You thought you understood food. Whole foods are those to enjoy in abundance and processed foods much less so – but the world of food is changing. These days, you hear talk of fortified foods and functional foods. What are they anyway? Many people are confused about the concept of functional foods and what makes them different from fortified foods. Let’s see what each is and how they differ from one another.
A Few Points about Food in General
The main purpose of eating food is to supply your bodies with the macronutrients (protein, carbs, and fat) it needs to produce energy and, in the case of protein, build and repair tissues, including muscle tissue. In addition, food supplies essential vitamins and minerals your body exploits as co-factors or helpers to get the job done. When you’re deficient in one of these vitamins or minerals, chemical reactions inside your body can’t take place as easily, which can have serious consequences. Of course, food also tastes good, so it also provides pleasure, another purpose of eating.
Functional Foods
Basic food supplies our body’s basic needs, but functional foods go a step further. These foods supply macronutrients, vitamins, and minerals, as all food does, but also contain components that do more. You can best define functional foods as foods with biologically active compounds and ingredients that improve health or lower the risk of disease. These ingredients aren’t just vitamins and minerals but may include antioxidants, phytonutrients, enzymes or live cultures. Functional foods and beverages usually offer a specific health benefit. Therefore, sports drinks are a functional beverage because they replace electrolytes you lose when you sweat.
Although you might think functional foods must be healthy because they offer a proposed health benefit, that’s not always the case. Some functional foods are processed foods with something added to it that offers a potential health benefit. An example is margarine with added plant stanols and sterols. Research suggests these plant-based components may lower cholesterol by blocking its absorption.
Manufacturers add these plant components to margarine and promote the margarine as “heart healthy.” Unfortunately, margarine is made from inexpensive, processed polyunsaturated oils and may still contain small amounts of trans-fat. A better bread spread might be mashed avocado with its natural, heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. So don’t assume all functional foods are healthy.
Functional Foods for Gut Health
One example of a functional food that’s minimally processed and likely offers added health benefits is yogurt with active probiotic cultures. Needless to say, you hear a lot about gut bacteria these days. The trillions of tiny organisms that make their home in your gut appear to play a role in digestive health and in maintaining a healthy immune system. According to preliminary research, they may even impact weight control and metabolic health.
Yogurt with active cultures is a functional food that can help build a healthier, more diverse population of gut bacteria in your intestinal tract. Potentially, that can pay off with health benefits, but be sure to choose a yogurt that contains no added sugar or other sweeteners.
What Are Fortified Foods?
In contrast to functional foods, fortified foods are not made to offer a specific health benefit. Fortification and enrichment of foods are usually lumped together, but they mean something slightly different. Enrichment involves replacing vitamins and minerals stripped away when a food is refined or processed while fortification is adding extra vitamins or minerals to a food product that wouldn’t normally be there.
The best example of an enriched food is breakfast cereal. The grains used to make many of these cereals are stripped of their most nutritious layers, the germ, and the bran. When this layer is removed so are most of the B vitamins, iron, and fiber. To make up for the shortfall, manufacturers add vitamins and minerals back into the product.
True fortification is when vitamins and minerals are added to make a processed food more nutritious and to give it a more favorable nutritional profile. Folic acid, a synthetic form of folate, is commonly added to processed foods because lack of folate is linked with neural tube defects, a type of birth defect involving the brain and spinal cord in newborn babies.
The good news? Since taking this step, the number of neural tube defects in babies has dropped. Unfortunately, it’s not clear whether taking in high doses of folic acid is safe. Some research suggests folic acid at higher levels may promote the growth of cancer cells. Other commonly fortified food products include bread, milk, infant formula, and oils.
A major difference between fortified foods and functional foods is the quantity of vitamin and mineral added to a product, in the case of fortified foods, isn’t necessarily enough to provide a major health benefit, it’s mostly there to prevent deficiency or create a more favorable nutritional profile. In contrast, functional foods theoretically contain enough of some component to have a specific health benefit. For example, plant sterols lower cholesterol for heart health and yogurt supplies your intestines with gut-friendly bacteria.
Natural, Functional Foods
Thus far we’ve talked about packaged functional foods, but whole foods you find in nature have their own natural components. These chemicals and compounds offer health benefits that extend beyond basic nutrition. Here are a few examples, although not all of the health benefits are proven in humans:
Flaxseed – lignans – may lower the risk of breast cancer
Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, kale etc.) – glucosinolates – helps with liver detoxification and may lower the risk for some forms of cancer
Oats – beta-glucans – lowers cholesterol and may reduce the risk for heart disease
Tea – catechins – may offer a variety of health benefits, including reducing the risk of some cancers and heart disease
Garlic – sulfur-containing compounds – may lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and reduce risk for heart disease
Red wine and grapes – resveratrol – may lower the risk for heart disease
Dark chocolate – flavanols – lowers blood pressure and improves blood vessel function
As you can see, many whole foods offer functional health benefits that go beyond basic nutrition. Those are the type to enjoy in abundance. The development of functional foods is in its infancy, but you can enjoy the benefits now by eating a diversity of foods like the ones listed above. Keep in mind this is only a small sampling of natural chemicals and compounds in whole foods that offer natural benefits. Enjoy them and other whole foods – no packaging required.
References:
European Food and Information Council. “Functional Foods”
Lab Clin Med. 2004 Apr;143(4):255
Am J Clin Nutr January 2007 vol. 85 no. 1 3-5.
Functional Foods: Their Role in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Claire M. Hasler, Ph.D.
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