Functional foods may typically increase energy, optimize mental capacity, optimize wellness and prevent disease. However, camouflaging the functional ingredients is important, as many ingredients adversely affect taste, texture and flavor. Functional ingredients may be phytochemicals, zoonutrients, fungochemicals or bacteriochemicals.
Some common examples of functional ingredients are vitamins—organic substances essential in minute quantities in the regulation of metabolic processes that do not provide energy or serve as building units. However, lack of a vitamin results in overt deficiency symptoms. Phytochemicals, on the other hand, are chemicals from plants that may affect health, but are not essential nutrients. Examples of phytochemicals include fiber, carotenoids, organosulfur compounds, phenolic compounds and phytosterols. Functional food ingredients may come in many forms, such as raw chemicals, derivative salts or chelates, ground botanical powders or standardized extracts.