Nutritional Hormesis in a Modern Environment

Nutrition is a powerful determinant of health and well-being. In the modern environment where energy-rich foods are prevalent, challenges exist to improve diets that will provide an appropriate energy density while maintaining the required nutritional value. A recent concept in nutrition is that components of food which are not abundant in the diet may exert a regulatory effect on physiological and biological processes. Some of these components appear to act as hormetins, i.e., they exert a mild stress and in turn elicit and adaptive response that offers greater health advantages than the stress itself. Therefore, nutritional hormesis play a vital role in the modern aging population by modulating the susceptibility to diseases. Adequate and appropriate dietary levels of hormetic phytochemicals; polyphenols, carotenoids, sulforaphane, and other bioactive compounds have been recognized as activators of intracellular signaling cascades and modifiers of gene expression with health benefits. Research to date has focused on individual hormetins in isolation, however, the bioavailability, bioaccessibility, and potential for interaction of these compounds in combination through acting on distinct intracellular signaling pathways are of significance in the human body. As the modern world's population ages chronologically, yet biologically at different rates, it is increasingly important to understand how nutrition and hormetins within the diet could reduce risk for age-associated disease. Further work is needed in the field of nutrigenomics to identify the key biochemical targets that are modifiable by hormetins.