Marlena Stephenson
|
 |
But they will drink two glasses of orange juice, if it has no fishy taste vitamins and all the benefits. It all depends on what type of claim is being made, said Ellary Herndon, an agency spokesman. Oily, smelly little fish, rich in nutritious omega-3 fatty acids. Fat-burning waffles made from a newly developed corn flour, cheese that kills intestinal parasites, even ketchup that regulates digestion, are on the shelves or in the works. Now we have to be more cautious about individual nutrients, though we should not close our minds, given the successes of the past. As with conventional now vitamins whey protein foods, functional foods must clearly state the presence of allergens, like milk or fish, in the ingredients list. Are we really that close to a world in which food functions as a nutrient delivery system, made possible by microencapsulation and fine-spray coating. When vitamin-B-enriched flour was introduced in the 1940s, rates of pellagra plummeted. Orange vitamins juice laced with anchovies is one example of the latest way major food companies are competing for health-conscious consumers. This whole area is far more complex than we thought just one or two years ago, said Catherine vitamins minerals supplements H. Since the 1970s, as nutrition research has progressed beyond vitamins and minerals, a variety of new compounds have been touted as the key to health. LycoRed, like FutureCeuticals, National Starch, the German chemical giant BASF and other companies, produces a range of additives for the food industry.. These new products promise to deliver the health benefits of fish oil without the smell and the taste without, in fact, the fish. To be transported, purified and served at North American supplements breakfast tables in the form of Tropicana Healthy Heart orange juice and Wonder Headstart bread. These products are known as functional foods, meaning they have been modified to make them more nutritious, like genetically modified rice or fortified milk. There is significant scientific agreement the standard the Food and Drug Administration requires before foodmakers can place unqualified health claims on packaging on the benefits of certain nutrients, including calcium, fiber, folate, soy protein, omega-3 fatty acids, lactic acid bacteria and a few others. Market staples like blueberries (high in certain antioxidants), cherries (may have anti-inflammatory benefits) and bananas (when unripe, particularly rich in fiber) are being broken down, shaken up, microencapsulated, and put to work in new ways. However, recent studies on supplemental vitamin E, beta-carotene and folate (all of which fall into the broad category of antioxidants ) surprised everyone by showing no benefits whatsoever for cardiovascular disease. Nutraceuticals like garlic pills and cranberry vitamin b capsules became popular in the 1990s, usually taken alone in the form of dietary supplements. These additives are often called nutraceuticals, broadly defined as ingredients that are derived from food, and that offer health benefits associated with that food. Iodine-fortified salt virtually wiped out goiter, and vitamin-D-enriched milk eliminated rickets in children. OFF the coast of Peru swim billions of sardines and anchovies. Now Kraft, Dannon, General Mills and many other companies are adding nutraceuticals to existing foods. It easy for them to slip supplements through the cracks, and the industry is always ahead of the agency. But a few have a more exalted destiny. Plugging one food into another and claiming the health benefits of both. Several other federal agencies do so, but functional foods are not evaluated by any specific office. However, People just aren t eating sal or sardines twice a day, said Joly Halevy, director for marketing of Tropicana, which is owned by PepsiCo. But some experts say that such carefully designed campaigns have little in com with the fortified products now turning up in supermarkets. Lichtenstein, a professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University. The possible benefits of eating omega-3s include cardiovascular protection and improved neural development in children. Nutraceutical products have characteristics of both food and drugs, said Benn A. Their spot on the food chain is low; many will be caught, ground up, and fed as fishmeal to bigger animals. The Food and Drug Administration does not conduct nutritional research. In food, these have proved to help protect against specific diseases (calcium against osteoporosis, omega-3 fatty acids for heart disease), and many nutritionists believe that they are beneficial in supplement form. Fortified food is certainly one of the great triumphs of public-health policy. But the science hasn t been done on the new nutraceutical products, and the F.D.A. The agency does not have specific rules for the labeling of functional foods. And what would this mean for food and human nutrition. Josias Mechanick, a professor of endocrinology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. New technologies in food processing, and a landmark 1999 court decision giving the makers of supplements broad leeway to advertise their health benefits, have brought this new class of enhanced foods to supermarket shelves. Shoppers are offered green tea extracts in their roley ale, yogurt bacteria in their salsa, and powdered beets in their peanut butter. The free-market policy on claims for nutraceuticals benefits companies like LycoRed, a global provider of compounds pulled out of tomatoes that grow in desert greenhouses in Griffy. One day, we believe, you will be able to walk into a supermarket and all the products could be enriched with omega-3s. A more general claim like X keeps your heart healthy has to be provable by the manufacturer, but we would not require proof in advance. Kessler, a former commissioner of the F.D.A. Superfood or Monster From the Deep. Those decisions were based on rigorous public-health studies, said Dr. There is a great deal we don t know about how the compounds in food are made available to the body, Dr. Antioxidants (related to vitamins, these include lycopene, beta-carotene and other plant-based nutrients); long-chain fatty acids like omega-3s, plentiful in fish and some plants; and probiotics, the live bacteria in yogurt and fermented vegetables. Current labeling standards are inadequate. An unqualified health claim like calcium reduces your risk of osteoporosis, has to be proved in advance. Milk, yogurt, tortillas, said Ian Harlin, head of marketing for Ocean Nutrition Canada, maker of the fish oil used by Tropicana. MIXING IT UP Food companies have been extracting nutrients from one food (like tomatoes, broccoli, green tea, pomegranates) and processing them into other foods (like breakfast cereal, chocolate, coffee and nichole ale).
|
