform their own testing for safety and purity, but those tests, as well as any purported health benefits, are not required to be independently verified or submitted to the FDA.

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Nutraceutical companies certainly benefit from this confusion.

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The FDA should be empowered to verify nutraceutical products by chemically confirming their ingredients, enforcing recalls and product bans, and maintaining a publicly searchable database of all supplement and nutraceutical health products with their associated ingredients and efficacy studies.

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