Functional Foods, Dietotherapics and Food Supplements

The course aims at providing students with recent knowledge on the pharmacological properties (and the underlying mechanisms) of some functional food, dietotherapic and food supplement components in view of their correct use for health maintenance, for prevention and (when possible) for treatment of human diseases. The scientific knowledge on the basis of which functional foods, diet therapies and food supplements are designed, produced and controlled will also be illustrated.

The general goal is to give students the basic knowledge to develop the critical capability to appropriately analyze the information available through scientific research and mass media regarding diets and active food components. This will allow the pharmacist to better face its role as a health professional in nutrition, food supplements and functional foods. At the end of the training process, the student will also have acquired a basic knowledge on the main food- associated pathologies, on the basis of which functional products, diet therapies and food supplements are designed with the relative analytical control approaches.