"Functional" foods are branded foods, which claim, explicitly or implicitly, to improve health or well being. We review typical functional foods and their ingredients, efficacy, and safety. We also review regulations for health claims for foods worldwide. These regulations often allow manufacturers to imply that a food promotes health without providing proper scientific evidence. At the same ti...

Legumes and pulses have long been a part of traditional diets in Asia, Africa and South America, which include most of the world's developing countries. More than 1,000 species of legumes are known to be grown1. Of these, only 20 or so have been cultivated for use as food. They have been consumed as a rich source of protein supplementing the cereal or tuber-based diets and have an important rol...

Linkages between diet habits and the quality of life continue to surface on numerous fronts. Collectively these epidemiological, pre-clinical and clinical studies provide rather compelling evidence that numerous essential and non-essential dietary components are capable of influencing growth, development and performance and disease prevention. Scientific discoveries and widespread interest in t...

A promising approach to improving health care would be to produce a healthier food supply as a preventive health care strategy. The food supply could be improved by producing functional foods that have nutritional profiles that are healthier than conventional products. However, production of functional foods is not always easily accomplished since they must also taste good, be convenient and re...

Nutritionally beneficial compounds naturally present in vegetable lipids will be subject of this minireview. This article will discuss lipidic compounds from less known vegetable sources and potential advantages of its incorporation into human diet as a functional ingredient.

It is easier to demonstrate the consistent effects of foods on satiety than on cognitive performance. This is understandable since the satiety system incorporates physiological signalling systems that mediate the effects of foods on function. Specific manipulations of proteins, carbohydrates and fats have the potential to act as functional foods for appetite control. Because of the importance o...

The aim of this work is to make an overview on the emerging technologies and traditionally used to develop functional foods. In this way, we classified the technologies used in three main groups and analyzed the research tendency since the year 2000 until now. Thus, while traditional techniques are the most commonly used for development of functional foods, from years 2000 until 2010 the techni...

Numerous studies have sought to demonstrate the possibility of changing the image of meat and meat products from the traditionally accepted image to one of healthy living thanks to the addition (vegetables, extracts, fibers, and so forth), elimination (fats), and reduction (additives) of different ingredients. This article presents a revision of studies published in recent years on the topic an...

Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com genetically or by other conventional means to provide the desired function. In last decades a lot of emphasis is given to designer foods mainly developed to deliver the nutritional and Functional foods and nutraceuticals provide a means to reduce the increasing cost on the health care system by a continuous preventive mechanism. The interest in func...

The aim of this special issue is to provide a foundation on which further research for the development of compounds from food as possible candidates for improving oral health could be based. The maintenance of oral health can be invariably achieved by manipulating the oral microbiota toward a population of mixed species that is less likely to induce diseases such as gingivitis or caries. Dental...