ABSTRACT
Functional Foods ........................................................................ 260 10.3 Conclusions ................................................................................ 269 10.4 Summary .................................................................................... 269 Keywords .............................................................................................. 270 References ............................................................................................. 271
10.1 INTRODUCTION
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) involves the heart or blood vessels. Cardiovascular disease includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack) [67]. Other CVDs are: stroke, hypertensive heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation, congenital heart disease, endocarditis, aortic aneurysms, and peripheral artery disease [29, 67]. The role of dietary factors has been largely investigated by reducing the content of specific food component known to increase risk, that is, sodium or saturated fats [65] or by large longitudinal cohort studies in which baseline dietary intake was related to cardiovascular outcomes [8, 39].
