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The Latest Functional Foods!
By Dr. Marion Nestle on 06/10/2009
Functional foods, you may recall, are those to which nutrients are added beyond those already in the foods. The latest example from Unilever: calcium-enriched ice cream! The philosophy: “better-for-you” foods will improve health. Maybe, but is functional ice cream a good choice?
Functional foods differ from fortified foods, in which nutrients lost during processing are replaced. The addition of iron to white flour, for example, replaces the iron lost during the milling of whole wheat. Its replacement helps prevent iron-deficiency anemia.
So I suppose you can consider Kellogg’s new fiber-enriched cereals to be a form of fortification. The PR people tell me that adding fiber “is another example of our continued commitment to improving the nutrition credentials of our products to meet consumers’ needs and preferences.” Their press release explains that Kellogg is doing this as a public service to improve kids’ nutrition: it is starting with Froot Loops.
What kind of fiber and how much? Kellogg is a bit vague on these points, but says the fiber will be a combination of whole grain corn and oat flours and fibers. Metamucil anyone? And why don’t they just make whole grain cereals in the first place?
That’s why I keep thinking that functional foods are about marketing, not health.
Printer-friendly versionAbout the author
Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley.
She is the author of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism and What to Eat.
You can read her Food Politics blog here:
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Comments
Liv Healthy
What an interesting article. Yes, the marketing people are doing a wonderful job of informing the public about the new benefits of their products- like probiotics in yogurt!
I guess it pays to be an informed consumer and to be proactive about your health to understand that you are still better off grabbing an apple than a bowl of Fruit Loops.
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