Functional Foods - Alternative to Medicines & Buds

It's not a secret that the state of our health largely depends on what we eat. According to the information of the chief dietitian of Moscow Andrey Sharafetdinov, up to 60% of deaths in Russia are associated with the development of diseases that depend on the nature of nutrition - cardiovascular diseases, oncology, diabetes, etc. This figure is significantly higher than in Europe.

Not only that a full meal is often replaced by fast snacks on the go, so also the quality of the products, which causes a lot of questions. The same milk, when using certain technological processes, can change beyond recognition, having lost "along the way" most of the useful properties. Plus in the arsenal of food producers there is an entire army of artificial additives - flavors, dyes, thickeners, stabilizers, etc.

In general, the situation is so sad that even the government has reached her hands. In July 2012, Prime Minister D. Medvedev signed a plan of measures to develop a state policy in the field of healthy nutrition. Particular attention will be paid to functional products - development, production, mass education of the population.

Functional food is what it is.

The idea of functional food was born in Japan - in the 80s of the XX century, a corresponding law was adopted there. According to this law, groups of products have been developed that are responsible for maintaining certain functions of the body - digestive, cardiovascular, nervous, immune, etc. The age and social indicators were also taken into account: schoolchildren, pregnant women, and elderly people need different. Outcome: according to the international agency Bloomberg in 2012 due to the state of health of the population, Japan is in the top five countries. While Russia occupies 97th place (out of 145 possible), neighboring with Iraq. In terms of life expectancy, Japan has for nearly a quarter of a century occupied first place, losing to Hong Kong only in 2011, due to the infamous destructive earthquakes and tsunamis.

Functional products are not something exotic. Some of them we can observe at our table daily: it can be bread, but with the addition of trace elements or baked from whole grains by special technology; It can be salt with the addition of iodine; It can be a dairy product with bifido- or lactobacilli. One of the basic conditions applied to functional products is the opportunity to be included in the daily diet and enjoy a pleasant taste. The effectiveness and safety of functional products is confirmed by clinical trials.

Another category of functional products are special developments of modern scientists using "forces of nature", such as herbal extracts, fruits, berries, vegetables, bee products. As an example, you can cite such domestic products as marmalade sweets and chocolate "Delicacies for Health" and phytomixes FitoGuru.

Functional products vs medicines and dietary supplements.

Biologically active food additives (BAA) are compositions of biologically active substances intended for direct ingestion with food or introduction into food products.

As can be seen from this definition, dietary supplements are what makes an ordinary product functional, that is, "flavored" with a certain amount of substances necessary for the body. A balanced diet of functional products removes the need for dietary supplements.

As for medicines, the need for them directly correlates with the state of health. If you do not get sick, then why drink the medicine? According to forecasts of specialists in the next 15 years in the world, production and consumption of functional products will be about 30% of the market ... and the same amount of produced drugs. A pleasant prospect. It is a pity that for our country it is somewhat ... vague.