What are bioactives?
You may not have heard of bioactives but you probably eat them every day. Bioactives are naturally occurring compounds in foods that can influence biological processes in the body.
In plant foods, they include a wide range of compounds that are produced as plants grow, defend themselves, attract pollinators, respond to stress, and interact with their environments. When humans eat fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts, seeds, herbs, legumes, and other plant foods, we also consume many of these bioactives.
Bioactives are different from essential nutrients. Vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and water are required for growth, survival, and basic bodily function. Bioactives are not usually classified as essential in the same way. In plants, many of these compounds help respond to environmental pressures such as ultraviolet radiation, microbes, insects, drought, cold, injury, and competition. Others contribute to colour, aroma, flavour, signalling, and reproduction. When humans eat plant foods, these same bioactives can interact with our own biological systems, influencing processes linked to healthy ageing, immune function, inflammation, vascular health, metabolic regulation, gut microbial activity, cellular stress responses, and other systems that shape wellbeing over time.
Some bioactives are already familiar, even if the words themselves might not be. Polyphenols, flavonoids, carotenoids, glucosinolates, organosulfur compounds, phytosterols, and prebiotic fibres are all examples of bioactive compounds found in plant foods. They help give plants their colours, aromas, flavours, textures, bitterness, pungency, and protective qualities. The deep red and purple colours of berries, the orange of carrots and pumpkin, the sharpness of onions and garlic, the bitterness of some leafy greens, the aroma of herbs, and the distinctive flavour of broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables are all connected to plant chemistry.
The most important thing to understand is not the scientific names of individual bioactives. It is that plant foods are bioactive.
Our goal is for more Australians to recognise that plant foods are active, diverse, and worth eating regularly. Their value lies in diversity, regularity, freshness, preparation, culture, enjoyment, and the many small exposures that accumulate across a lifetime of eating.
Comments