Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals - Hardcover

by Rotimi E. Aluko (Author)

"Functional food or medicinal food is any fresh or processed food claimed to have a health-promoting and/or disease-preventing property beyond the basic nutritional function of supplying nutrients, although there is no consensus on an exact definition of the term.

This is an emerging field in food science, in which such foods are usually accompanied by health claims for marketing purposes, such as a company's 'cereal is a significant source of fiber. Studies have shown that an increased amount of fiber in one's diet can decrease the risk of certain types of cancer in individuals.'

Functional foods are sometimes called nutraceuticals, a portmanteau of nutrition and pharmaceutical, and can include food that has been genetically modified. The general category includes processed food made from functional food ingredients, or fortified with health-promoting additives, like "vitamin-enriched" products, and also fresh foods (e.g., vegetables) that have specific claims attached. Fermented foods with live cultures are often also considered to be functional foods with probiotic benefits."

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This book provides a mechanistic approach to explaining the health benefits associated with food-derived nutrients. Divided into two parts, the first part discusses the influence of the major food nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids) on the metabolic processes that are involved in human chronic diseases. For example, the potential of carbohydrates to reduce cholesterol absorption and enhance colonization of the lower intestinal tract by beneficial organisms, the ability of proteins to reduce blood pressure and oxidative stress, enhance mineral bioavailability, and down-regulate the carcinogenesis process, and the fact that lipids serve as critical substrates for the production of cellular hormones that suppress various inflammatory pathways, are all addressed. Polyphenols, potent antioxidants and anti-atherogenic compounds that scavenge free radicals and prevent lipid peroxidation, are also covered. The second part discusses in detail specific functional foods, such as fish, soybean, milk, tea, fruits and vegetable, coffee, chocolates that influence various physiological pathways involved in health promotion.

Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals is an especially useful tool for undergraduate and graduate students interested in understanding the role of nutrients in health promotion and disease prevention. In addition, researchers and policy makers in the life sciences will also find the book to be an invaluable source of information for a detailed understanding of the impact of nutrients and foods on metabolic pathways.

Dr. Rotimi Aluko has earned a PhD in Food Chemistry from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada and is currently a Professor of Human Nutritional Sciences at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. He has continued to maintain an active research program on functional foods with an emphasis on food protein-derived bioactive peptides.

Author Biography

Dr. Rotimi Aluko has earned a PhD in Food Chemistry from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada and is currently a Professor of Human Nutritional Sciences at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. He has continued to maintain an active research program on functional foods with an emphasis on food protein-derived bioactive peptides.