"Functional foods" is simply a convenient way to describe foods or their components which may provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition. In other words, functional foods do more than meet your minimum daily requirements of nutrients—they also can play a role in reducing risk of disease and promoting good health. While all foods are functional in that they provide nutrients, "functional foods" tend to be those with health-promoting ingredients or natural components that have been found to have potential benefit in the body. They can include whole foods as well as fortified, enriched or enhanced foods and dietary supplements that have a beneficial effect on health.

The concept of functional foods is not entirely new, although it has evolved considerably over the years. In the early 1900s, food manufacturers in the United States began adding iodine to salt in an effort to prevent goiter, representing one of the first attempts at creating a functional component through fortification. Today, researchers have identified hundreds of compounds with functional qualities, and they continue to make new discoveries surrounding the complex benefits of phytochemicals in foods.

Q. How does a food become "functional"?

Since many of these foods are just natural, whole foods with new information about their potential health qualities, they do not become "functional" except for the way we perceive them. On the other hand, functional foods can result from agricultural breeding or added nutrients/ingredients.

Many—if not most—fruits, vegetables, grains, fish, and dairy and meat products contain several natural components that deliver benefits beyond basic nutrition, such as lycopene in tomatoes, omega-3 fatty acids in salmon or saponins in soy. Even tea and chocolate have been noted in some studies as possessing functional attributes.

Agricultural scientists are able to boost the nutritional content of certain crops through the same breeding techniques that are used to bring out other beneficial traits in plants and animals—everything from beta-carotene-rich rice to vitamin-enhanced broccoli and soybeans, just to name a couple of examples. And research is under way to improve the nutritional quality of dozens of other crops.

Other foods may be specially formulated with nutrients or other ingredients. This is true of products such as orange juice fortified with calcium, cereals with added vitamins or minerals, or flour with added folic acid. In fact, more and more foods are being fortified with nutrients and other physiologically active components (such as plant stanols and sterols) as researchers uncover more evidence about their role in health and even disease risk reduction.

Q. What are some of the health benefits associated with functional foods?

The scientific community has only just begun to understand the complex interactions between nutritional components and the human body. However, there is already a large body of scientific evidence showing that eating foods with functional benefits on a regular basis as part of a varied diet can help reduce the risk of, or manage a number of health concerns, including cancer, heart and cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal health, menopausal symptoms, osteoporosis and eye health, to name a few.

Below is a sampling of a few functional foods, their components and their potential benefits for human health. To see more examples, refer to the Backgrounder on Functional Foods.

Q. How can I get more functional foods in my diet?

The most effective way to reap the health benefits from foods is to eat a balanced and varied diet, including fruits and vegetables as well as foods with added beneficial components. Watch labels and read articles for information about foods and health. Before you decide to make any major dietary changes, however, take the time to evaluate your personal health, or speak to your health care provider on ways to help reduce your risk of certain diseases. It is also important to remember that there is no single "magic bullet" food that can cure or prevent most health concerns, even when eaten in abundance. The best advice is to choose foods wisely from each level of the food guide pyramid in order to incorporate many potentially beneficial components into the diet.

Q. Where can I learn about scientific research related to the functional benefits of foods?

There are several universities and research institutions conducting scientific studies on various food components. You can find out more about current research by visiting the home page of the Functional Foods for Health program administered by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Chicago. Information on functional foods research is also available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, the Institute of Food Technologists, the American Dietetic Association, and the food science programs at Rutgers University and the University of California, Davis. (See below for links to these organizations.)

Q. Are functional foods regulated by the federal government?

Yes. "Functional foods" has no official meaning and do not constitute a distinctly separate category of foods. Most often they are simply natural whole foods we have been eating for thousands of years. Therefore, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates them in the same way they regulate all foods—safety of ingredients must be assured in advance, and all claims must be substantiated, truthful, and non-misleading.

A significant amount of credible scientific data is needed to confirm any "health claims"—messages pertaining to a relationship between dietary components and a disease or health condition, for example soy protein and heart disease. Foods also can bear another type of claim to convey their potential benefits, and those are called "structure/function claims." These statements describe or imply a relationship between the product itself, or its components, and normal bodily functions (for example, "may help support digestion"). All such claims must be adequately substantiated.

A 1994 law stipulates that dietary supplements-for example an herb, vitamin, mineral or other substance added to one's total diet-shall continue to be treated as foods for regulatory purposes, but with just a few differences in approach. Regardless of any differences in approach, like all other foods, supplements are regulated by FDA to assure safety and accuracy of label claims.

There has been some criticism of certain foods containing herbal ingredients—whether or not such ingredients are allowed in food and whether their label claims are substantiated. The FDA is looking into these allegations. While herb-containing foods may be considered "functional," it is important to keep in mind that they represent only a small number of the broad spectrum of foods that are thought of as "functional foods."

Consumers need to remember that functional foods represent an important breakthrough in understanding the connection between diet, health, and even disease risk reduction. With regard to all claims pertaining to diseases and health conditions, consumers may be reassured to know that they must be pre-approved by FDA and substantiated by a large body of credible scientific evidence. And, although structure/function claims do not require FDA pre-approval, they too must be adequately substantiated by the producers of the food.

Q. What health claims have been approved so far by FDA?

Since 1993, FDA has approved 14 health claims, eight of which are related to the functional benefits of food:

• Potassium and reduced risk of high blood pressure and stoke
• Plant sterol and plant stanol esters and coronary heart disease
• Soy protein and coronary heart disease
• Calcium and reduced risk of osteoporosis
• Fiber-containing grain products, fruits and vegetables and cancer
• Fruits, vegetables and grain products that contain fiber, particularly soluble fiber, and risk of coronary heart disease
• Fruits and vegetables and cancer
• Folate and neural tube birth defects
• Dietary soluble fiber, such as that found in whole oats and psyllium seed husk, and coronary heart disease
• Dietary sugar alcohol and dental caries (cavities)

The remaining three are based on diets low in "negative" nutrients in food, such as sodium:

• Dietary fat and cancer
• Dietary saturated fat and cholesterol and risk of coronary heart disease
• Sodium and high blood pressure For more information about food labeling and FDA health claim approvals, refer to this article from FDA Consumer, "Staking a Claim to Good Health."

Q. What is the relationship between biotechnology and functional foods?

While many of the nutritional compounds in functional foods are either naturally present or added during processing, some may be the result of agricultural breeding techniques, including conventional crossbreeding and biotechnology.

Crossbreeding a plant for a specific genetic trait, such as higher vitamin A content, can take as long as a decade or more. Modern biotechnology, however, makes it possible to select a specific genetic trait from any plant and move it into the genetic code of another plant in a much shorter time span, and with more precision than crossbreeding allows.

Researchers are working with farmers around the world to develop dozens of functional foods through the use of this promising technology. Refer to the Backgrounder on Food Biotechnology for more information.

• Functional Foods for Health Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Rutgers University Food Science Program
• University of California, Davis Food Science Program
• American Dietetic Association
• Institute of Food Technologists
• U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service