The Science and Culture of Latin American Foods

Texte du rabat

While the ingredients and cuisine of Latin America may be recognizable by name, many countries and cultures from around the world are unaware of the importance of harnessing the dynamic bioactive compounds of the country’s traditional, indigenous, and sometimes unconventional foods to aid in nutrition, diet, and health. Written by a team of experts from Mexico, Costa Rica, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and the US, 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 Science and Culture of Latin American Foods: Harnessing Ingredients for Health, 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. They will also learn how Asia and Africa influence Latin American cuisine and the importance these regional culinary dishes have in global gastronomy today.

Contenu

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 Tucumã 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.