When
is a food more than just a food? When it's a functional food.
Consider this domestic scene. It's a normal Monday night in the Lee
household. Mrs Lee is preparing dinner for her family. Like most
mothers, she's concerned about her family's health and tries to produce
nutritious meals. Tonight it's noodles, but not just any noodles. The
noodles have added resistant starch to increase their dietary fibre
content thereby aiding the digestive system. The sauce accompanying the
noodle dish has added oligosaccharides and antioxidant nutrients,
believed to help reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. The oil
she uses to fry the noodles has been especially developed with fatty
acids that are claimed to lower her husband's high cholesterol.
A scene from a science-fiction movie? No, it's the era of functional
foods and it's happening right now in many parts of the world.
Functional foods defined
Functional foods are foods that provide health benefits beyond
basic nutrition. Ingredients are either naturally occurring in these
foods - such as the soluble fibre found in oat bran- or they may be
added during processing. The appeal of functional foods lies in their
potential to lower the incidence of diet-related diseases. And, with a
rapidly aging world population, the cost of national health bills.
Functional properties
Many foods or ingredients have functional properties. Some compounds
such as dietary fibre, have been widely consumed for many years. Dietary
fibres commonly found in our food supply include wheat bran, oat bran,
barley bran, rice bran and psyllium. Insoluble fibres (such as wheat
bran) aid digestion and appear to help prevent colon cancer and heart
disease. Soluble fibres (such as oat bran and psyllium) have been shown
to help lower cholesterol levels.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids are often added to functional foods. Some
of the more common ones are omega-3 fatty acids, which have been linked
to cholesterol reduction, and eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) that has been
shown to reduce blood clottIng.
Other functional ingredients that are often added to foods include
proteins, oligosaccharides (thought to promote the growth of healthy
intestinal bacteria) and " good" bacteria such as bifidus and
acidophilis.
Functional Foods Available Now
Margarine containing plant stanols to help lower blood cholesterol
Breakfast cereals and pastas with soluble fibre to help lower
cholesterol
Fermented drinks and yoghurts with probiotic bacteria claimed to
boost immunity and improve digestion
Enzyme-enriched drinks and snack bars to aid digestion
Juices and drinks with added calcium to help tooth and bone health
Foods versus medicine
The whole area of functional foods begs the question of where
the distinction between food and medicine lies. The use of foods as
medicines dates back many centuries. Hippocrates is quoted as saying
"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food". In Asian cultures,
the line between foods and medicines has traditionally been blurred.
Foods have been used for hundreds of years as treatments to cure or
prevent ailments.
The increasing sales of supplements and foods perceived to be healthy
reflect the growing levels of health consciousness throughout Asia. And
this trend is expected to continue as governments mount campaigns to
arrest the growing burden of lifestyle-related diseases on national
health bills.
Health claims and functional foods around the world
Perhaps the country with the most experience in this area is
Japan, where regulations governing health claims for foods were
introduced in 1987. Foods for specific health uses, such as preventing
constipation or lowering cholesterol, are subjected to clinical trials
to prove their efficacy before any health claims can be made.
In Japan, functional foods are called FOSHU (Food for Specific Health
Use) and are defined as a food derived from naturally occurring
substances (not a capsule or powder) that can be consumed as part of the
daily diet and that regulates a particular body process when eaten.
In Japan, FOSHU foods are classified into five categories.
- Foods that enhance the body's immune system by boosting defence
mechanisms
- Foods that help prevent or control disease like diabetes or heart
disease
- Foods that aid recovery from disease such as lowering high
cholesterol levels
- Foods that regulate body rhythms by aiding digestion or enhancing
absorption of vitamins and minerals
- Foods that help to suppress aging
In many countries, including Singapore and Malaysia, health claims
relating to foods are currently not allowed. In other countries, such as
China and the Philippines, health claims are allowed provided they can
be substantiated.
