Fortified Fakery: Why Added Vitamins Don’t Redeem Junk Food

You often see adverts that boast the new-found wellness properties of a sugary cereal, which declares that the diabetes-inducing breakfast has been ‘fortified with 11 essential vitamins and minerals-part of a complete breakfast!’ The food industry would have us believe this makes the food better for us. However, in the same way that spraying perfume at the dump doesn’t make the rubbish go away, fortified junk foods are still junk.

Food manufacturers are playing fast and loose with the terms “functional food” and “functionally enhanced food”, which is putting your wellbeing at risk. As Michael Pollan argued in his January 2007 New York Times Magazine story, the nutrient fortification of everything implies that a food itself is nutritious, and this is the very epitome of the dangerous trend Pollan referred to as “nutritionism”. Can a food that is dysfunctional to begin with be made functional with the addition of vitamins and minerals? Or is it, to borrow a metaphor, like putting lipstick on a pig?

As there isn’t a commonly accepted definition of a functional food, we’re getting into all kinds of trouble. Functional food should be a term used to describe a food that is of intrinsic nutritional value, which, when nutrients are added for some specific and measurable function, becomes enhanced.  It makes sense that food cannot be “functional” if the function in question cannot be specified or measured.

Take a dressing or a spread that has been made with monounsaturated oils and/or omega-3 polyunsaturated oils. This food has intrinsic nutritional value; heart health. Now, if manufacturers were to add lipid-lowering plant sterols to the dressing or spread, it would qualify as a functional food. The addition has been directed at a discrete and measurable function; plant sterols can lower LDL cholesterol. Another good example would be adding probiotic bacteria to organic, fat-free, plain yoghurt.

Therefore, fortification should not be used to exonerate nutrition that is missing in the food itself. Adding vitamins to fizzy drinks or sweetened water does not redeem the product, it only makes it easier to market to unsuspecting parents. The food industry might like you to believe that enough nutrients at the end of a long ingredient list of junk confer a salutary glow, but doing so would be, in a word, dysfunctional.

Fortified Fakery: Why Added Vitamins Don’t Redeem Junk Food

Categories: Fortified, Functional, junk

You Are What You Eat: The “Vitamins” in Artificial Food

One of the problematic trends in modern foods is that there is the consistent reassurance that anything you stick in your mouth is good for you. Granted, it’s likely that at some point, you may think, “Well, I do need sugar!” or “Well, fat is good for you!”

Pop! In it goes.

So where’s the problem?

Whilst it’s true that most foods, processed or otherwise, tend to have a ship-ton of vitamins and supplements, they cannot cancel out the dangerous chemicals that have been mixed in as well. Everything, from breakfast cereals to even water has a ton of minerals and vitamins that are not entirely natural or beneficial.

Our bodies need a sufficient amount of nutrients, to take in what’s needed and push out what isn’t. What we have adopted in modern society is that the vitamins and minerals that we stick into food is enhancing it, but this is not entirely true.

What we think is enhancing food is actually fortifying it – what is referred to by Pollan as “nutritionism” which is to substitute useful nutrients in food and replace them with useless or even harmful products in order it to seem fulfilling.

The best kind of nutrient in your diet is something that can be absorbed properly. Anything that’s good for your metabolism is good for you overall, whether it’s weight loss, health balance or simply your mood.

This can technically be defined as “functional food”, whilst non-functional is something artificially made, such as colourful breakfast cereals for your kids.

It’s reasonable enough to assume that if you can’t specify what exactly it is that you’re benefiting from as a result of chowing down artificial produce, then it can’t be good for you.

Examples of “functional food” can be food such as the bacterium in yoghurt, which can regulate your digestive system or other dietary requirements.

The message is simple – you are what you eat.

You Are What You Eat: The “Vitamins” in Artificial Food

Categories: artificial food, breakfast cereals, cereals, Food, Functional, functional food, minerals, Supplements, vitamins

If you want to improve your heart’s wellness, you might want to add functional foods to your diet in order to do it. Functional foods are any foods that boost your wellbeing beyond basic nutrition. Though every health expert will tell you the sentiment of registered dietician Susan Moores, ‘The most important message is: first lay the foundation of a healthy diet with whole foods, then weave in functional foods’, and not every functional food is backed by scientific evidence, 6 have come out on top. Firstly, calcium is instrumental in helping maintain healthy blood pressure levels, helping with regular heart beat and maintaining strong bones. You need 700mg daily, alongside vitamin D for efficient absorption of calcium, and alongside the regular choices of dairy products, there are functional food options such as dark, leafy greens, fortified orange or other juices, breads and soya milk. You can gain vitamin D through 10 to 15 minutes of sunshine several times a week. However, your body’s ability to make vitamin D may be limited by dark skin, culture and religion, season or geography but you can find vitamin D in functional foods such as milk, yoghurt and fruit juices, and you need to get 5mcg a day, whilst it’s recommended that the elderly, and pregnant and breastfeeding women, consider taking a supplement of 10mcg of vitamin D. The third functional food is fibre, which is important for aiding digestion, and maintaining healthy cholesterol levels and heart health. Functional foods such as breads, cereals, soya milk and yoghurts can fill in gaps after the prime sources of produce and wholegrains. Most of us get 12g daily, but the NHS advises that you get at least 18g to fight disease and aid digestion. The NHS also recommends you get plenty of omega-3 fatty acids as they ‘can help maintain a healthy heart and reduce risk of heart disease’ as well as lower cholesterol. Salmon, walnuts and linseeds are good whole-food sources, and you can get extra functional foods sources such as omega-3-rich eggs, breads, milk, soya milk and cereal. The British Heart Foundation suggests that everyone eats at least two portions of fish a week, one portion being of oily fish. The 2 Ps round off the list: Plant sterols and stanols, and Probiotics. Plant sterols and stanols aid cholesterol, reduce your risk of coronary artery disease, and can be found in spreads and yoghurts, as well as the small amounts naturally occurring in grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds. Finally, probiotics live micro-organisms very similar to the beneficial ones you’ve already got living inside your gut, and early evidence suggests that probiotics may benefit those on antibiotics, with some bowel disorders, diarrhoea or certain infections. Look for them in yoghurt, juices and soya drinks, if you think probiotics may fit into your diet, remembering to talk to your doctor and read labels carefully. What Functional Foods are Worth the Bother?

If you want to improve your heart’s wellness, you might want to add functional foods to your diet in order to do it. Functional foods are any foods that boost your wellbeing beyond basic nutrition. Though every health expert will tell you the sentiment of registered dietician Susan Moores, ‘The most important message is: first lay the foundation of a healthy diet with whole foods, then weave in functional foods’, and not every functional food is backed by scientific evidence, 6 have come out on top.

 

Firstly, calcium is instrumental in helping maintain healthy blood pressure levels, helping with regular heart beat and maintaining strong bones. You need 700mg daily, alongside vitamin D for efficient absorption of calcium, and alongside the regular choices of dairy products, there are functional food options such as dark, leafy greens, fortified orange or other juices, breads and soya milk.

 

You can gain vitamin D through 10 to 15 minutes of sunshine several times a week. However, your body’s ability to make vitamin D may be limited by dark skin, culture and religion, season or geography but you can find vitamin D in functional foods such as milk, yoghurt and fruit juices, and you need to get 5mcg a day, whilst it’s recommended that the elderly, and pregnant and breastfeeding women, consider taking a supplement of 10mcg of vitamin D.

 

The third functional food is fibre, which is important for aiding digestion, and maintaining healthy cholesterol levels and heart health. Functional foods such as breads, cereals, soya milk and yoghurts can fill in gaps after the prime sources of produce and wholegrains. Most of us get 12g daily, but the NHS advises that you get at least 18g to fight disease and aid digestion.

 

The NHS also recommends you get plenty of omega-3 fatty acids as they ‘can help maintain a healthy heart and reduce risk of heart disease’ as well as lower cholesterol. Salmon, walnuts and linseeds are good whole-food sources, and you can get extra functional foods sources such as omega-3-rich eggs, breads, milk, soya milk and cereal. The British Heart Foundation suggests that everyone eats at least two portions of fish a week, one portion being of oily fish.

 

The 2 Ps round off the list: Plant sterols and stanols, and Probiotics.  Plant sterols and stanols aid cholesterol, reduce your risk of coronary artery disease, and can be found in spreads and yoghurts, as well as the small amounts naturally occurring in grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds. Finally, probiotics live micro-organisms very similar to the beneficial ones you’ve already got living inside your gut, and early evidence suggests that probiotics may benefit those on antibiotics, with some bowel disorders, diarrhoea or certain infections. Look for them in yoghurt, juices and soya drinks, if you think probiotics may fit into your diet, remembering to talk to your doctor and read labels carefully.

What Functional Foods are Worth the Bother?

Categories: Advice, Food, Functional