Whats your idea about functional foods?
- Saturday, February 11, 2012
- by
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The tenet “ Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” espoused by Hippocrates nearly 2,500 years ago, is reciving renewed intrest. In particular, there has been an explsion of consu;mer intrest in the health enhancing role of specific food or physiologically active food components, so called functional foods (Hasler, 1998).
Clearly all foods are functional as they provide taste, aroma or nutritive value. Within the last decade, however, the term functional as it applies to food has adopted a different connotation—that of providing an additional physiological benefit beyond that of meting basic nutritional needs.
Functional foods:
The term functional foods was first introduced in japan in the mid- 1980s and refers to processed foods containing ingredients that aid specific bodily functions in addition to being nutritious. To date, japan is the only country that has formulated specific regulatory approval process for functional foods. Known as Food For Specified health Use (FOSHU), these foods aare eligible to bear a seal of approval from the Japanese ministry of health and welfare (Arai,1996). Currently 00 products are licensed as FOSHU foods in japan .
The institute of medicine’s food and nutrition board (IOM/FNB,1994) defined functional food as ‘ any food or food ingredient that may provide a health benefit beyond the traditional nutrients it contains”.Functional food from plant source
Overwhelming evidence from epidemiological, in vitro, and clinical trial data indicates that a plant-based diet can reduce the risk of chronic disease, particularly cancer cancer. In 1992, a review of 200 peidemiological studies (Block et. Al..) showed that cancer risk in people consuming diets high in fruits and vegetable was only one- half in those consuming few of these foods
Oats:
Oat products aare widely studied dietary source of the cholesterol- lowering soluble fiber b-glucan. There is now significant scientific agreement that consumption of this particular plant food can reduce total and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, thereby reducing the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). For this , the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) awarded the first food-specific health claim in January 1997 (DHHS/FDA,1997), in respons to a petition submitted by the Quarker Oats Company (Chicago,III.).
The Quarker Oats revealed significant reductions in total and LDL- cholesterol. It determined that approx. 6o g of oat meal or 40 g of oat bran (dry wt.) would b required to achieve a 5% reduction in serum cholesterol.
Thus a food bearing health claim must contain 13g of oat or 20g oatmeal .
ref: Clarie M. Hasler, Ph.D. "Functional foods; Their Role in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion", A publication of Institution of Food Technologist .
