Book excerpt: MOLECULAR MECHANISMS OF FUNCTIONAL FOOD Comprehensive resource for understanding state-of-the-art mechanisms behind food health effects This book provides information on the development and validation of functional foods towards their market and industrial application. It covers the available information on developments, efficacy, and testing and safety, while demonstrating the proven or potential effects of food on health and disease. With contributions from the foremost experts in the field, this book will bring readers up to speed on the state of the art in the mechanisms behind food health effects, from their physiological bases to their conception, current uses, and future developments. Sample topics covered by the authors include: The molecular mechanisms of action of antioxidant fibers, prebiotics, ginger, and cinnamon Saffron, a functional food with potential molecular effects Pseudocereals, ancestral grains that can serve as a source of bioactive compounds for functional foods Molecular effects of future functional foods – psychobiotics, chronobiotics, hempseed, opuntia, common and carioca beans, coffee and cocoa by-products Food industry professionals, government workers involved in projects related to food, and students in programs of study related to food can use this book as an up-to-date reference to fully understand the effects that many common and uncommon foods have on humans.