Nutrition plays a fundamental role in the development of living beings, and its importance has acquired a new dimension because of technological, economic, social, and political advances. Global changes in society and the increase in the prevalence of complex diseases as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative and even cancer, have led to the search and generation of therapeutic strategies in accordance with the scientific advances of the 21st century. Nutrition, beyond its conventional approach, has gained greater prominence from the publication of the human genome project and the knowledge of the effect of food components on genes, leading to the development of functional foods and a new approach of the nutriology known as functional nutrition.
Functional nutrition is the science that studies the development and use of bioactive compounds of foods or nutraceuticals, at specific doses, for the treatment of complex diseases. From understanding of the biochemical-metabolic alterations as mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, dysbiosis, inflammation, leptin resistance, neuroinflammation, a new approach to the disease is built. Based on many scientific studies, this book describes the biological effects, mechanisms of action, applications and doses used of bioactive compounds such as vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, ascorbic acid, coenzyme Q10, vitamin E, probiotics, caffeine, among others, to the treatment of complex disease. The implementation of functional nutrition is a therapeutic option designed to counteract the biochemical-metabolic alterations present in the disease.