Abstract
The way we approach food has been changed a lot lately. We have passed from a subsistence economy, where food was a matter of survival, to an economy of abundance, where the alimentary excesses went to an overly of so-called "diseases of the civilization:" cardio-vascular diseases (CVD), obesity, diabetes and a few types of cancer. The society is now heading to finding an optimum alimentary diet that tries to promote the consumption of the foods that have a favorable effect on the health. This is the context where appeared the concept of functional foods.
