Category: Attention

Functional Food: How Healthy Is It?

5/31/2011

Boosts your immunity. Good for digestion. Improves attention. These are some of the common claims made by major food companies to market their "functional food."
This phenomena has been explained by a recent NY Times article (5/14/11).

But how healthful are they? Is there actually science behind these claims?

Usually there is at least one scientific study which the companies use as a marketing springboard for their "functional food" product. But as far as how healthy the food item may be, the "for your health" advertising is often misleading and incomplete.

One such example is American Heart Association-approved Welches Grape Juice. It is approved because it is fat free (as opposed to those lard-laden juices?). Welches Grape Juice earns the AHA red "Healthy Heart" logo on the front of the juice containers, even though it contains 36 grams of sugar per serving (eight ounces). This amount of sugar falls somewhere between a Mountain Dew and a Pepsi- not what I'd call healthy, and probably not the best for your cardiovascular system.

In another particularly egregious use of research to promote "functional foods," Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats was marketing their cereal as improving children's attentiveness. These results were obtained by comparing children's attentiveness in the morning before their breakfast and after three hours. The control group got water for breakfast. Only half of the Mini Wheats kids showed better attentiveness than the water-fasted kids.

So it doesn't appear that concerned parents should be loading their kids up on those sugar bombs just quite yet. After whole wheat, the three remaining primary ingredients in Frosted Mini Wheats are sugar, high fructose corn syrup and gelatin. I can think of just a few better ideas for improving a child's attention than those food items.

So, how to tell what's what when grocery store items are being branded and sponsored by national disease associations faster than NASCAR drivers? First take a look at the ingredients, and turn a discerning eye to those which are "enriched" or include ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, artificial coloring (like red # 40). If the food has a longer ingredient list than you have an attention span for reading, the processed nature probably outweighs the health benefits.

Lastly, if the brand is a billion-dollar international company, they're probably not too concerned for your digestive health. Just look to that food critic in you to sift the food that's actually good for you from the bright colors and cartoon figures promising health benefits.

Thanks for reading!
-Angela

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Be a Food Connoisseur: Stand Up for Your Right to Eat Good Food!

3/1/2011

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Food and Health. The two are inextricably linked. A significant aspect of the disease epidemics currently plaguing our society is born from a lack of appreciation for the basics that sustain and nurture us: good food, clean air, exercise and love.

Treat each meal like a wine connoisseur does wine: take your time to know its source, recognize those who made the product and savor all the complexity of our meals. Wine connoisseurs study, appreciate and savor wines over the course of years and decades, just to gain a deeper and richer understanding for what amounts to an alcoholic beverage made of grapes. Doesn't our food merit the same level of appreciation?

How many meals to you eat each year? Maybe around 1,000? And how much time have you spent trying to get the best possible quality for that which, at the most basic level, is the components from which our body creates each and every cell, enzyme and metabolic process? Isn't your body worth the effort?

I say that we all could use more attention to detail when it comes to our food. After all, aren't you worth it? I should think so. Eat like your life depends on it!

I welcome all of your comments, questions and perspectives on what I write here, and about the larger subject of natural medicine as well. Please write a quick note on the Contact page, I look forward to hearing from you!
-Angela

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Functional Food: How Healthy Is It?

Be a Food Connoisseur: Stand Up for Your Right to Eat Good Food!

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