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What to consider when choosing nutraceuticals or probiotics. If you're a television watcher, you've probably noted a number of perky advertisements for functional foods (also known as nutraceuticals), a burgeoning field of study in nutrition.
In Wonderbread television spots, devoted parents feed their children slices of bread infused with omega-3 DHA (docosahexaeonoic acid), a fatty acid touted as brain food. Studies have shown omega-3 DHA -- found in fatty fish such as salmon -- aids the development of the brain, eyes and nerves.
Similarly, TV ads for a new probiotic drink called DanActive (a dairy product meant to be consumed daily) feature a working mother who downs a drink full of special bacteria to boost her body's immune system and help her cope with the demands of a busy life.
We spoke to Diana Steele, a registered dietitian in Vancouver and a spokeswoman for Danone (which makes DanActive), about the health claims.
Steele, a private dietary consultant with her own company, Eating for Energy, is a regular spokeswoman for the Canadian Dietetics Association. In the interview, Steele was not speaking for the association about the role of probiotics, but rather as a consultant paid by Danone.
"I only discuss topics that I believe in and that will maintain my integrity as a dietitian," she says about her role with Danone.
Q: Can you define functional foods?
A: My definition of a functional food is a food that contains nutrients that have a function to provide some sort of health benefit to the consumer, outside of calories.
Q: Can't Canadians get enough health benefits simply by following Canada's Food Guide and eating five to 10 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables a day?
A: That's why the Canadian food guide was designed, to be able to capture the greatest number of people in our population and ensure the majority of Canadians will get the nutrients they need to be healthy. It includes a lot of the foods that are functional . . . (For example,) the guide says you need one orange and one green fruit or vegetable every day.
That suggests there is something in those fruits and vegetables that provides health benefits, and so those are functional foods.
Q: Can you give some examples of other diseases that could be prevented through functional foods?
A: Eating leafy greens reduces the risk of macular degeneration because they contain antioxidants. So with leafy greens like broccoli and kale, if you were eating those, you would reduce your risk of macular degeneration in advance.
Many of these functional foods contain antioxidants -- things like blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and cranberries -- all those are really high in an antioxidant called anthocyanin, and they will reduce the risk of certain types of cancer.
And then there are foods such as probiotics, which can help improve our immune system on a regular basis, therefore reducing the number of infections or colds.
Q: How do probiotics such as DanActive work as functional foods?
A: Our immune system is 70 per cent in our digestive tract. The digestive tract is the main connector between the outside world and the inside world, so when you consume something that may have a contaminant on it, if you ate a food after somebody sneezed on it, that virus goes into the digestive tract.
Liane Faulder, Edmonton Journal
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