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How We Should Consume Functional Foods

Hello again. Sorry for being late. I was a little busy.

Let's make more understandable functional foods. In the last page, I tried to give definition of functional foods and its short history. In this page, I will explain how you can understand a food is functional and how you should consume them.

There are some criterias for functional foods according to international food organizations*

  • Health claims about ingredients must be proven

  • Living organisms must be over the limit for probiotics

  • If it is asserted high protein or high calcium, the amount of them mustn't be under the legal limit for these terms

  • The amount of functional ingredients in foods mustn't be a high level which can be harmful for daily consumption

  • It mustn't include hazardous materials or materials which are doubtful for healthy

They are the basic criterias for functional food. In details, there several criterias for every functional food. They are guaranteed by legal documents in ministries. In Europe, CODEX is defining food standards and in the US, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is defining**. In my country (Turkey) CODEX and legal rescripts are defining food standards.

So how we should consume the functional foods. I will give a advice to lucky people who read this paper. Are you ready for this ? "READ LABELS EVERY TIME WHEN YOU ARE CONSUMING FOOD". I wrote it with high letters because it is very important not only for just functional foods but also for every food. You can check information in the front label by controlling ingredients and nutrition values. So the first step is to check the labels.

Other important thing is knowing yourself and be aware of your needs. Maybe you need low-fat foods or dairy-free foods. You can learn your needs by tests and trying new diets. In this way don't be blindfold. Check the information on social media, TV programmes and bestsellers. Sometimes people want to be popular with their extreme advice. Like always eat saturated fat and meat all day. But we know it is the reason for cancer and various illness.

Another critic information is not consuming anything so much. For example, antioxidants are healthy but so much consuming make you older. Over the daily limit, antioxidant harms cell cycle time. Maybe you could not believe it but it is the truth. ***

In conclusion be careful about what you are consuming, how much you are consuming and why you are consuming. Ask these questions every time to yourself.

In the next page, I will explain the types of functional foods

2500 years ago Hippocrates said; Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food. Value Hippocrates words and take care of yourself <3

  1. Clydesdale FM. (1997). A proposal for the establishment of scientific criteria for health claims for functional foods, 55(12):413-22.

  2. Functional foods, EUFIC - The European Food Information Council, June 2006. https://www.eufic.org/en/food-production/article/functional-foods

  3. Nyedra W. Booker, PharmD, MPH and Diana Zuckerman, Ph.D. (2015). Antioxidants and cancer risk: the good, the bad, and the unknown.

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