Overview
A rapid change in the dietary lifestyle has been observed since few years along with urbanization, globalization and economic development leading to increase in the number of people suffering from poor health, which is reflected by increased incidence of diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, hypertension, and some types of cancer . Recently a rapid increase in consumer awareness and interest about the health-enhancing roles of specific foods or physiologically active food components has been observed . Beside satisfying of hunger and providing the nutrients for humans, food should also prevent nutrition-related diseases and improve physical and mental well-being of the consumers . This has led to the development of new concepts in the area of food and nutrition such as the development of health foods. There is no specific definition for health foods but generally used for all the foods that provide health benefit beyond nutrition. Health food is thus, used as an umbrella term encompassing functional foods, nutraceuticals, designer foods, along with all natural foods, organic foods, whole foods and sometimes even dietary supplements.
Health food plays an important role in health improvement in celiac disease in which the only treatment includes nutritional therapy . As in this disease, people are allergic to gluten (a protein found in grains like wheat, rye, barley and oats) and thus require avoiding all such type of foods. Therefore, specific considerations are important when designing such health food products. Various factors should be kept in mind such as health problems, current demand, cost and acceptability. The design of health foods should focus on the special age groups such as elders, youths and infants. Therefore, an attempt has been made to review all the considerations which play an important role in the development of health foods for celiac patients.
