NEW TREND - DEVELOPMENT OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS AND BEVERAGES
By Pete Maletto
Jan 8, 2007 - Functional Foods are foods that have specific micronutrient or macronutrient content that is designed to extend the health benefit beyond basic nutrition of the product. Examples can include functional foods infused with antioxidants, omega fatty acids, fiber and/or protein enriched whole grain foods, and nutrient fortified beverages.
Biologically active components of the nutrients and antioxidants used in functional foods usually impart health benefits or desirable physiological effects. New functional food ingredients are being discovered every day and consumer demand for "food with a healthy function" is a growing trend.
USING ANTIOXIDANTS IN FUNCTIONAL FOODS
Over the past fifty years scientists found that certain mechanisms are the progressive degradation of body functions that occur mostly through the destructive process of oxidative stress.
A good analogy of oxidative stress is simply explained as the car with no paint. When you leave an unpainted car outside it eventually gets rusty as the steel goes through an oxidation process. The rust gets deeper until holes appear and eventually complete destruction of the car occurs. The same kind of process happens within our bodies every day. The difference being with the human body, we are not talking about a single process like a rusting surface, we are talking about different systems that age at different rates.
To prevent this, smart food and beverage manufacturers are now using the power of antioxidants to reduce oxidative stress and provide a health benefit to the consumer in their functional foods.
Antioxidants are nutrients that reduce the damage caused by uncontrolled oxidation products of lipids, called organic peroxides. Science has shown that these organic peroxides from oxidation are mutagens that cause damage to the cellular DNA (which is our blueprint for new cell structure). Without antioxidants, the peroxides eventually create free radicals and cause elevated oxidative stress levels that inflict damage at a cellular level.
Medical research has shown that anti-oxidants can help our cells defend against this damage by using nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. We know these nutrients as the common vitamins A, C, E, and the minerals selenium and zinc. But more recently, another class of anti-oxidants is taking center stage. These antioxidants are known as phytochemicals, which are natural organic compounds found in plants and superfoods.
USING SUPER ANTIOXIDANTS KNOWN AS PHYTOCHEMICALS IN FOODS
Phytochemicals are the new phenomena in life extension. Some phytochemicals are shown to be over two hundred times more powerful than vitamin E; others show even greater antioxidant potential more specific to each system in the human body. Finally science is showing that we can reduce oxidative stress with certain superfoods that can be specific to each function in the human body.
As phytochemicals are showing extreme promise in reducing oxidative stress, the US Department of Agriculture has created a set of values. These values known as ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity), scientifically measures which superfoods contain the greatest amount of anti-oxidant capability. Infusing these superfoods into any food product increases its health benefit to the consumer.
Some superfoods cast a wide range of free radical fighting phytochemicals; the most powerful class is known as flavonoids and polyphenols. Superfoods that have a greater concentration of these anti-oxidant compounds have a greater ORAC value and therefore are more effective at reducing oxidative stress.
For example, green tea’s high catechin and polyphenol content gets most of it’s attention for anti-cancer and free radical fighting capabilities, but one superfood with an even higher anti-oxidant content is dark chocolate.
Dark Chocolate’s cocoa phytochemical content contains the main flavonoid polyphenols epicatechin, and catechin (both found in green tea), and polymers of these, the proanthocyanidins (found in the very popular anti-oxidant grape seed and pine bark extract).
Clinical studies have shown that eating dark chocolate cocoa flavonoids is associated with creating optimal cardiovascular health, prevention of cancers and mutations, and decreasing the aging process.
Dark Chocolate’s cocoa flavonoids have also been demonstrated to scavenge reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen free radicals. They can also chelate metals, such as iron, which also participate in elevated free radical activity. The most popular clinical study on Cocoa flavonoids has been shown that they inhibit the oxidation of LDL. The oxidation of LDL is thought to be a crucial event in cardiovascular disease.
While Cocoa flavonoids reduce oxidative stress they also seem to interact with brain chemistry. The polyphenol content in cocoa increases anti-oxidant activity in the brain, improving cell communication. Cocoa flavonoids also have been shown to induce a calm feeling by positively affecting serotonin levels. This is also enhanced by cocoa’s ability to produce a natural chemical called anandamide in the brain, which acts as a euphoric natural painkiller.
Imagine creating a beverage with this kind of effect.....
BERRY ANTIOXIDANTS SHOWING PROMISE IN FOODS AND BEVERAGES
Very powerful antioxidant superfoods can come from berries. Berries contains anthocyanins, which are a group of phytochemicals found in red wine. Anthocyanins, a flavonoid category, were found in one clinical study to have the combined anti-oxidant power of over 150 types of flavonoids.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently tested the abilities of berry varieties to protect against oxidative damage. In general, they found that berries such as Wolfberry, Acai, Blueberry, Raspberry and Bilberry have the highest antioxidant capacity of any fruit. Different varieties of the same species have varying amounts of anthocyanins.
Other foods that show great antioxidant capabilities are green foods such as wheat grass, barley grass, blue green algae, chlorella or spirulina. They contain powerful enzymes called SOD (super oxide dismutase), which help the body reduce oxidation by boosting its own internal antioxidant called glutathione. Popularity of these healthful "green ingredients" is growing in the US and food manufacturers are taking notice.
We are in the midst of an antioxidant superfood revolution. Twenty years ago, you would have been hard-pressed to find any scientific papers highlighting the importance of our certain foods in our diet in relation to our health. Today, the medical journals are filled with such references and amazingly enough, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has even stepped in noticing a key role anti-oxidants play on our health. It appears that the scientific world is finally recognizing that the foods we eat play a key role in the health and disease.
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