Protective Effects of Some Functional Foods on Health

The functional food sector is growing rapidly all over the world. Although there is no accepted definition until today, functional food is defined by the decree-law in the 2000s in Turkey. Development of science and technology, increased interest in disease-food interaction, preventing diseases related to healthy eating, being lower cost than treatment lead to increased interest in functional foods and phytochemicals. In the studies it has been shown, healthy effects of these nutrients and nutritional elements have healthy effects on chronic diseases and treatment of various diseases. Regular and adequate functional food consumption has been found to be closely related to diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, gastrointestinal tract diseases, menopause, and osteoporosis. For this reason, various research institutions are working towards increasing the diversity and development of functional nutrient preparations and trying to bring the consumer consciousness to the consumer. The aim of this review is to present the properties of functional foods and their effects on health in light of the studies.