Healthy Food Unit
Seeks the development of foods that prevent and combat obesity and other comorbidities associated with metabolic syndrome.
What does this unit do?
It selects the varieties of plant, animal, and single-celled species relevant to a diverse, healthy, and sustainable diet. Additionally, the interactions among nutrients and other chemical compounds during food processing, storage, and digestion are validated to design better foods for different populations.
Healthy Food
In Mexico, healthy food production is very variable due to the wide range of climatic conditions and migratory movements that have occurred and continue to occur in the national territory. On the one hand, traditional production systems focus on the diversity of vegetable crops and collecting local fruits and seeds that encourage a diverse diet. On the other hand, in some regions of the country, there is a greater degree of technology to increase the yield and quality of food, advancing the fulfillment of Sustainable Development Goal #2 (SDG 2): zero hunger. Finding a balance in these approaches would move us toward fulfilling SDG 12: Responsible production and consumption.
Your food is your medicine
For centuries, it has been recognized that the consumption of healthy foods has a close relationship with good health in the present and future. Today there is a wealth of scientific evidence supporting the prevention of non-communicable diseases.
Hippocrates' phrase "Let your food be your medicine and your medicine your food" leads to three grand challenges:
- How to design food for population groups already suffering from certain chronic-degenerative diseases?
- How to design foods that help prevent these diseases?
- Understanding the reactions between a food's components and an individual's state of health
Currently, there are advances in understanding nutritional needs and the relevance of consuming antioxidant compounds, immunostimulants, and other beneficial health effects, but further research is required to support each individual to make the best choice based on their habits, customs, traditions, and specific needs. That is one of the challenges of this unit.
Meet the researchers
Janet Alejandra Gutiérrez Uribe
Unit leader. Full Research Professor
Sustainable and healthy food, discovery of active molecules in Mexican foods, development of functional ingredients
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Diego Armando Luna Vital
Assistant Research Professor
Study of proteins, bioactive peptides and natural pigments. Development of functional products. Nutrigenomics of foods endemic to Latin America.
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Marilena Antunes Ricardo
Assistant Research Professor
Characterization of phytochemicals in plant matrices for the development of health foods with immunoeoeutical and/or cosmetic potential.
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Daniel Alberto Jacobo Velázquez
Associate Research Professor
Design of effective mixtures of bioactives in the form of food, beverages and dietary supplements for the prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome.
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Cristina Elizabeth Chuck Hernández
Full Research Professor
Extraction and modification processes of vegetable proteins for the production of functional ingredients, study and development of dairy products and analogues.
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Anayansi Escalante Aburto
Research Professor Instructor
Characterization of nutraceutical foods of plant origin. Nutrition, eating habits and health.
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Iván Andrés Luzardo Ocampo
Research Professor Instructor
Cereals and legumes-based functional food products. In vitro, ex vivo, in vivo and in silico approaches on studying the impact of food matrices and metabolites on inflammation and obesity models.
