Emerging roles of nutraceuticals from selected fermented foods in lifestyle-related disease prevention

Abstract

Recently, with rapid progress in scientific research, increasing health-care costs, changing food habits, aging population, and elevated risk of toxicity or side effects of drugs consumers are interested to intake food supplements to improve or maintain good health. Nutraceuticals are natural active compounds that can be defined as a food/or part of a food that offer medical or health benefits, including the prevention and/or treatment of a disease. Fermented foods, notably soy products, barley, and rice bran are enriched with nutraceuticals like phytochemicals, dietary fibers, and antioxidant compounds (polyphenols). Lactic acid bacteria and yeast are the major microorganisms that are used for the fermentation process which may confer the bioavailability of nutrients and enrich the food with bioactive compounds. Nutraceutical products have chemoprotective, antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and immune-modulatory properties. Thus, nutraceuticals are of special interest in research, since many studies in vitro as well as in vivo show evidence on the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, cancer, and neurodegeneration disease. Finally, this review summarizes the recent studies regarding nutraceuticals consumption from several fermented foods and their health benefits.