“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” said Hippocrates, the father of medicine.
Two and a half millennia on, the global nutraceutical market today is valued close to US$200 billion, with the Asia-Pacific region accounting for nearly 40% of its demand. Whilst the medicinal properties of certain foods were well reported throughout history and without borders, an explosion of clinical research over the recent decades has helped to further isolate specific nutrients that go hand-in-hand with desirable health benefits.
In Asia Pacific, Japan is the most advanced and largest consumer of nutraceutical products, with China and India following quickly.
South Korea, a trend-setter nation, is also accelerating nutraceutical popularity across the region, and significant growth is seen in Indonesia and Hong Kong.
The marriage of nutrition and pharmaceuticals continues to blur the boundary between meal and medicine, as foods are used to confront the challenge of diseases, and medicinal agents find their way onto the dining table in the form of more palatable, commonplace consumables.
However, whilst medicines have typically been associated with curative interventions, nutraceuticals have also been championed in preventative health, often as dietary supplements that mitigate the risk of disease.
Urbanization, higher life expectancies and dietary changes associated with increasing wealth and globalization are dramatically changing the face and burden of disease in this fast growing region.
Consequently, nutraceutical trends can be found to be sensitive to shifting epidemiological landscapes, which often reflect common health concerns.
In particular, naturally sourced extracts, such as phytochemicals in plants, have received much attention for their cancer preventing, cholesterol reducing, and hormone regulating properties.
They have often been more favourably received than synthetic extracts.
Whilst the number of functional foods and ingredients continue to multiply with novel extracts and subsequent compounding for multi-faceted or synergetic effects, the growth of the sector continues to be driven by consumers who are essentially seeking and purchasing ‘health benefits’.
Here are a few such benefits that will guide the growing market.
Mental health
Commonly known as ‘brain foods’, nutraceuticals boosting mental health have now advanced from emotion regulation ‘mood foods’ to combating more complex clinical disorders.
Traditionally, the blood-brain barrier has been the key challenge, and the emerging nutraceutical market is continuing to offer novel ways to effectively deliver nutrients to the brain past this barrier.
Probiotics for gut health, for example, have been found to have downstream impact on mental health.
Enhancement nutrition, such as those purporting better academic performance, and healthy brain development are also common themes in novel offerings.
As the awareness of mental health increases, so too does the demand for nutraceuticals that mitigate those stressors.
With greater acknowledgement of major depressive disorders and anxiety disorders particularly, and an ever-high prevalence rate for these disorders in the modern youth, mood foods such as green tea and dark chocolate have found new purpose as calming agents to cope with daily stressors, on top of their numerous other benefits as antioxidants.
These are taken to be much more palatable alternatives to antidepressants such as fluoxetine (in Prozac), and without the reported side effects that can discourage adherence.
- Vitamin E
Longer life expectancies, particularly in the Asia Pacific have also introduced greater burdens of typically late-onset degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Vitamin E, a well-researched potent antioxidant, is believed to lend itself particularly to the protection of neurons from cellular degeneration and death from oxidative stress.
These can be found commonly in nutraceutical offerings in the form of vegetable oil-based dressings, or derivations of avocado.
Fish, a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, is also explored as a natural source of health benefits, with docosahexaenoic acid or DHA believed to be an integral regulating factor to the normal functioning of neurons.
Kale, spinach and broccoli are also trending as plant-based sources for these nutrients.
Immune health
Closely linked to mental health, immune systems are complex, and studies have found that cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress, is also an immunosuppressant.
Vitamins A, E and especially C, have long been championed as the keystones to immune health.
Zinc (in lower doses) and Echinacea are also common fortifiers to immune nutrition.
With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Avian Influenza, Swine Influenza and now the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome epidemics fresh in the minds of the region’s population, immune health takes immense precedence in the nutraceutical space, with a focus on defending against localized or specific symptoms, such as fevers, coughs and discharge.
Amongst the newer entrants, elements like selenium have received attention as potent immuno-enhancers, thought to increase killer cell activity and stimulate antibody production.
Consequently, selenium is also thought to be a potential cancer combatant, and is just one of the several anti-disease nutraceuticals to expect in this sub-sector.
Digestive health
It is impossible to ignore intestinal health when considering all of these health benefits, as the site of metabolism and absorption of nutrients.
Ranked top as a daily health interest, gut health is still primarily dominated by probiotics and its synergetic partner, prebiotic fibres.
These live cultures are the mainstream digestive health remedy, and with a more integrated understanding of the body, are expanding beyond their intestinal functions to compound aforementioned immune or mental benefits as well.
Other dietary supplements also focus on compensating digestive enzyme deficiencies.
Whilst digestive health is no stranger to nutraceuticals, it is an ever relevant sub-sector that can expect to see much development in the way of innovative delivery systems for a more targeted and controlled benefit.
Weight wellness
Rapid urbanization and the globalization of western fast foods in Asia Pacific have introduced an increased burden of lifestyle diseases, and especially obesity.
This results to downstream consequences such as the growing risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
The ubiquity of social media and a heightened sensitivity towards body image has also contributed to the massive drive towards low carbohydrate and high protein diets. Typically driven by younger age groups, reductions in refined carbohydrates is a key trend across all forms of nutraceutical foods.
Natural grains such as buckwheat, quinoa, oats and chia seeds (which are seeing particular popularity as a gluten free carbohydrate source) are the current focus trends in carbohydrates.
In proteins, Greek yogurt and sports nutrition have been the main growth medium, mainly attributable to improved offerings in taste and texture, and a greater appreciation of its metabolic properties as being non-conducive to weight gain.
In concordance, cutbacks in consumption quantities have also driven nutraceuticals to increase its range of snack options, maintaining the same ‘low carb, high protein’ natural constituents in smaller portions.
Skin food
The Korean saying that “what is good to eat is good applied (to the skin)” is also experiencing developments on the flip side.
Cosmetic giants such as Shiseido now have their own line of hydrolyzed collagen beverages to help retain the skin’s moisture and improve elasticity.
Several beverages, commonly incorporating plant extracts such as from pomegranate, also purport detoxification benefits that translate into healthier appearances.
With a long shared history of common ingredients between both nutraceuticals and cosmetics, such as coconut and aloe vera extracts, there is much headroom for the further convergence of nutraceuticals in beauty care, with edible make-up and skin purifying offerings for the table.
Child-specific nutraceuticals
A rise in disposable income and wealth over the last generation in the Asia Pacific, particularly in China and Korea, has changed the way in which children’s dietary requirements are met.
With urbanization and the changing dietary landscape of a globalizing, fast-food prevalent environment, Gen-Z are often unable to meet their healthy required intakes of vital nutrients.
Asian parents however, typically display a heightened willingness to spend more to meet these deficiencies, which has resulted in an immense growth in the child-specific nutraceutical sector.
In children’s nutraceuticals, there is a noted emphasis on developmental health and obesity, with childhood obesity shown to reliably predict adulthood obesity and other downstream consequences such as cardiovascular disease.
Developmental and brain health is also collectively a hot topic for emerging products, with nutraceutical snack foods and dietary supplements centralizing around omega-3 fatty acids and DHA (for enhanced memory and intelligence), vitamins D and K (for bone development and disease protection), calcium and fibres (for growth), and probiotics (multi-functional but inherently promote intestinal health and immunity).
In Japan, traditional and oriental ingredients are also well recognized amongst consumers, such as ginko for better performance in school.
A common trend through the children’s sector, however is form; nutraceuticals are delivered in flavoured jelly, smoothie or chewable forms for more palatable consumption and acceptance by children.
Complex early-onset disorders and learning disabilities such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AHAD) are also being addressed at the cutting edge of this sector, as phosphatidylserine (PS), a naturally occurring phospholipid extracted from soy, showed that ADHD symptoms and short-term memory in children were improved with ingestion.
Similarly, atopic dermatitis (AD), a common concern in Asia Pacific that seems to be increasing in prevalence with rising urbanization and environmental pollution, is found to be alleviated through the ingestion of certain probiotics at infancy.
Aging
At the other end of the continuum, we have ‘orthomolecular medicines’, coined by two-time nobel prize winner, Linus Pauling, to mean the provision of specific amounts of nutrients for the body to repair itself.
This is particularly relevant to the elderly and geriatric sector, with life expectancies increasing markedly across the region in response to better healthcare, increased affordability and accessibility, and improved food and water hygiene.
Consequently, the next major concern for this population is, as commonly held amongst specialists, that “if we all lived to be old enough, we would all be senile”.
As the epidemiological landscape changes to increase a greater burden of degenerative diseases in the aging population, nutraceutical food can be expected to follow.
Major focuses in this sub-sector concentrate on reducing oxidative stress and enhancing detoxification processes that delay most degenerative processes underlying these diseases.
As aforementioned, Vitamin E, and Omega-3 fatty acids are regarded as critical components here, also, and are foundational as detoxifying and antioxidant supplements to maintain regular healthy function.
Other efforts in this sector include personal care for the aging, such as Kewpie Corporation’s Hyaluronan, found to increase skin moisture and mitigate facial aging symptoms such as luster, suppleness and wrinkles, with regular ingestion.
Free-from
Finally, it is important to note that many of these trends indicate that nutraceuticals are as much about their constituents as they are about their purposeful omissions.
Foods that are gluten-free, sugar-free, allergen-free, fat-free, and additive-free, provide health-conscious consumers with healthy alternatives to identified risks to health.
A further diversification of these ‘free-from’ foods to replace less-than-healthy ingredients with nutraceutical ingredients without sacrificing flavor, can be expected, with much of the sector still showing a smaller range of offerings than its traditional counterparts.
Consumer preferences again lean towards naturally healthy ingredients over synthetic additives, and thus the most major challenge for the ‘free-from’ nutraceuticals will be to deliver these natural ingredients in a stable and uncompromising form and flavour.
Conclusion
The expansion of the nutraceutical market continues to be accelerated by innovative delivery systems that diversify the way in which functional ingredients can be stably implemented into commonplace food forms.
There is scope for reliable growth to further bring what has traditionally been the domain of pharmaceuticals to the dining table, addressing everything from cancer to jetlag.
In Asia Pacific, whilst increasingly wealthy consumers show willingness to purchase premium-priced nutraceuticals, raw material instability, price fluctuations, and the absence of a common functional and health regulatory system continue to destabilize consumer trust.
There is much headroom for consolidation in the industry, particularly for traditional herbal extracts and plant extracts, which can be expected to improve traceability and regulatory control of the supply chain, effectively establishing novel nutraceuticals from a ‘fad’ to a sector of its own.
Food producers who are thus able to effectively address these unmet concerns are in a position to take advantage of the potential growth of the Asia-Pacific nutraceutical sector, which continues to look for dietary solutions to their modern health needs.
Story by Michael Kim, consulting analyst, Chemicals, Materials & Foods, Frost & Sullivan, Asia Pacific
