Healthy Skepticism Library item: 10142

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Lang T.
Functional foods
BMJ 2007 May 19; 334:(7602):1015
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/334/7602/1015

Abstract:

Their long term impact and marketing need to be monitored

Functional foods, also known as “nutraceuticals” or “designer foods” are foods containing supplements that are intended to improve health, and they are slowly emerging on supermarket shelves worldwide. The market is divided into two main categories. Firstly, breakfast cereals fortified with fibre and sometimes vitamins and, secondly, dairy or yoghurt drinks and yoghurts with probiotic bacteria. Manufacturers of foods, soft drinks, and drugs have invested heavily in this sector to create a market that aims to cover 5% of the value of food sales worldwide.1 By 2005, global sales were an estimated $73.5bn (£36.9bn; 54.3bn) and, although slowing, still on target to reach $167bn after 2010.2 In this week’s BMJ, de Jong and colleagues3 discuss various aspects of functional foods-their effectiveness, long term safety and marketing.

There are two broad positions on functional foods. Proponents argue that they are a consumer friendly way to improve diets and fulfil the aim of nutrition as a source of preventing ill health. They see them in the forefront of “personalised medicine” and health through consumer choice.
Sceptics argue that the market for functional foods is corporate and driven by the need to diversify and create niche sectors in saturated food markets. They also argue that functional foods are affordable and appealing only to the “worried well,” or worse, could be an extra burden on poor people’s finances…