Abstract

A functional food is a food that contains one or a combination of components that interact with physiological functions in the body to improve them or to reduce the risk of associated diseases. The development of such functional foods starts with the identification of an interaction between a food ingredient and a particular function in the body, followed by a proper understanding of the mechanism of such a positive interaction, and finally, the demonstration of beneficial effects in humans, including the reduction of risk of disease [1]. Specifically, the preventive and/or inhibitory effect of miscellaneous dietary components on cancer development, growth, and metastasis is a topic of major interest [2–4]. Much work has been done to identify dietary components classified as anti-carcinogens (e.g., carotenoids, allyl sulfides, dietary fibers) with the capacity to prevent initiation and, possibly, promotion of carcinogenesis [5].