Orange juice with Echinacea and Zinc, St. John's Wort Tea, Kava Kava Corn Chips, and Brain Power Cereal with Gingko and Gotu Kola are just a few items on the market that fall into the category of "functional foods." Unlike conventional foods, functional foods come packed with "added value" - in the form of vitamins, minerals, plant chemicals, or herbs - that are intended to provide specific health benefits such as fighting a cold or preventing a disease.
Lycopene from tomatoes, Allicin from garlic, and Gingko Biloba (a Chinese herb) are some of the ingredients in functional foods being studied for their disease-fighting abilities. The University of Illinois, Urbana, has created an entire program based on functional foods within its Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition due to growing evidence that functional foods can dramatically improve health and reduce health care costs.
Although functional foods hold a lot of promises, current regulations do not ensure that they'll deliver on them. Consumer groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest fear that unethical manufacturers are marketing products that contain either an unspecified ingredient or a false amount of the added ingredient.
"For the most part, I think they're a waste of money," said Valerie Green, a MS/MPH Tufts nutrition student. "They fool people into thinking they're going to help them in some way when in fact, many of the ingredients haven't been tested for effectiveness or even safety... if they are, you never know how much you're getting or if you're getting anything at all."
Because functional foods are so new, there is no regulatory process in place to deal with them. There are currently three regulatory categories within the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that deal with the safety and labeling of products, including conventional foods, dietary supplements, and drugs. It is up to the manufacturers - not the regulators - to decide which existing regulatory category their functional food will fall into.
To circumvent the strict safety and labeling requirements of conventional foods and drugs, manufacturers can opt to market functional foods as dietary supplements. If marketed as a dietary supplement rather than a food, functional foods with ingredients that aren't considered safe by the FDA can be sold, and there is no obligation to state the amount of added ingredients on the label. The FDA's only ability to regulate these foods is to prove a product unsafe or falsely labeled in the courts - after they have already been placed on the market.
Some manufacturers will go to great lengths to make sure their products are safe and truthfully labeled, but there are many more that do not. Ninety-five percent of functional foods are not clinically tested by manufacturers, but make label claims despite lack of scientific evidence, according to Foundation of Innovation in Medicine.
Experts warn that herbs, a common ingredient in functional foods, are just as powerful as drugs. But drugs, because of their physiologic activity in the body, are subjected to rigid safety testing by FDA before they can be purchased.
"Herbs are drugs that induce significant physiological effects and should be employed in proper dosages at appropriate intervals," said Varro Tyler, PhD, ScD, professor emeritus at Purdue University, who specializes in herbal medicine. "Foods and beverages with added herbs are consumed in varying amounts at irregular intervals, which prevents any added drug from being used safely or effectively - their use in foods is improper and should be avoided," he continued at a Washington, DC, press conference in July.
But what about ingredients that are known to be safe?
Certain functional food ingredients are backed by significant scientific consensus for their health benefits. But if only a trace amount of the ingredient is added to a food, it will have absolutely no effect. When specific ingredient amounts aren't listed on labels, consumers have no way of knowing if they're getting what they paid for. Worse yet, you may pay top dollar for a supplement that has the amount listed, but the ingredient hasn't been standardized (which ensures an ingredient's purity) for efficacy. In either case, your money is wasted.
Another concern over functional foods is that they will take away from the important message to eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and grains. According to nutrition experts, a diet rich in variety of whole foods such as these is the best way to ward off disease because they naturally contain a variety of disease-fighting compounds (phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals) in levels that are known to be safe.
Despite all the controversy surrounding functional foods, they are currently the fastest-growing segment of the US food industry - ten times faster than conventional foods, according to Nutrition Business Journal. An aging baby-boomer population, anxious for products that will help them live to age 100, has fueled this influx of functional foods into the marketplace. You may have even tried one yourself when traditional medicines just weren't enough.
However, a lack of consistent policy regarding functional foods spells disaster for the consumer who expects reliable, science-backed claims on the products that they purchase. The next time you reach for that juice with St. Johns Wort, you just might want to think twice.
For more information on the functional food controversy visit www.cspinet.org or go to www.consumerlabs.com - a reliable source for the latest results on product safety and effectiveness including specific product reviews.
