Not food, not medicine: The limbo world of nutraceuticals

Modern day nutraceuticals occupy a muddled conceptual and regulatory space between foods and medicines. While some are clearly intended to have medicinal effects, nutraceuticals are rarely tested with the same rigor as pharmaceuticals or proven to be as effective for disease treatment. Other nutraceuticals aspire to be “super-foods,” allegedly providing missing elements of nutrition that are not readily delivered through the consumption of regular diets. The safety and effectiveness of such products have not been well-established and few can be said to truly move the needle on disease prevention or other health and wellness measures. For these and other reasons, nutraceuticals have failed to inspire consumer confidence and are treated with relative disdain by the general medical and scientific communities. Ironically, these negative perceptions have not prevented the nutraceutical industry from generating a rapidly growing, multi-billion-dollar per-annum market. This suggests that there is a very real but unmet need for more effective health and wellness products. Fortunately, new conceptual approaches and technological advances have created a potential turning point in the evolution of nutraceuticals. In particular, enhanced analytic and manufacturing methods that foster ensemble effects through the standardization of multiple bioactive constituents in complex food extracts have the potential to capture the health benefits associated with foods while delivering the disease-altering effects of pharmaceuticals. Nutraceuticals created by this approach can alter how we treat and prevent human diseases in unique and meaningful ways but face an uphill battle in terms of commercialization owing to the many false claims and regulatory hurdles that exist in the current nutraceutical marketplace.