There is a new range of foods making its way onto the supermarket shelves, known in the trade as functional foods. More like medicine than food, functional foods are designed to stop you getting ill by reducing blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, keeping joints pain free, improving the body’s natural immunity and even slowing the ageing process.
For example, Flora produce a mini yogurt drink containing specially formulated milk proteins that can relax blood vessels and prevent blood pressure from rising too high. Consumed daily, it works in a similar way to some blood pressure tablets but without the side effects.
Another group of functional foods lower blood cholesterol. When sterols – a natural substance obtained from a range of plants – are incorporated into milk, yogurts and spreads they can help to lower high cholesterol levels by about ten per cent. They do this by reducing the absorption of cholesterol into the blood stream. But three portions of these foods must be eaten each day other wise they do not work.
Another really big player in the functional foods market are probiotics. Probiotics are live cultures of beneficial or ‘friendly’ bacteria. They are usually formulated as a daily shot of flavoured live yoghurt. These friendly bacteria are claimed to bolster our immune system and prevent gut upsets by displacing potentially harmful bugs.
At first sight, these foods would seem to be the ideal solution for the many ailments we suffer from. A quarter of adults in the UK have high blood pressure, half of us have high cholesterol levels and one in five suffer from an irritable bowel. Being able to treat these conditions yourself by taking something as innocuous as yoghurt and not suffer the side effects of tablets must be a good idea. But this doesn’t mean you can avoid medical advice altogether. High blood pressure and cholesterol are both serious risk factors for developing heart disease, and treatment must be carefully selected and monitored closely. And to be effective, any treatment including functional foods must be taken together with a change in lifestyle, cutting fat consumption, eating more fruit and vegetables, taking more physical exercise and reducing weight. There is no quick fix.
With regard to probiotics, the jury is still out. There is no established evidence to suggest that bacterial populations in the gut of people with problems like Irritable Bowel Syndrome are disturbed or even that taking probiotics can alter bacterial populations in the gut of healthy people. They may not even survive the journey. Nevertheless, it seems likely that probiotics may help to reseed the colon after an attack of diarrhoea.
Functional foods appeal because of their convenience. Some are genuinely-researched and offer novel ingredients that can bring about health benefits quicker than would normally be the case through eating conventionally healthy foods alone. But the danger comes if people rely on these foods in place of a healthy diet and lifestyle or before seeking medical advice.
Did you know
- Losing ten per cent of your body weight can significantly reduce both high blood pressure and blood cholesterol
- Eating a wide range of fruit, vegetables, whole grains and pulses can increase your intake of plant sterols naturally
- Learning to relax and deal with the stress in your life can help to control symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)