Summary 　Development of preventive therapies for the diseases related to age and/or metabolic syndrome is a critical mission for us in this super-aging society. To continuously obtain the preventive effects, one of the leading strategies may be the usage of functional foods which have enhanced bioactivity. For this purpose, we promote bio-technological and agricultural researches to obtain appropriate foods for the therapies, as well as scientific researches to reveal and/or confirm the underlying molecular mechanism of the effects and safety. Here, we introduce a movement of using xanthophyll, such as lutein, to prevent eye diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.