Functional Foods: From Theory to Practice

Abstract

Among Functional Foods there are many different "traditional" foods rich in specific compounds shown to produce an effect or modulate a function in our organism. However, in most cases, e. g. in tomato, the evidence has not been sufficient to obtain an official health claim. Nevertheless it is important to investigate further the effects of vegetables in our diet and to communicate correctly their advantages for health. Different works were performed in my laboratory on cruciferous vegetables which contain a lot of active compounds such as vitamins, minerals, carotenoids and glucosinolates. Glucosinolates are metabolised and absorbed as isothiocyanates that can affect the activity of enzymes involved both in the antioxidant defence system and in the detoxification from xenobiotics.. Promising are the preliminary results of human intervention studies demonstrating that the regular intake of broccoli for a relatively short period of time could significantly affect glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activity and cell protection against DNA damage. The entity of the protective effect registered seems also related to the genetic characteristic (GSTM1 polimorphysm) of the subjects considered. These results support the use of the nutrigenetic approach also to study functional foods (e. g. for specific groups of population).

Effect of ascorbic acid-rich diet onin vivo-induced oxidative stress

“…Vegetarian diets are rich in a mixture of antioxidants including phytochemicals. Dietary antioxidants have been thought to be able to modulate cellular responses to various stimuli interacting with ROS-mediated intracellular signalling by scavenging ROS or suppressing their generation, either by inhibiting enzymes or by chelating trace elements involved in free radical production, or protecting antioxidant defences or up-regulating intracellular signalling in the antioxidant cellular response ( 38 , 39 ) .…”