Health Food Category: Functional Food, Designed Food
The definition of functional food comes from a theoretical basis and clinical verification. Clinical verification must from many clinical experiments. These experiment results must prove certain food has the advantages to the human body. For example, fish oil is one of the most commonly consumed dietary supplements. Clinical experiments show that omega-3 fatty acids are the main source that benefits health. So fish oil can be categorized as a functional food. This type of product usually emphasizes its effectiveness or function on health.
Finally, designed food is related to biotechnology. It is the food designed for special needs. For example, goat milk contained with antibiotics; when patients taking antibiotics, it can be taken along with goat milk. The same as caffeine-free coffee. In some cases, designed food includes genetic modification.
In general, we classify health food as 7 categories.
The sixth category is a very popular topic in the past 20 years, functional food. The definition of functional food comes from a theoretical basis and clinical verification. Clinical verification must from many clinical experiments. These experiment results must prove certain food has the advantages to the human body. Only then we will define it as functional food. Functional food usually contains unique nutrition elements. For instance, fish oil is one of the most commonly consumed dietary supplements. Fish oil is an important source to provide omega-3 fatty acids. Fish oil supplements are available as liquids or capsules. Fish oil can also be added or combined in other types of dietary supplements to provide more choices for consumers.
Clinical experiments shows that omega-3 fatty acids is the main source that benefits health. So if we use omega-3 fatty acids to produce a food product and this product has been through clinical verification to prove its advantages to health. Then we classify this product as a functional food. This advantage to health means to alleviate or prevent a specific disease or symptom. Experiments prove fish oil can lower triglycerides and thus prevent vascular disease. So functional foods, in a way of speaking, has a similar effect of the medicine. This type of product usually emphasizes its effectiveness or function on health. Other than fish oil, there are 2 otehr famous dietary supplements. One is red yeast rice. It is also very well-known.
It can be used to reduce cholesterol level. Even our ancestors know the benefits of red yeast rice and created many Asia recipe with red yeast rice such as crispy fried pork, fish, chicken and tofu. These can all marinade with red yeast rice sauce. More than 40 years ago, scientists from Japan and USA found that red yeast rice can be used to restrain endogenous cholesterol synthesis. The experiment group intake more red yeast rice has better control of cholesterol level. The other famous dietary supplement is lactic acid bacteria. Lactic acid bacteria is famous for improving the health of the intestine and stomach. In Chinese proverbs, a healthy stomach and intestine make you younger.
More active lactic acid bacteria in the human stomach and intestine will makes the person healthier. Instead of bad bacteria which can harm the human body, if good bacteria such as lactic acid bacteria is in control, the intestines will be healthy and in good condition. So lactic acid bacteria contained products will be labeled as functional food that can help improve the health of the intestines. Overall, there are many functional foods in the markets. More and more scientific evidence proving that there is a lot of good functional food I will give few interesting examples later. The seventh type of food is designer foods. Designer food is related to biotechnology. It is the food specifically used for and designed for a certain disease.
Biotechnology includes genetic modification. For example, through genetic modification, a certain species to secrete some substance that is healthy to humans in huge amounts. Designer food means that we use biotechnology or genetic modification to create this type of food. This food exists for specific demands. For instance, goat milk contained with antibiotics; when patients taking antibiotics, it can be taken along with goat milk. The same as coffee. We can see caffeine-free coffee So, removing the unfavorable elements in the food, which is the elements that we do not need through genetic modification or other process methods can create another kind of product. We call it the designer foods. However, the regulation for designer foods is extremely strict before launching to the markets.
Whether this type of food will have any impact on the environment remain debates. And there are also morality issues concerned in some cases. In general, we classify health food as 7 categories.
Functional Food: Development and Popularity
So, the classification of health food. We can see from this diagram functional food is different from dietary supplements . On top of this pyramid is medicine. Next is food that has medical effects. Then, it’s functional food. Dietary supplements is next. In terms of study and efforts, medicine requires the most. Medical food and herbs also require clinical trial to learn their effects. Investment of time and efforts to develop are also required. The cost and time that scientists invested in functional food is still quite a lot. Because consumer expects this type of food. We can generally classify health food in this manner.
To put a simple definition of functional food: foods have a positive effect on health beyond basic nutrition. Functional food must have a type of nutrients that is functional to the body after digestion and absorption. The earliest funcitonal food is developed from Japan Around 40 years ago, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan and Ministry of Education, Science and Culture had a very big project. Because of this project, the definition of functional food become important. They define functional food must have the functions of biophylaxis, biological rhythm and adjustment, or disease prevention and even health recovery. After the design and processing, food that has these functions can be called functional food. Japanese Industrial Center also makes some suggestions towards functional food.
They define functional food is not an essential food and is also not medicine. They serve as satisfaction toward customer’s pursuit of health. Therefore, the anticipation of functional food should not be an immediate medical effect. Helping prevention would be more appropriate in functional food. The development of functional food incorporate different enterprises. From medical science, nutrition, life science, biotechnology, and food science together. Since we have emphasized function, functional food is designed to meed special needs. For example, fish oil and red yeast rice that we mentioned earlier might be more meaningful for people with dyslipidemia. Next, we will see the evolution of functional food. There are first-generation, second-generation and third generation.
Functional food that has original physical states like lingzhi mushroom and green tea; as we know that green tea contains the effect of cholesterol reduction while lingzhi mushroom can be used to increase immunity. This is called 1st generation. If we abstract the functional composition from different food sources and concentrate them into capsule, caplets, or add as food additive, then it will become a second-generation functional food. If putting different food sources but with similar food ingredients together, we call it third-generation functional food. This is the general classification. The reasons for the popularity of health food are many. Many academic groups published lots of positive researches to the public.
The government are also very supportive, especially the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Department of Health, they hope researchers can publish positive news for physical health. Another reason for its popularity is that Taiwan has now become an aged society. The demand for functional food become higher. Also, social value towards healthcare and the awareness of health Being healthy becomes a great importance to social value. In addition, the government is encouraging the concept of prevention is better than cure. As a result, health food products become popular. With the advance of technology, many have pursued a better life quality. Consumers start to value their choice of healthy food. Last, with advanced food technology, merchandise starts to manufacture new health food products.
Those researches results of health food on the clinical trial in the past now become reality. So the reasons for health food popularity is complicated. I have only listed a few. Let’s look at some examples. For cancer patients, they prefer certain kinds of dietary supplements. You can see that polysaccharide, vitamin, minerals are all on the high-demand list among cancer patients.
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