Functional Foods

Functional foods- also called foods with benefits can either be natural or processed and offer a bit more than just providing simple nutrition of vitamins and minerals.

 

Certain bioactive compounds in functional foods may actually help prevent, manage or fight acute or chronic diseases and maintain your overall health. Remember that you are always better off eating healthy foods from a variety of food groups every day and not hope that just a couple of super functional foods will save you when you have an overall bad diet.

All healthy foods are functional to some degree, with energy and several nutrients: carbohydrates for energy, dietary fiber for digestive and cardiovascular health, protein for muscles, vitamins and minerals for a variety of other benefits. ‘Promoting optimal health and disease prevention and management’ is still the key here for a certain food to be classified as functional.

 

Vegetables and fruits are probably the best functional foods there are in nature, because of their antioxidant (lycopene, flavonoid, carotenoid, resveratrol, catechin and more) content and vitamins A, C and E and how they can help fight free radicals in your body that cause cancers and heart disease.

Be careful with packaged and processed foods that carry the term ‘functional food’ on their labels, simply as an advertising tool. Although packaged and processed foods can have certain added ingredients that offer genuine health benefits that make these foods functional, you are still safer with natural functional foods.

Food manufacturers are well aware now that the big money is in this healthy and functional food business as growing number of consumers are searching foods that are good for their well being, hence the increasing number of fortified foods on supermarket shelves.

Fortified foods are generally functional and they aim to help with common health problems: Vitamin D added milk, calcium added orange juice (single orange fruit is always better than juice due to dietary fiber and much lower sugar content) , iodine added salt and Omega 3 added spreads are some of these fortified, enriched or enhanced foods.

Now let’s have a look at some of the most common functional foods:

Broccoli and cauliflower– vitamin C to prevent colds, calcium for bone health, iron to prevent anemia and folic acid for healthy cells

Fish, walnuts, flaxseed, beans– Omega 3 fatty acids to improve brain health and to prevent heart diseases

Yogurt– calcium to prevent bone diseases and friendly bacteria to help digestive and immune system

Grapes– resveratrol to prevent cardiovascular diseases and diabetes

Berries– anthocyanin pigments and other powerful antioxidants help fight free radicals and prevent cancer

Nuts– Omega 3 fatty acids, arginine amino acid to boost immunity, fiber to lower blood cholesterol and to stabilize blood sugar, vitamin E for healthy skin and metabolism

Tea– antioxidants and green tea- even higher level of antioxidants (catechins) to reduce bad cholesterol

 

Oatmeal and Barley (Whole grains)– soluble dietary fiber to decrease cholesterol , to help with stabilizing the blood glucose, to prevent some cancers (breast, rectal and colon)

Dark chocolate in moderation- flavonoid antioxidant, a glass of red wine a day- resveratrol antioxidants, a cup of coffee in the morning- various polyphenols all help fight free radicals and prevent cancers, lower high blood pressure and bad cholesterols including triglycerides.

Return from Functional Foods to Glycemic Index

Or back to Low Glycemic Foods from Functional Foods