Foods include nutrition that are necessary for human to normal development and growth, continue their life events. According to recent studies foods not only supply nutrition need but also have a basic role of regulating body functions and preventing diseases.
Foods have maily 3 functions as alimentative, sensate and physiological. Although, each foods have alimentative and sensate functions, a few foods have physiological functions. But with a recent technological processes, foods can be made have physiological functions. With the other words, functional foods can be obtained by changing their nutritional compositions, removing or decreasing harmful components, and increasing or adding useful components during/after their production.
Some terms such as health foods, nutraceuticals, regulator foods and pharmacological foods are also used instead of functional foods. Many specialist determine functional foods as ” Foods that both have nutritional properties and include useful substances which have good effects on human health.” The International Food Information Council (IFIC) determines the functional foods as “ Besides their basic nutritional property, foods that can supply benefits to human health.”
There are some reasons of using functional foods so common. These are;
- Rapid developments in science and technology.
- Increasing treatment cost
- Aging society
- Consumers awakening about the relationship between health and foods.
Health is very important for every people, also foods are basic elements in our life. For more healthy life; we believe functional foods will be more popular and common than today.
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