Functional Food and It's Role
Functional Food and It's Role
Functional Food and It's Role
I am very thankful to
Dr RAJASEKARAN sir
2
to give me a chance to make
1
this digital assignment 2 on
3
4 the topic Functional foods
and it’s role .
Lifestyle, diet & physical activity
Human societies have become less rural and more urban and
economic activity has become proportionally less agricultural
and more industrially based. These changes have brought
benefits in terms of improvements in many aspects of quality of
life and health and they have also brought changes to the way
individuals interact, the amount of leisure time they have, their
access to food and their levels of physical activity. In developed
countries improvements in the quality of life, not the least of
which is a safer, more varied diet, are associated with increased
and increasing longevity. In general, individuals have more
leisure time, they have greater access to a wider variety of foods
and their daily routine requires less physical activity. These
changes, however, have made it increasingly difficult to balance
energy intake and expenditure, resulting in increased frequency
of overweight and obesity worldwide.
Food functionality: defining the concept
The first systematic exploration of the positive In the latter half of the 1990s, the European
aspects of food functionality was undertaken in Commission funded an activity to establish a
Japan. Research programmes funded by the science-based approach to exploring the
Japanese government during the 1980s focused concept of functional foods. This Concerted
on the ability of some foods to influence Action, “Functional Food Science in Europe”
physiological functions. This led, in 1991, to the (FUFOSE), involved a large number of European
definition in Japanese law of a category of experts in nutrition and related sciences and
“foods for special dietary use”, which were produced a consensus report that has become
allowed to carry claims for specific health effects widely used as a basis for discussion and
on their labelling. further evolution of thinking on the topic.
However the functional food may be constituted (whether modified or not), it has to comply with the general
requirement that it must be safe. In any discussion of food functionality, in either a regulatory or a scientific
context, there is no consideration of a tradeoff between health benefit and health risk. Whether a food is
considered to be functional or not, it must always be safe for its intended use.
01 A natural, unmodified food. A food to which a component has
been added to provide benefits
A functional
food can be 03 A food from which a component has been removed by
technological or biotechnological means so that the food
provides benefits not otherwise available
Regulation of
energy balance and Intestinal function –
body weight the gut microflora
Regulation of energy Dietary intakes and balance influence all metabolic and physiological processes. An optimally balanced
balance and body weight diet is usually expressed in terms of its energy and content of macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats and
proteins). Within these broad classes of macronutrients, there are sub-classes, which have differing
nutritional impacts
Defence against The human body has several mechanisms for defense against ROS. The various defenses are
oxidative stress complementary to one another because they act on different oxidants or in different cellular
compartments. One important line of defense is a system of antioxidant enzymes. Nutrition plays a key
role in maintaining these enzymatic defenses.
Intestinal function – the The gut microflora provides the basis for a barrier that prevents harmful bacteria from invading the GI
gut microflora tract. Moreover, it plays a major role in eliciting, at an early age, an immune system which has a
measured response to foreign proteins as potential antigens, balanced with an effective resistance to
infection. The intestinal microflora, together with the gut’s own immune system, allows the resident
bacteria to perform a protective function, especially against the proliferation of pathogens.
Role of
Technology Technology can help to achieve this goal
in three ways:
Technology, in the form of food processing, is an
established part of the food chain. It serves to
convert raw materials into edible, safe and
• By creating new functional food
nutritious food with the taste and texture, shelf life components in traditional materials, in
and convenience to suit everyday needs. new raw materials or by synthesising
Technology also provides the means to extract
components with functionality from foods and raw
materials and to optimize their form and chemical • By maximising the presence of
structure to make them suitable for inclusion in functional food components already
new food products. The extraction of phytosterols
from plant sources and their esterification, either
existing in foods and raw materials by
as sterols or in hydrogenated form as stanols, to improving their preservation, modifying
enable them to be incorporated into products for their function or increasing their
use in reducing serum LDL-cholesterol (described
above) provides an example of this. As more food
bioavailability
components with the desired functionality are
identified, technology has the potential to • By providing the means to monitor the
maximize their accessibility and availability so
that they become available on an everyday basis
amount and effectiveness of functional
in a form that suits consumers’ needs and components in foods and raw materials to
preferences. ensure that they are retained to the
maximum degree at all stages in the food
chain
Functional foods and drugs
Functional foods are not medicines. Although they are intended to modify
physiological functions within the body in a positive way, their mode of
action is to restore, reinforce or maintain normal body processes in ways
consistent with normal physiology. They may restore or enhance body
functions within normal ranges in order to optimise health and well-being
or they may reduce factors known to be associated with the risk of
contracting diseases. Medicines on the other hand function by intervening
in disturbed physiological processes or by amplifying physiological
processes beyond normal extremes in order to achieve an effect. Their
function is to treat or prevent diseases, or to heighten physiological
performance outside the normal range. However, there is no absolute
boundary between foods and drugs in terms of their functionality. The
distinction has to be made case by case, taking into account the type of
product (food, supplement or pill) and its effect.
Infographic Style
Examples of technological challenges, with possible solutions and
examples of applications, to optimize functional food components
Possible Examples of
Technological
technological applications
challenges solutions
Garlic
Garlic (Allium sativum) is likely the herb most widely quoted in the literature for medicinal
properties.The purported health benefits of garlic are numerous, including cancer
chemopreventive, antibiotic, antihypertensive, and cholesterol-lowering properties.
Functional Foods Broccoli
Epidemiological evidence has associated the frequent consumption of cruciferous
From vegetables with decreased cancer risk. In a recent review of 87 casecontrol studies,
Verhoeven et al. (1996) demonstrated an inverse association between consumption
of total brassica vegetables and cancer risk.
Plant Sources
Citrus Fruits
Several epidemiological studies have shown that citrus fruits are protective against
a variety of human cancers. Although oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruits are a
principal source of such important nutrients as vitamin C, folate, and fiber,) It is
suggested as another component that is responsible for the anticancer activity.
Cranberry
Recent investigations have focused on the ability of cranberry juice to inhibit the
adherence of Escherichia coli to uroepitheial cells (Schmidt and Sobota, 1988). This
phenomenon has been attributed to two compounds: fructose and a nondialyzable
polymeric compound
Tea
Tea is second only to water as the most widely consumed beverage in the world. A
great deal of attention has been directed to the polyphenolic constituents of tea,
particularly green tea (Harbowy and Balentine, 1997). Polyphenols comprise up to 30%
of the total dry weight of fresh tea leaves.
Functional Foods Fish
Omega-3 (n-3)fatty acids are an essential class of polyunsaturated fatty acids
From (PUFAs) derived primarily from fish oil. It has been suggested that the Western-type
diet is currently deficient in n-3 fatty acids, which is reflected in the current estimated
n-6 to n-3 dietary ratio of 20:25, compared to the 1:1 ratio on which humans evolved
Animal Sources
Although the vast number of naturally Dairy Products
occurring health-enhancing substances There is no doubt that dairy products are functional foods. They are the best sources of
are of plant origin, there are a number calcium, an essential nutrient which can prevent osteoporosis and possibly colon cancer.
of physiologically-active components in In addition to calcium, however, recent research has focused specifically on other
components in dairy products, particularly fermented dairy products known as probiotics
animal products that deserve attention
for their potential role in optimal health.
Beef
An anticarcinogenic fatty acid known as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) was first isolated
from grilled beef in 1987 (Ha et al., 1987). CLA refers to a mixture of positional and
geometric isomers of linoleic acid (18:2 n-6) in which the double bonds are conjugated
instead of existing in the typical methylene interrupted configuration.
NON-VEG
History and the concept of a balanced diet
Refrences