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11.1 Introduction
Until relatively recently, people got their food directly from nature. It is only in the
last hundred years that technology has taken the lead and we have developed an
unlimited number of food products from the original foods. The modern concept of
functional food is thought to have been conceived in Japan 25 years ago, but the
understanding of food as a medicine is certainly not of recent date. The father of
medicine, Hippocrates, put this hypothesis back 2500 years ago, and ancient Eastern
civilizations traditionally associate certain foods with specific effects on health. Yet
the philosophy of “food as medicine” was unfairly neglected during the nineteenth
century due to the dawn of modern drug therapy. The important role of nutrition in
disease prevention and health promotion comes to the fore again in the early twentieth century. This era was marked by many revolutionary discoveries, such as the
discovery of vitamins and numerous diseases that arose as a result of deficiencies in
certain nutrients. Nutrients added to a staple food can increase the intake of a particular nutrient even at the level of the entire population (Devcich et al. 2007). It was
the enrichment of food with key nutrients in the early twentieth century that was
responsible for eradicating diseases such as goiter, rickets, beriberi, and pellagra. In
the 1970s, the focus of interest shifted sharply from nutrient deficiencies to overweight. The beginnings of a “society of abundance” that has its roots in that age are
being felt in full swing today. The numbers speak for themselves – an average of
30–50% of the Western population is overweight, and all indications are that we are
heading toward a global obesity epidemic (Benkouider 2004). During the 1970s and
1980s, a whole range of physiologically active substances of plant and animal origin
(phytochemicals and zoochemicals) were identified, with potentially beneficial
effects on the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases (Roberfroid 2002;
Niva 2007).
Today, people are increasingly consuming food, counting on its ingredients,
which are found in small quantities and which can have a beneficial effect on health
(Devcich et al. 2007). Such ingredients are called biologically active components of
food. The quality of these substances is not measured by their quantitative presence
but by the level of ability to neutralize the effects of harmful substances in the
human body during their biological activity. All biologically active components differ from each other both in chemical structure and in function in the organism.
Some of these ingredients include vitamins and minerals, carotenoids, phenolic
compounds, flavonoids, phytosterols, isoflavones, enzymes, tannins, glycosides,
alkaloids, and others. All these substances, ingested in adequate quantities, can have
a beneficial effect on health and on various systems in the body such as gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, endocrine, nervous, immune. and others (Devcich et al. 2007).
On the other hand, these food ingredients can influence the course of prevention
and treatment of many diseases, such as modern diseases of the metabolic syndrome, cancer, or diseases caused by nutrient deficiency or deficiency. Thus, foods
that contain protective factors (milk, probiotics, whey, white chicken, fish meat and
omega-3 fatty acids, liver, dark green and yellow vegetables, citrus fruits, whole
V. I. Petropulos and B. Balabanova
11.1 Introduction
Until relatively recently, people got their food directly from nature. It is only in the
last hundred years that technology has taken the lead and we have developed an
unlimited number of food products from the original foods. The modern concept of
functional food is thought to have been conceived in Japan 25 years ago, but the
understanding of food as a medicine is certainly not of recent date. The father of
medicine, Hippocrates, put this hypothesis back 2500 years ago, and ancient Eastern
civilizations traditionally associate certain foods with specific effects on health. Yet
the philosophy of “food as medicine” was unfairly neglected during the nineteenth
century due to the dawn of modern drug therapy. The important role of nutrition in
disease prevention and health promotion comes to the fore again in the early twentieth century. This era was marked by many revolutionary discoveries, such as the
discovery of vitamins and numerous diseases that arose as a result of deficiencies in
certain nutrients. Nutrients added to a staple food can increase the intake of a particular nutrient even at the level of the entire population (Devcich et al. 2007). It was
the enrichment of food with key nutrients in the early twentieth century that was
responsible for eradicating diseases such as goiter, rickets, beriberi, and pellagra. In
the 1970s, the focus of interest shifted sharply from nutrient deficiencies to overweight. The beginnings of a “society of abundance” that has its roots in that age are
being felt in full swing today. The numbers speak for themselves – an average of
30–50% of the Western population is overweight, and all indications are that we are
heading toward a global obesity epidemic (Benkouider 2004). During the 1970s and
1980s, a whole range of physiologically active substances of plant and animal origin
(phytochemicals and zoochemicals) were identified, with potentially beneficial
effects on the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases (Roberfroid 2002;
Niva 2007).
Today, people are increasingly consuming food, counting on its ingredients,
which are found in small quantities and which can have a beneficial effect on health
(Devcich et al. 2007). Such ingredients are called biologically active components of
food. The quality of these substances is not measured by their quantitative presence
but by the level of ability to neutralize the effects of harmful substances in the
human body during their biological activity. All biologically active components differ from each other both in chemical structure and in function in the organism.
Some of these ingredients include vitamins and minerals, carotenoids, phenolic
compounds, flavonoids, phytosterols, isoflavones, enzymes, tannins, glycosides,
alkaloids, and others. All these substances, ingested in adequate quantities, can have
a beneficial effect on health and on various systems in the body such as gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, endocrine, nervous, immune. and others (Devcich et al. 2007).
On the other hand, these food ingredients can influence the course of prevention
and treatment of many diseases, such as modern diseases of the metabolic syndrome, cancer, or diseases caused by nutrient deficiency or deficiency. Thus, foods
that contain protective factors (milk, probiotics, whey, white chicken, fish meat and
omega-3 fatty acids, liver, dark green and yellow vegetables, citrus fruits, whole
V. I. Petropulos and B. Balabanova