Bioactives – Nature’s Pharmacy

The Gene Smart Program focuses on three categories of bioactives: fiber, omega fatty acids, and polyphenols.

Our new understanding of bioactives, together with advances in the field of gene-based nutrition, will revolutionize how we think about food and medicine. We are one step closer to understanding how the foods we eat, and those we avoid, can help to treat and prevent many of the most devastating chronic diseases affecting humankind.

What is a Bioactive?

Bioactive compounds:

• Typically occur in small amounts in foods
• Are not nutrients, in the classical sense; that is, they typically are not essential for life, a fundamental criterion for a nutrient
• Influence physiological or cellular activities, usually resulting in a beneficial health effect
• Modify disease risk, rather than preventing deficiency diseases
• Act as inducers and inhibitors of enzymes, inhibitors of receptor activity, and inducers and inhibitors of gene expression
• Can mimic an adaptive stress response in animals and humans when ingested

A Note About the Omegas

One of the definitions of the bioactives is that technically, we don’t need them. That’s not really true about the omega fatty acids known as long-chain omegas. We do need them, and not getting enough of them in our diets leads to a deficiency.  These omega fats do have a powerful impact on gene expression, though. So for the purpose of the program, they are classified as bioactives.