Nutraceuticals Phytochemicals Functional Foods Functional foods have broadened the scope of nutrition, health promotion, and disease prevention as scientists investigate the role of properties contained in foods and their relationship to health. Many of today's studies reach beyond the role that vitamins and minerals play in diet to researching the effects and metabolism of non-nutritive components of foods, known as phytochemicals in the hope that properties contained in these substances contribute to disease prevention and health protection. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, show a 12.4 percent decrease in serum cholesterol levels of subjects fed walnuts as a part of their diets. The diet was broken down into three week periods with different nuts being fed in each period. In the last week 68 g of polyunsaturated fatty acid-rich walnuts were used to supplement the diet.
Walnuts fit the bill.
The percentage of monounsaturated fats and saturated fats are 18 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Walnuts offer other functional benefits. They are high in fiber, low in sodium, and contain about 14.1 grams of protein per 100 grams of edible portion, most of which is digestible. Walnuts can easily be combined with other ingredients to yield a complete protein quotient. Two fatty acids, alpha-linolenic acid, and linoleic acid are required in our diets because the body cannot manufacture them from dietary precursors.