Backtalk

Are Functional Foods Taking On Supplements?

Consumers can now lower cholesterol, strengthen bones and improve digestion all in a single bite—if they play their functional foods right. Newly introduced dairy products, margarines, snack bars, cereals and even meats promise to tackle the health issues formerly reserved for supplements. These so-called functional foods are either inherently healthy or sport a novel ingredient that pledges long-term benefits beyond basic nutrition. Since they exist in the murky regulatory realm between foods and dietary supplements, functional foods are proving hard to pin down. Even the experts can't say where the market is headed. Nevertheless, New York-based market analyst Data Monitor predicts 10 percent annual growth in the sector until 2002. Will the growth spurt stunt supplement sales?

"They're two different marketplaces. Most people view supplements as an insurance policy against poor eating habits. They take a multivitamin or antioxidants for the short-term, but long-term health benefits come from foods because they have a wider variety of nutrients. I think the two can co-exist very nicely. Supplements have a role in day-to-day nutrition. Most people don't eat as well as they think they do. Supplements will always round out what goes in our mouths.

"Quite honestly, the line that separates supplements from food is getting terribly blurred. Let the government duke it out, but when I drink my calcium-fortified orange juice, I'm getting a supplement."

Charles T. Worrall
Manager, Health and Nutrition Group
Eridania Béghin-Say
Paris

"Functional foods and supplements are complementary. They have different applications. Functional foods are more geared to optimizing good health and helping to reduce disease-associated symptoms, they're not a therapy. Heart disease and high triglycerides are a good example. Lowering high triglyceride levels may require more of a nutrient dose than food can supply, whereas moderate levels may be helped by a food. It depends on the goal. Is it to maintain good health or to treat severe disease?

"Besides, you just can't attract some people with a food product—they'd rather get their nutrition from a supplement because they know exactly how much they're getting. As for myself, when I run out of supplements, it takes me a while to replace them. When I run out of food, I go shopping immediately."

Mary Van Elswyk, PH.D., R.D.
Director of Scientific Affairs
OmegaTech Inc.
Boulder, Colo.

"I think the two markets will grow side by side because people use foods and supplements for different reasons. It's like the biotech industry—new products are coming out all the time and there's room for them. Consumers have varied tastes and the market isn't saturated yet. Natural, healthy foods won't replace supplements and vice versa. Functional foods will grow right alongside of supplements—there's room for both."

Martin Norris
Product Manager
Rich Nature Labs
Seattle

"The U.S.D.A. says you can't call something a food if it has medicinal properties. It's a difficult positioning point. But functional foods will not compete with supplements. They'll complement them and grow the supplements market as well. That's because foods and supplements are different items. Functional foods are another means of consuming a healthy product. They will also create greater awareness and bring mainstream shoppers into the natural products fold."

Ed Hirschberg
President
Innovative Foods Inc.
San Francisco

"Absolutely not. There's an increasing awareness across the whole functional foods category, but it won't cut into supplement sales—it will fuel it. I think foods and supplements serve two separate customers. People want to be healthier. Those who take supplements are really well-read about nutrition; they're comfortable taking pills. Functional foods appeal to people who don't like to take pills but if a food is healthy, they'll eat more of it.'"

Carl De Vries
Sales Manager
Van Drunen Farms
Momence, Ill.