Abstract
The change in the lifestyle of the world population towards a westernized
style has generated important effects on the metabolism of the population over the
years. These metabolic changes trigger negative effects on human health, one of these
effects is called Diabesity, a combination of symptoms related to diabetes and obesity.
Various ways have been sought to compensate for these negative effects,
pharmacologically and in folk medicine, but the focus points are the generation of new
habits of foods and/or medicinal plants consumption capable of reversing the negative
effects of Diabesity.
In this chapter, a series of medicinal and edible plants with reported activity on both
weight reduction and consumer glycemic levels are described. The origin of the use of
these foods is often based on the ancestral consumption of traditional medicines, which
awakened the interest in the scientific community as starting points for the
development of new functional foods to reduce the impact of Diabesity worldwide.
Keywords: α-amylase inhibition, α-glucosidase inhibition, Anti-inflammatory activity, Chlorogenic acids, Culinary medicine, Diabesity, Dietary fiber, Edible plants, Ethnopharmacology, Flavonoids, Functional foods, Ginsenosides, Medicinal plants, Mediterranean diet, Phenolic acids, Phytochemicals, Saponins, Traditional medicine, Weight control, Xanthines.