Eating, Drinking Your Way To A Healthy Life

farmeric September 13th, 2009

Eating, Drinking Your Way To A Healthy Life

An interview with Dr. Maxima Flavier of UPLB
By VIRGINIA ANN BURGOS

A HEALTHY lifestyle today is associated with the use of natural compounds derived from food crops. Nutraceuticals, the food substances that provide medical or health benefits including prevention and treatment of diseases, and cosmeceuticals, substances that bank on natural ingredients to enhance beauty, are the emerging trend in health and wellness, especially in the US and in Europe.

The use of traditional components is not new to Filipinos. Long before researches on nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals were undertaken, traditional herbs were already being used as health remedies, especially in the rural areas. Some of the most common herbs used in the rural areas include banaba, for urinary tract infection, lagundi, commonly used as expectorant but also has many benefits, and ginger, for arthritis, these herbs are now being developed for commercial consumption by other pharmaceutical companies.

The utilization of natural medicines is one of the advocacies of Dr. Maxima Flavier, director of the Institute of Chemistry (IC) at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños (UPLB). “I prefer to use traditional natural products; you get them by eating their sources,” she told Biolife as she discussed the benefits of natural products like rice bran and siling labuyo.

Dr. Flavier was also the co-adviser of a study undertaken by IC on the health and medicinal benefits of rice bran as an angiogenic. Before this, she stayed in Japan for a year as a visiting professor conducting research on the effective utilization of rice bran.

Their study in UPLB showed that rice bran contains Phytosterols. Phytosterols are now being incorporated in the production of food and beverage, as studies have showed that they help prevent heart diseases by reducing the level of bad cholesterol since they block the absorption of dietary cholesterol into the bloodstream.

“By eating unpolished rice, you get to eat the rice bran with the grain. Polishing it removes the rice bran,” Dr. Flavier said.

“We have lots of rice bran lying around and not utilized.” She says that the reason rice bran is not widely used is that it be comes rancid if it is not stabilized and becomes unpalatable. “You have to remove the lyphase in the bran so it will not become rancid,” Dr. Flavier adds.

“This is what we should be concentrating on, the health benefits of substances in our food crops.”

Their studies also showed that rice bran contains Y-Oryzanol, which contains anti-oxidant, and promotes skin capillary circulation. It is also claimed that Y-Oryzanol can prevent bone loss. According to their research, rice bran also contains anti-cancer components and properties for the management of kidney and gall bladder stones, as well as blood regulation and stimulation, and most of all, regeneration of liver cell.

As far as cosmeceuticals is concerned, in the UPLB Institute of Chemistry’s recent studies, siling labuyo (Capsicum frutescens) is showing a lot of potential since it contains anti-aging components like antioxidants, which are capable of metabolizing free radicals in the body that can cause cell death.

In the days of yore, siling labuyo, also known as chili pepper, was utilized to ease arthritis and rheumatism, and is an effective medication for flatulence, dyspepsia and toothache.

Phytochemicals are what people need to stay healthy. These are chemical compounds found in fruits, vegetables and other plant species. The phytochemicals present in siling labuyo are carotenoids (for prevention of cell damage during oxidation) and phenolic acids (for protection against coronary heart diseases and certain cancers).

People enamored with healthy lifestyles need to learn the rules on how to prevent diseases and how to eat your way to a disease-free life, A healthy lifestyle does not mean shelling out a bundle of money. Health, beauty and wellness can be achieved through proper diet and the use of natural organic products.

As cited by Dr. Flavier, healthy options include the intake of traditional components from their sources. Fruits and vegetables need not to be processed if they can be derived directly from their original sources. “This is what we should be concentrating on, the health benefits of substances in our food crops,” she concludes.