Dietary Supplements and Functional Foods: Processing Effects and Health Benefits

Functional foods and dietary supplements are classified as nutraceuticals, which is an umbrella term used to describe food products that have purported health or medical benefits. These benefits might include improving cardiovascular health, and prevention or treatment of diseases. Functional foods are ingredients that offer health benefits that extend beyond their nutritional value. They may be enriched or fortified to restore preprocessed nutrient levels such as in the case of enriched flour. The primary purpose of functional foods may be to improve the nutritional quality of otherwise nutrient-deficient foods or to resolve public health issues such as deficiency of vitamin D in milk or iodine in regular salt. Food supplements are concentrated sources of nutrients such as minerals and vitamins, or other substances, with a nutritional or physiological effect. These are marketed in dose form that includes pills, tablets, capsules, and liquids in measured doses. The book aims to shed light on some of the unexplored aspects of functional foods and dietary supplements and the recent researches on them. A number of latest researches have been included to keep the readers up-to-date with the global concepts in this area of study.