Description: The Science and Culture of Latin American Foods: Harnessing Ingredients for Health combines science and technology to demonstrate the importance of rescuing and preserving traditional and ancestral knowledge to exploit the functional benefits of the regions' many roots, plants, seeds, insects, and more. Divided into four sections, Ingredients, Nutraceuticals, Functional Foods, and Cuisine, the book discusses the sustainable development of these ingredients while highlighting origin, production, classification, and medicinal properties. Readers will discover the potential of potent bioactive peptides derived from native foods like cacao, chipilín leaves, and Huauzontle, a pre-Hispanic ingredient thriving and surviving in Mexican cuisine.
In addition, they will learn how Asia and Africa influence Latin American cuisine and about the importance these regional culinary dishes have in global gastronomy today.Brief description: Sonia G. Sayago-Ayerdi has a PhD in Nutrition from the Complutense University of Madrid. She began her career as a teacher at the Technological Institute of Acapulco, and was trained as a researcher thanks to the support of the General Directorate of the Technological Institutes, now the National Technological Institute of Mexico. After her PhD, she joined the Graduate Program of the Technological Institute of Tepic. She is Coordinator of the Network of Underutilized Native Foods (ALSUB-CYTED, 118RT0543) of the Ibero-American Program of Science and Technology for Development, member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, member of the steering committee of the Mexican Association in Food Sciences (AMECA) during the periods 2015-17 and 2017-19, and Associated Editor in Food Chemistry of Elsevier.