Potential Applications of Cereals and Yams as Functional Foods to Reduce the Risk of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases

The chronic non-communicable diseases (NCD) are increasing throughout the populations and the burden of diseases is rising globally. Epidemiological evidences supports claim that intake of foods with certain health benefits and reducing the risk of NCDs are having positive correlation, therefore, a rise in demand for foods including phytochemicals can be observed. Cereals and yams are known to be rich sources of phytochemicals which can be utilized to produce functional food products having the potential of reducing the risk of chronic NCDs such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and certain types of cancers. In this review, the potentials of various cereals and yams that are being used as functional food products for human consumption to reduce the risk of NCD are being examined. The study further included a review on different phytochemicals in cereals and yams based functional food products and their bioactivity, potential of microencapsulation, cereal by products, influence of starch modification on functional food products, and capability of utilizing cereal by products in functional food industry.