Functional foods are extremely beneficial components found naturally in foods or added to the regular diet which include secondary metabolites, prebiotics, probiotics, synbiotics in addition to the usual vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Functional food ingredients contain biologically beneficial carotenoids, fatty acids, flavonoids, betalains, phenols, phenolic acids, phytosterols, alkaloids...

The relationship between diet and cancer has advanced in recent years, but much remains to be understood with respect to diet and dietary components in cancer risk and prevention. Evidence from clinical trial outcomes, epidemiological observations, preclinical models and cell culture systems have all provided clues about the biology of cancer prevention. Sequencing of the human genome has opene...

“Omics” based sciences have been recently acquiring significant attraction by the scientific community. Diet and dietary constituents have shown an impact on human health and in the areas such as the nutrition, nutrient-gene interaction, nutritional biomarkers and some nonessential nutrients and bioactive food components that can alter genetic and epigenetic events in the human body. The nutrie...

Cherries, and in particular sweet cherries, are a nutritionally dense food rich in anthocyanins, quercetin, hydroxycinnamates, potassium, fiber, vitamin C, carotenoids, and melatonin. UV concentration, degree of ripeness, postharvest storage conditions, and processing, each can significantly alter the amounts of nutrients and bioactive components. These constituent nutrients and bioactive food ...

Vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, stroke or myocardial infarction are a significant public health problem worldwide. Attempts to prevent vascular diseases often imply modifications and improvement of causative risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity, an unfavorable profile of blood lipids or insulin resistance. In addition to numerous preventive and therapeutic drug regimens,...

The nutrients are able to interact with molecular mechanisms and modulate the physiological functions in the body. The Nutritional Genomics focuses on the interaction between bioactive food components and the genome, which includes Nutrigenetics and Nutrigenomics. The influence of nutrients on f genes expression is called Nutrigenomics, while the heterogeneous response of gene variants to nutri...

Bioactive peptides either present in foods or released from food proteins during digestion have a wide range of physiological effects, including on gut function. Many of the bioactive peptides characterized to date that influence gut motility, secretion, and absorption are opioid agonists or antagonists. The authors review a body of experimental evidence that demonstrates an effect of peptides ...

Nutrition is the main living reason for all of the societies of the world. Food supply should be both an economic and ecological subject. Health and nutrition involve balanced and sufficient functional food components. Sufficient daily calorie intake is the main problem of developing countries. The people cannot supply an adequate intake of essential food compounds such as proteins containing e...