Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, the chemical diversity of foods has become a point of interest in the new paradigm of health and longevity. It is now realized that foods that are rich in phytochemicals can prevent diseases by providing antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, among others. In essence, studies that describe antioxidant teas, polyphenol-rich vegetables and grains, anti-inflammatory terpenes and prebiotic non-starch polysaccharides are highlighting foods that can prevent lifestyle diseases if they are included in the diet over the long term.

The modern human diet is generally deficient in phytochemicals, particularly in developed nations that subsist on processed staple food diets. This is because, over the course of thousands of years, human selection of agriculture hybrids has created staple crops that give high yields of nutrient-deficient carbohydrate-rich organs that are sweet tasting but unfortunately obesogenic. Hence, modern diets promote cardiovascular disorders that intensify over generations with the accumulation of epigenetic changes. The scientific community is now encouraging a new human diet that puts the phytochemical diversity back into foods to counter the grim prognosis of the human species.

There are several exciting new food technology developments that are taking shape in commerce in the form of wild crop relatives or traditional foods. Fortunately, ‘wild foods’ that are utilized in traditional societies have not been subjected to the same selective breeding as familiar agricultural breeds, so their chemical diversity is maintained. Hence, as previously mentioned, chemical studies of traditional foods and beverages, their anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticoagulant, and prebiotic effects are positive reinforcement of the potential to prevent disease progression.

We encourage submission of papers that will help to build on the growing body of research on chemically diverse foods to enrich the world’s palate of healthy alternatives that may, one day, take shape in a commercial setting.

Prof. Dr. Ben-Erik Van Wyk
Dr. Nicholas J. Sadgrove
Guest Editors

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• antioxidant
• polyphenol
• total phenolics
• anti-inflammatory
• prebiotic
• anticoagulant