Cheese with sterols for your heart, bread with omega 3 for your brain and milk with calcium for your bones: Walking down the aisles of the supermarkets you will see foods making many claims about their health benefits. But, are these products really worth the hype? Accredited nutritionist Caitlin Reid investigates.
Food is a source of nourishment and provides enjoyment for many. However, with a growing focus on optimal health and wellbeing, certain nutrients are isolated and added to foods in a bid to enhance their health benefits. These function foods as they are known are being touted as the answer to a range of health conditions.
There is plenty of health-hype around functional foods, and they usually come with a higher price tag too, but many consumers are concerned these foods may not give as big a health kick as they claim.
Positives about functional foods
Functional foods can provide you an important nutrient in a more concentrated form than you might normally be consumed in a healthy diet.One example is the addition of plant sterols to table spreads, milks and cheese. Plants sterols are cholesterol-like substances that are found naturally at low levels in some fruit vegetables, nuts and cereals.
When eaten in significant amounts (2-3g per day), plant sterols lower LDL "bad" cholesterol levels by more than 10 percent. Eating a varied diet of naturally-occurring plant sterols provides about 400-800mg of plant sterols per day, which is well below what is needed to get the beneficial effects. (Source: Richelle M, Enslen et al. Both free and esterified plant sterols reduce cholesterol absorption and the bioavailability of carotene and tocopherol in normocholesterolemic humans. J Am Clin Nutr 2004;80:171:177.)
Products fortified with plant sterols provide you with the amount you need. However, there is some evidence to suggest that absorption of fat-soluble vitamins in the gut may be reduced in people with normal cholesterol levels who use plant sterol enriched products.
Functional foods can also feel a gap for vegans and people with allergies. Vitamin B12 is only found in animal products, so vegetarians rely on products fortified with vitamin B12 to help them meet their needs, while people with a cow's milk allergy may struggle to reach their calcium requirements if soy products and rice milk were not fortified with calcium. People with a seafood allergy can boost their omega-3 intake with omega-3 enriched bread.
Things to remember
There is still a lack of research into the benefits of functional foods and whether they really do provide all things they claim. There are many unanswered questions about how effective isolating one ingredient from a particular food and eating it in another is.
