Nutrition, Well-Being and Health

Book excerpt: In our modern society, expectations are high, also with respect to our daily diet. In addition to being merely "nutritious", i.e. supplying a variety of essential nutrients, including macro-nutrients such as proteins or micro-nutrients such as minerals and vitamins, it is almost expected that a good diet offers further advantages - especially well-being and health and the prevention of chronic diseases, which are, as we generally tend to grow older and older, becoming a burden to enjoying private life and to the entire society. These additional qualities are often sought in diets rich also in non-nutritive components, such as phytochemicals. In contrast to drugs, which are taken especially to cure or ameliorate diseases, it is expected that a healthy diet acts in particular on the side of prevention, allowing us to become old without feeling old. In the present book, rather then trying to give an exhaustive overview on nutritional aspects and their link to well-being and health, selected topics have been chosen, intended to address presently discussed key issues of nutrition for health, presenting a reasonable selection of the manifold topics around diet, well-being, and health: from the antioxidants polyphenols and carotenoids, aroma-active terpenoids, to calcium for bone health, back to traditional Chinese Medicine.