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Review
. 2022 May 21;10(5):1065.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms10051065.

Functional Foods, Nutraceuticals and Probiotics: A Focus on Human Health

Morayma Ramírez Damián  1 , Naima G Cortes-Perez  2 , Erika T Quintana  3 , Alicia Ortiz-Moreno  1 , Cynthia Garfias Noguez  1 , Carlos Eugenio Cruceño-Casarrubias  1 , María Elena Sánchez Pardo  1 , Luis G Bermúdez-Humarán  4
Affiliations
Review

Functional Foods, Nutraceuticals and Probiotics: A Focus on Human Health

Morayma Ramírez Damián et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

Functional foods are classified as traditional or staple foods that provide an essential nutritional level and share potentially positive effects on host health, including the reduction of disease by optimizing the immune system's ability to prevent and control infections by pathogens, as well as pathologies that cause functional alterations in the host. This chapter reviews the most recent research and advances in this area and discusses some perspectives on what the future holds in this area.

Keywords: functional foods; lactic acid bacteria; microbiota; nutraceuticals; probiotics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Main types and components of functional foods. This figure was created with biorender.com (accessed date: 26 April 2022).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Some of the proposed mechanisms by which probiotics exert their beneficial effects. This figure was created with biorender.com (accessed date: 26 April 2022).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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