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, chipilķn 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.
Introduction
1. Mexican food: A UNESCO intangible cultural heritage of humanity
2. Colombian Gastronomic Heritage
3. Bioactive peptides derived from artisanal cocoa bean fermentation
Ingredients
4. Cocoa: Food for gods
5. Uses and potential health benefits of purple corn: a Mesoamerican ancient
food for the XXI century
6. Chipilin, nutritional and functional properties and their use in Chiapas
cuisine.
7. Huauzontle: multifunctional properties of a pre-Hispanic ingredient that
survives in Mexican cuisine
8. Yacon: an ancestral root with a modern approach to food science
9. Brosimum alicastrum Sw. seed (Ramon tree): an unconventional ingredient to
prepare healthy food
10. Carob: the forgotten Mediterranean food
11. Tannat grape, the Uruguayan emblematic variety: composition and potential
effects on health of wine and its byproducts
12. Quinoa: The Functional Food Revolution
Nutraceutical Foods
13. Nutraceutical and innovative foods using common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris
L.) and maize (Zea mays L.) as ingredients
14. Hibiscus sabdariffa: an ancestral Asian plant-food and their
multicultural influence in Mesoamerica
15. More than a simple drink: traditions, uses and bioactive properties of
yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis)
16. Fruits from Colombia to the World
17. Nutritional and functional potential of Non-Traditional Uruguayan fruits
in the process of commercial development
Functional Foods
18. Unconventional foods from southern Mexico: properties and consumption
19. Mole: a symphony of smells and flavors from Mexico to the world
20. Mexican edible insects: nutraceutical potential and culinary
applications
21. Edible insects: Processing technologies for their utilization
22. Beans: Ancestral food important for human health
23. Asian influence in tropical fruits traditionally consumed in Mexican
gastronomy
24. Unconventional food plants from Brazil
25. Brazilian Tucumć fruits (Astrocaryum spp.): The missing link between
science and traditional knowledge
26. Mexican Artisanal Cheeses: Preserving typicity and genuity through lactic
acid bacteria cooperation.
Cuisine
27. Cuisine of nuns from post-viceroyalty Mexico: Functional or just
"Mexicatessen"?
28. The relationship between dweller and mangrove: Taxtihil a ceremonial
dish
29. Valorization of regional cuisine in the Costa Chica: Cultural background,
culinary uses and potential health benefits
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. Michael H. Tunick is a retired chemist and research chemist at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) with 40 years experience where he created new dairy products and expanded marketability of existing products. Dr. Tunick has expertise in thermal analysis using differential scanning calorimetry, microstructural analysis using scanning and transmission electron microscopy, microbiology of bacteria, and rheology of materials using texture profile analysis and small amplitude oscillatory shear analysis. After retiring , he became a full-time professor at Drexel University where he teaches various food science courses including Cheesemaking and mentors students in the M.S. Food Science program. Dr. Tunick has authored or coauthored over 140 publications, has coedited ten books including three on Hispanic food, and has co-chaired over 20 symposia in the Division of Agricultural & Food Chemistry (AGFD) in the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Dr. Guadalupe Flavia Loarca Pińa, has a BS in Biology Chemistry from Universidad Autonoma
de Queretaro (UAQ), MS in Experimental Biology from the Universidad de Guanajuato and a PhD in Food Science from Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Mexico. She is a professor and researcher with a PRODEP profile and belongs to the National System of Researchers (SNI). She and her team of students, colleagues and visiting scholars have published over 140 peer reviewed articles and 10 book chapters. She participates as a member of the Technical Committee of the National Network for Research, Innovation and Development in Functional and Nutraceutical Foods (AlfaNutra) and member of Institute of Food Technologist (IFT). Dr. Loarca-Pina has increased the understanding and the health benefits of bioactive compounds in the Mexican diet.
Aarón F. Gonzįlez Córdova is a research professor at the Laboratory of Chemistry and Biotechnology of Dairy Products and of Quality, Authenticity and Traceability of Food in the Department of Animal-Based Food Technology at CIAD. He leads research projects focused on functional foods, science and technology of milk and its derivatives, and quality, authenticity, and traceability of food. He supports small producers of artisanal cheese in Mexico, promoting artisanal cheese making, both in Mexico and abroad. He is also the coordinator of the Research, Innovation, and Technological Development of Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals Network (Red AlFaNutra) where he promotes healthy and functional nutrition by revaluating traditional foods in ancestral diets and by reducing food waste.
