Table of contents:
- What are functional foods?
- What are some examples?
- Are these foods beneficial for health?
- Remember, functional foods are not substitutes for food
So far, you may often see various types of food products that are claimed to be healthy. With advances in technology, humans create foods that are enriched with certain nutrients to produce healthier foods. One type of food that you may hear often is functional food. What the heck is it?
What are functional foods?
Functional foods are foods or drinks that are enriched with certain nutrients or substances (such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, and probiotics) outside of the natural nutrients that are already in these foods. This is intended to add value to food so that it can have a positive effect on health beyond the existing basic nutritional value.
What are some examples?
Functional foods include a very wide range of food products. Ranging from foods made from certain functional ingredients (for example dairy products containing probiotics) to daily staple foods that are fortified with certain nutrients (such as fortified cereals with folic acid, cooking oil enriched with vitamin A, eggs fortified with acids omega-3 fats, and many more).
Examples of functional ingredients commonly added to food are:
- Probiotics, are good bacteria that are the same as the bacteria in your intestines. Eating foods that contain probiotics can improve your gut health.
- Prebiotics, can encourage the growth of good bacteria in the intestines and inhibit the growth of bad bacteria in the intestines, thereby also improving intestinal health.
- Stanols and sterols can have a cholesterol-lowering effect, so they are often added to low-fat margarine.
Are these foods beneficial for health?
Often times, functional foods are labeled with certain health claims that state they can be beneficial to health. Maybe this is true. However, you as a consumer must be smart in choosing food. Not infrequently, these claims are also misleading, so don't believe it easily.
It is important that you take a second look between foods and the nutrients or functional ingredients they add to them. Find out if substances added to food can be absorbed by food. And, after you eat these functional foods, do you feel the impact on your health, for example on blood pressure or blood cholesterol.
Remember, functional foods are not substitutes for food
Although functional foods contain a variety of nutrients that can improve health and help you meet the nutrients you need, these foods still cannot replace the natural nutrients found in foods. You still have to try to meet your nutritional needs by having a balanced nutritional diet (consuming food sources of carbohydrates, vegetable protein, animal protein, vegetables, and fruits).
After all, functional foods can only provide health benefits not provide solutions to your health problems. You can add functional foods to your daily diet as a healthy alternative. But, don't forget to keep eating other fresh foods that contain natural nutrients.
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