Fortify This - fortified foods

Vegetarian Times, May, 1999 by Cristin Marandino

Manufacturers claim that functional foods can optimize health and ward off disease. Is this just marketing hype or a major nutritional breakthrough?

Remember the good old days, when you'd pop into the supermarket to pick up a dozen eggs, a box of cereal and maybe a bag of chips? Unfortunately, life today isn't quite as simple. Now you have to ask yourself if you want the regular eggs or the ones fortified with vitamin E? The cereal with or without added psyllium? And how about those mood-boosting kava kava chips next to the potato chips?

Welcome to the world of functional foods. If you're not sure exactly what a functional food is, don't worry: you're not alone. At present, there is no technical definition for the term--meaning the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has yet to establish legal standards for foods making health-enhancing or disease-fighting claims. But plenty of people and organizations bandy about their own interpretations of the phrase. "Functional foods provide a physiological benefit beyond basic nutrition," says Clare M. Hasler, Ph.D., executive director of the Functional Foods for Health Program, a collaboration between the University of Illinois at Chicago and Urbana-Champaign, the nation's leading center of research into the medicinal benefits of food and food extracts.

Hasler notes that while sales projections for conventional foods are flat, "market projections for functional foods are double-digit growth for the next 10 to 30 years." And despite the relatively limited number of functional food options currently available, U.S. consumer spending in that market segment grew from about $5.5 million in 1992 to $8.8 million in 1996--a jump of nearly 13 percent. The reason is simple: People are convinced they can derive health benefits from functional foods without having to change their habits. And that can be both good news and bad.

THE NAME GAME

With the promise of such exponential growth on the horizon, food manufacturers are scrambling to develop products to fight diseases like cancer, osteoporosis and heart disease, to preserve your energy and to maintain your general health.

But exactly which products belong in the category remains a hotly debated issue. For example, unprocessed soy and fiber have been shown to lower cholesterol--as has Benecol, a margarine fortified with plant stanols that was expected to hit U.S. store shelves in May. So Benecol, a product of food engineering, would be allowed to put the same health claim on its label as its nonenhanced counterparts.

The issue gets even more confusing when you consider that some experts, including Hasler, lump fortified foods into the same category as functional foods. "In some regard, the terms are interchangeable," she says. "A functional food can be one that's been fortified, like calcium-fortified orange juice, because it's been purposely modified to reduce a chronic disease." Another familiar example of products fitting into both categories are the grain-based cereals and breads that are fortified with 1.4 micrograms (mcg.) of folic acid per gram of grain (a government mandate aimed at decreasing the risk of nervous system disorders in developing fetuses). In fact, by the American Dietetic Association's (ADA) standards, functional foods and fortified foods are one and the same, since the group considers the functional category to include "any modified food or food ingredient that provides a health benefit beyond the traditional nutrient it contains."

FUNCTIONAL OR FICTIONAL?

To help consumers incorporate functional foods into every meal, mainstream companies like Kellogg are jumping on the bandwagon. In 1998 the cereal giant came out with its Ensemble line, consisting of 27 foods, ranging from cereal to pasta to frozen entrees and enhanced with cholesterol-lowering soluble fiber. The logic behind this sort of brand extension is clear when you consider that in addition to the huge market growth projections, the notion of functional foods is being strongly supported and promoted by organizations like the ADA. In the group's functional foods position statement, Cindi Thomson, Ph.D., R.D., writes, "The amounts of naturally occurring components contained in foods, in portions commonly consumed, may be inadequate to achieve optimal health benefits. The enhancement of foods may be a reasonable approach to achieving optimal health." Hasler echoes that sentiment: "Consumers should view these foods as an opportunity to have a larger selection of choices that will optimize their health."

Not everyone agrees with this thinking, however. "I think it's two parts hype, one part hope and one part to which maybe there's some merit. I'm still waiting for more research," says Suzanne Havala, M.S., R.D., author of Good Foods, Bad Foods: What's Left to Eat? (John Wiley and Sons, 1998). Havala explains that research can only prove certain facts, such as that the isoflavones in soy stave off breast cancer. But to isolate those compounds and then fortify foods with them is a leap that the scientific research does not yet support. "All we can do is make educated judgments, and that's where the differences of opinion come in," she says.