TITLE:
Functional Foods for Obesity Management
AUTHORS:
Rajitha Sunkara, Martha Verghese
KEYWORDS:
Obesity, Functional Foods, Satiety, Energy Expenditure
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.5 No.14,
August
13,
2014
ABSTRACT: Obesity is a global
problem and numbers are rising at a fast pace in developing countries and it becomes
a major public health concern. Economic costs associated with obesity are high
and increasing as the rate of obesity. Obesity leads to its co-morbidities;
namely diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, osteoarthritis, stroke
and inflammatory diseases. Changes in life-style along with modifications to the diet are important in the management of
obesity. Certain dietary components and foods have the ability to induce
thermogenesis and modify the trafficking of nutrients in the body. Positive
effects in managing obesity by natural components, and selected foods have
drawn attention due to the potential side effects of obesity drugs. The food
industry has developed low-density foods to reduce energy intake. Now focus has
been geared towards the development of foods
that possess more than one mechanism to alter the progression of obesity. In
this review, selected foods and their components with potential
anti-obesity properties are discussed.