ABSTRACT
The primary role of diet is to provide enough nutrients to meet metabolic requirements besides giving the consumer satisfaction and well-being. Recent knowledge supports the hypothesis that beyond meeting nutrition needs, diet may modulate various physiological functions in the body and may play bene†cial roles in some diseases leading to the development of the “functional food” concept (Roberfroid, 2000). Food components are a potential source of bioactive substances. It was suggested that food can be designed as functional if it satisfactorily affects one or more target functions in the body, beyond the adequate nutritional status in a way that is relevant to either the state of well-being and health or the reduction in risk of a disease (Diplock et al., 1999). All food-derived components (i.e., proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, minerals, and trace elements) can potentially act as bioactive substances. Food proteins as such or as precursors constitute the major source of health-enhancing components that may be incorporated in functional food preparations (Korhonen and Pihlanto, 2006). The role of proteins and protein-derived bioactive
CONTENTS
5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 117 5.2 Mineral-Binding Proteins in Food .......................................................... 118 5.3 Mineral-Binding Peptides: Analytical and Structural Features ......... 120 5.4 Health-Promoting Activity of Mineral-Binding Peptides.................... 121
5.4.1 Phosphopeptides as Carriers for Mineral Absorption and Bioavailability ................................................................................. 121
5.4.2 Phosphopeptides as Antioxidative Substances ......................... 124 5.4.3 Phosphopeptides as Anticariogenic Substances ....................... 125
5.5 Production and Application of Mineral-Binding Phosphopeptides .. 125 5.6 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 127 References ............................................................................................................. 128
peptides as health-enhancing components is being increasingly studied and discussed (see Korhonen and Pihlanto, 2006, for review). Many of the proteins that occur naturally in raw food materials (plants and animals) exert their biological action either directly or upon enzymatic digestion in vitro or in vivo to generate bioactive peptide sequences. This review focuses on the recently reported works on phosphopeptides as potential carriers for mineral bioavailability.
