Functional Food - Functional Food - Open Access Pub

The notion that foods have health promotion effects beyond their nutritional value has been increasingly accepted in recent years, and the specific effects of nutrition prevention on disease have led to the discovery of functional foods. Functional foods are products that contain various biologically active compounds and which, consumed in a current diet, contribute to maintaining the optimal state of physical, mental and mental health of the population. Functional foods are consumed in the normal diet and contain biologically active compounds with potential to improve health or to reduce the risk of disease. The objectives of this review are to highlight the strengths of functional foods. DOI10.14302/issn.2379-7835.ijn-19-2615 The term was introduced for the first time in Japan in the mid-1980s, and since then the functional food market has been steadily developing, reaching over $ 21.3 billion in the United States over the past years and over $ 8 billion in Europe.1 Some the functional foods have been known since antiquity and are the traditionally consumed for their the health benefits. Many of them of the biological active substances they contain have been identified and characterized only in not long past years. 2 A category of functional foods are probiotics, used for thousands of years, and whose health benefits have been proven over time. Although studied by Elie Metchinikoff at the beginning of the last century, research has increased in the past 20 years, with the number of scientific studies rising to over 600 per year.2 In recent decades, the assumption that proper nutrition is one of the main factors behind the person's well-being is scientifically proven. The modern consumer is more and more aware that "man is what he eats," and has begun looking for alternative and varied answers, depending on age and sex, in terms of nutrition science.3 Proper and balanced nutrition is based on both quality and quantity food consumption in order to meet the energy and nutritional needs without causing any health risks. Unfortunately, the modern diet is only "apparently" rich in the sense that, on the one hand, the amount of food has increased, while the other diet has decreased its quality.4 To appease hunger is a totally different thing to feed! The quality deficiency of the modern foods stems from the need to provide food to as many people as possible, quickly and quickly. The foods in this way suffer different manipulations to meet the needs to offer immediately but also be merchant: the product has to last a long time in spite of transportation,