MONTREAL (PasseportSanté.net) December 9, 2005 – Enriched with calcium, omega-3 and probiotics, functional foods respond to consumers’ health concerns. But are they the result of progress or failure in healthy eating? Three experts gave their opinion on the issue during the Conferences Press/ Radio-Canada organized in collaboration with PasseportSanté.net¹.

In Bruce Holub’s ideal preventive care model, you could visit a dietitian and buy everything you need to prevent diabetes at the supermarket! At the entrance, a small machine would take a few drops of your blood and provide the nutritionist on call in a few minutes with the results: good and bad cholesterol, triglycerides, sugar levels, etc. “Depending on the results, she might send you down aisle C or D of the supermarket so that you buy foods that will help you better control your cholesterol or sugar levels,” he said in front of a crowd. little dumbfounded.

Bruce Holub is not a science fiction writer. He is a very serious and pragmatic professor emeritus of human biology and nutrition at the University of Guelph in Ontario. Its hobbyhorse: the prevention of chronic diseases thanks to functional foods, which are foods enriched with beneficial substances with the aim of preventing chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disorders or diabetes.

Omega-3s, it’s a hurry!

“The machine that does basic blood tests in minutes is already there and costs a few thousand dollars. What are we waiting for to get out of the medical model and use the resources of dietitians to prevent chronic disease through functional foods? And don’t tell me that eating fish twice a week is enough to meet our omega-3 fat needs! The reality is that, on average, Canadians eat a fish meal only every 10 days. The main reason: it tastes like fish, there are bones and they don’t like it! “, Launched, with humor, Bruce Holub.

The result: Canadians are deficient in DHA, one of the omega-3s in fish, which the brain and heart need to function optimally. This is why, according to this enthusiastic professor, it is necessary, for example, to enrich in omega-3 of marine origin² foods that people love to eat. Such a strategy can, according to his calculations, save billions of dollars a year in health care in Canada.

There are plenty of eggs, milk and cheese³ that contain DHA, but that’s only because of the way the animals are fed, not the addition of fish oil. Why? Because the regulations do not yet allow the addition of fish oil to foods. On the market, other products enriched with omega-3 therefore contain linseed oil, which is not a good source of DHA. “Because humans unfortunately convert vegetable omega-3s very poorly into DHA,” explained Bruce Holub.

Functional food: a promising future

“Whether we like it or not, functional foods are going to have a place on the shelves and will play an important role, but the most promising concept is that of functional food,” said Benoit Lamarche, director of the Institute of nutraceuticals and functional foods (INAF), in Quebec. We must not put all our eggs in one basket. It is important to diversify our efforts and integrate several components that optimize our diet, in addition to functional foods. ”

The Mediterranean diet is, according to him, an excellent example of high performance functional food. “While statins allow a 35% reduction in the risk of heart attack recurrence, a French study has shown that the Mediterranean diet can reduce this risk by 72% compared to traditional dietary recommendations,” he said.

But is it possible to eat Mediterranean in Quebec? “We asked ourselves the question at INAF and we did a study with 77 women responsible for food purchases. After 24 weeks, we found that with awareness, advice and tips, these women had changed their family’s eating habits in very interesting ways, ”the researcher reported. Benoit Lamarche recognizes all the same that making a diet of this type and functional foods accessible to everyone is no small task.

Moreover, can we make any food functional? For Benoit Lamarche, a donut without trans fat is not a good food, and to enrich McDonald’s breads with fiber is going in the wrong direction. On the other hand, we could, for example, enrich the tender bars, even if they are not essential for a healthy diet, and on condition of doing it intelligently.

A dysfunctional food industry?

Functional foods are good news for some consumers, but they are also a sign that prevention and education have failed. At least that is the analysis of Laure Waridel, co-founder and president of the organization Équiterre. “We did not go to the end of the awareness-raising process,” she said. Consumers need to reclaim their health and review their food choices before they get to functional foods. “

What good is functional foods if the way they are produced is dysfunctional? According to Laure Waridel, author of books on responsible consumption, the practices of the food industry go against the basic principles of prevention. “We enrich the soils impoverished by industrial monoculture with synthetic fertilizers and then we enrich foods that were first impoverished by refining and processing!” Something is wrong with this scenario, ”she says.

“There is also the quality of the water and the air. If our agro-food system contributes to contaminating them, as well as our food, we are not necessarily a winner when we look at our health in a global way. For example, she pointed out, the National Cancer Institute reports that women with breast cancer have a level of organochlorine pesticide residues in their blood that is 50 to 60% higher than women without the cancer. “

She is concerned that the industry is increasingly concentrated. “She gives us food with one hand and medicine with the other,” she says. This is now called the living industry. A handful of companies control both the food and pharmaceutical supply in North America. Can they both serve their profit-oriented interests and the health interests of society? “Maybe”, replies Laure Waridel. But, at the same time, it invites us to be extremely vigilant. “We are all responsible for our health care system and we cannot afford to let it go to the highest bidder. We must focus on prevention, and prevention, it starts in the field, ”she concluded.

Françoise Ruby – PasseportSanté.net

1. The Conferences Press/ Radio-Canada presented in collaboration with PasseportSanté.net, December 5, 2005. The workshop, in question here, is entitled “Foods handled for better and for worse”.

2. To find out more about omega-3s of animal and plant origin, see our fact sheet. Essential fatty acids.

3. For the moment, this milk and this cheese are not offered on a large scale in Quebec.