All quiet on the antioxidant front. (From the Editor).Antioxidants Antioxidants Substances that reduce the damage of the highly reactive free radicals that are the byproducts of the cells. Mentioned in: Aging, Nutritional Supplements antioxidants, n. have been a mainstay in the A nutraceuticals world for quite some time. However, consumer confusion and lack of clear testing standards still plague the industry. As a result of these challenges, perhaps it is no surprise that sales of antioxidants in 2002 decreased more than $20 million in the mainstream channel. The good news is that consumers are very familiar with the word antioxidant--which is more than I can say for the words nutraceutical or functional foods--the bad news is that they know little beyond that. It is a difficult proposition for consumers to have to wade through the numerous dietary supplements Noun 1. dietary supplement - something added to complete a diet or to make up for a dietary deficiency diet - a prescribed selection of foods vitamin pill - a pill containing one or more vitamins; taken as a dietary supplement calling themselves antioxidants and ask them to choose one that suits their needs. In most cases these days consumers would rather walk away with nothing. Another issue is testing methods. While ORAC ORAC Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity ORAC Orgone Accumulator ORAC Oracle 9i Real Application Clusters ORAC Osceola Resort Area Council ORAC Oracle Real Application Cluster seems to be emerging as a very popular method of assessing antioxidant antioxidant, substance that prevents or slows the breakdown of another substance by oxygen. Synthetic and natural antioxidants are used to slow the deterioration of gasoline and rubber, and such antioxidants as vitamin C (ascorbic acid), butylated hydroxytoluene capacity, it may not be suitable in all cases because as Carotech's W.H. Leong points out in this month's feature on antioxidants (page 32), there is no one antioxidant testing method that is applicable to all antioxidants. "There are two groups of antioxidants--water-soluble and fat-soluble. Both of these groups of antioxidants work in different parts of the cell," he explained. "It is wrong to compare these two groups of antioxidants and say one is better than the other if the testing method is skewed skewed curve of a usually unimodal distribution with one tail drawn out more than the other and the median will lie above or below the mean. skewed Epidemiology adjective Referring to an asymmetrical distribution of a population or of data toward one particular group." Activity on the antioxidant front has clearly waned and until industry comes together to educate the public on several levels, consumers will continue to walk away from the market. One segment that is not feeling so much pain is the pet nutraceuticals market. Humans are becoming increasingly motivated to care for their pets as they would themselves. This trend has led to a lot of crossover for several ingredient companies serving the human supplement and food market. For the future, depending on regulations, there will be a lot more product launches in the pet area. A product containing omega 3's, green lipped mussel mussel, edible freshwater or marine bivalve mollusk. Mussels are able to move slowly by means of the muscular foot. They feed and breathe by filtering water through extensible tubes called siphons; a large mussel filters 10 gal (38 liters) of water per day. and glucosamine glucosamine /glu·co·sa·mine/ (gloo-ko´sah-men) an amino derivative of glucose, occurring in glycosaminoglycans and a variety of complex polysaccharides such as blood group substances. will become more the norm than a novelty. For more information on the pet nutraceuticals market see our Healthy Trends On Pet Nutrition article on page 68. Rebecca Madley - Wright |
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