Lunasin: A novel seed peptide with cancer preventive properties

Last century was a time of enormous progress in human nutrition. Essential minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and fatty acids were identified, metabolic pathways were described, and the effect of genetic variants on metabolism was studied. Recent evidence has shown that the large majority of chronic disorders, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer can be prevented by modifications of nutritional and lifestyle habits. In 2007, 12.3 million new cancer cases and 7.6 million deaths from cancer worldwide were reported by the American Cancer Society (Garcia et al., 2007).