Evaluating Bioactive Food Components in Obesity and Cancer Prevention

Abstract

Research into bioactive food compounds (BFC) continues to evolve albeit with shared challenges among scientists in the fields of obesity and cancer treatment and prevention. Given the diversity of scientific disciplines involved in evaluating BFC, multidisciplinary conferences provide opportunities to update the state of the science and critically discuss conceptual and methodological challenges encountered in studying BFC in both preclinical and clinical trials. This overview is an introduction to presentations given at a conference sponsored by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which convened a multidisciplinary group of researchers evaluating BFC in obesity and cancer prevention. Full presentations can be viewed in video format at http://www.norc.uab.edu/courses/conferences/conference2013.

Keywords:

• Functional foods
• nutrition
• efficacy
• bioactive compound testing

Additional information

Funding

This conference was supported by the National Cancer Institute and the Office of Dietary Supplements R13CA168347-01A1 with additional support from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Nutrition Obesity Research Center and the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dr. Pepper Corporation, and the Campbell Soup Company.