Nutrigenomics, proteomics and metabolomics are three new disciplines that will contribute to the rapid development of functional foods. Bioinformatics is a new tool that uses computer database technology to integrate data from multiple, and sometimes disparate, disciplines. Already these disciplines and tools have improved our understanding of food science and human nutrition. Discoveries in genetics make it possible to understand the effects of nutrients in processes at the molecular level in the body and also the variable effects of dietary components on each individual. The scientific and technological discipline named nutrigenomics relies heavily on well established science and technology from the fields of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, food science, and nutrition (see Table 2). Briefly,.
