a bstract background: during women lives, frequently face the challenge of calcium reduction and absorption. decreased calcium absorption followed by a decrease in estrogen at premenopausal ages, low average per capita calcium intake among women, wrong nutritional behavior, and household income reductions and make them more susceptible to osteoporosis and related complications. the aim of this ...

One of the most pressing challenges for the next 50 years is to reduce the impact of chronic disease. Unhealthy eating is an increasing problem and underlies much of the increase in mortality from chronic diseases that is occurring worldwide. Diets rich in plant-based foods are strongly associated with reduced risks of major chronic diseases, but the constituents in plants that promote health h...

Consumers began to view food from a radically different vantage point in the 1990s. This 'changing face' of food has evolved into an exciting area of the food and nutrition sciences known as functional foods. Functional foods can be defined as those providing health benefits beyond basic nutrition and include whole, fortified, enriched or enhanced foods which have a potentially beneficial effec...

The functional foods concept started in Japan in the early 1980s with the launch of three large-scale government-funded research programs on systematic analyses and development of functional foods, analyses of physiological regulation of the functional food and analyses of functional foods and molecular design (Ashwell 2002; Pravst et al. 2010). In 1991, in an effort to reduce the escalating co...

Role of diet beyond basic nutrition in supporting health and prevention of diseases has been clearly established. This has led to the development of a different category of foods called functional foods. Secondary metabolites present in these foods have a role in preventing life threatening chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, arthritis, cancer as well...

In dentistry, there is a well-established practice of fluoridating water, salt and milk for the prevention of dental caries. The use of other foods to promote oral health is another step in the same direction, and the development of research into adding therapeutic benefit to food is welcome. As the mouth is at the beginning of the gastrointestinal tract, the potential to capture oral health be...

The growth of the organic foods industry in the United States has been dramatic in the past 2 decades. It is estimated that organic sales have increased by nearly 20% annually since 1990, with consumer sales reaching $13.8 billion in 2005 (Figure 1). While initial organic food production primarily involved small farms and local distribution of fresh produce, today’s organic food system is a com...

The agro-food industry is developing a “second generation” of genetically modified ~GM! foods that can offer functional health benefits to consumers+ Many consumers, however, are turning to organic foods in order to avoid GM foods+ This report attempts to differentiate consumer valuation of functional health properties in conventional, organic, and GM foods+ A representative sample of 1,008 Can...

It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to recognize that although all foods provide some level of physiological function, the term functional foods is defined as whole foods along with fortified, enriched, or enhanced foods that have a potentially beneficial effect on health when consumed as part of a varied diet on a regular basis at effective levels based on significant ...