NUTRACÉUTICOS Y ALIMENTOS FUNCIONALES: UNA REVISIÓN DE OPORTUNIDADES

Abstract

At present, worldwide more and more people is concerned about health and they care about preventable diseases such as cardiovas-cular disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and so on. With the informa- tion sources expansion, there are more and more articles in jour- nals devoted to explain the relation between diet and health, and specifically on the nutraceutical concept. Food industry is taking advantage of this, recognizing a potential market and investing on research of nutraceutical compounds, development and marke- ting of new products. These products fall on a greater category called functional foods, this are naturals or manufactured foods that contain bioactive compounds that can positively influence human health. Functional foods include not only nutraceutical food, but specially designed food to enhance performance, such as, cogniti- ve or physical. There is another emerging concept related to nutraceuticals, where it´s believed that the complete food is more effective than individual compounds or the pure substance extract. This chapter presents a review for nutraceutical concept, functional food and the potential of six traditional agricultural food from the Colombian south Atlántico.