What are “Functional Foods”?
November 25, 2008 by rainier
It is a term that gets bantered about by people who are food scientists or food companies that are talking about different kinds of foods. Usually when they are talking about a functional food it is a food analog, which is a food that has been put together by a food manufacturer. It might also be called a nutraceutical.
Functional foods can also be natural foods which have been found to be beneficial for a specific purpose.Some companies manufacture internal tube feeding formulas for
hospital use. The composition of the product contains all the nutrition in the right proportions for protein and amino acids plus fat with the right fatty acids and the right vitamins and minerals and you put all that together and it has a particular food functionality.
There are foods that are designed to resolve particular health problems. Let’s take something common like lactose intolerance,people have trouble digesting the lactose because they are missing an enzyme called lactaid. So an example of a functional food would be a food that was put together without any milk protein or lactose sugar. It functions with that person who is lactose intolerant. You can take that example and apply it to anyone else who has special feeding needs.
