Awareness and Usage of Functional Foods among Health Professionals and Adult Subjects

Abstract

Over the last 25 years, man-food relationship particularly focussed on the ability of foods to modulate physiology, biochemistry and provide protection against a range of human diseases and aging process. Science was the basis for identification of active principles in foods and in defining their mechanism of action. Though beliefs and traditions also played a major role. Eastern cultures relied on food prescriptions to treat disorders. Functional foods are foods which contain adequate amount of one or a combination of components which affected the functions in the body so as to have positive cellular or physiological effects and are termed as designer foods, pharma foods, nutritional foods, health foods, nutraceuticals, medical foods, probiotics and phytochemicals.