Teleology of Nutraceuticals
Understanding the purpose or teleology of lycopene for tomatoes and isoflavones for soy can help scientists predict potential physiological effects upon humans and perhaps as important predict the potential for toxicity and where to look for signs.
Abstract
As we begin to make our way into the 21st century one thing is crystal clear–nutraceuticals and functional foods will continue to develop into one of the most important nutrition applications to human health, perhaps ever. Certainly for centuries now we have believed that components of various foods can have prophylactic and/or healing properties. However, it is at this point in our existence that we can actually identify and isolate compounds and test their efficacy. While information from investigations involving humans and other mammals is truly noble, scientists can not overlook the information available from the food source itself. For example, understanding the purpose or teleology of lycopene for tomatoes and isoflavones for soy can help scientists predict potential physiological effects upon humans and perhaps as important predict the potential for toxicity and where to look for signs. At times it seems that we overlook the fact that most plant and animal species existing today were on this planet before man or they inhabit a region whereby there is typically no contact with man or his