78-3 |
The contribution of "functional foods" to Japanese health |
Y. KAWAMURA, Akita Prefectural Research Institute of Food & Brewing, 4-26 Sanuki Araya-cho Akita, Akita, 018-1623, Japan According to a recent WHO report, the Japanese disability-adjusted lifespan averages 74.5 years, the highest in the world. In developed countries, average life expectancies are inversely related to age-adjusted mortality rates due to life style related diseases such as coronary heart disease (CHD), cardiovascular disease (CVD), stroke, and cancer. An epidemiological study comparing Japanese living in Japan with Japanese immigrants in Brazil and Hawaii showed that the frequency of life style related diseases was closely linked to diet. One of the main factors that contribute to the healthy longevity of the native Japanese population is the consumption of a wide range of foods of plant origin, which contain non-nutritive but physiologically active components. The effects of many of these components have recently been surveyed using various assessment systems. Among such components are oligo-peptides, oligo-saccharides, polyunsaturated fatty acids, various pigments in plant seeds, flavonoids and isoflavonoids. In this context, food items rich in such components can be said to be "functional foods" which have helped to maintain the Japanese disability-adjusted lifespan at such a high level. Recently, various fabricated foods fortified with some of these physiologically active components have been developed. In Japan, such fabricated food items containing physiologically active components, which must be stable in food materials and have been proven using standard scientific procedures, including human trials, to be effective against specific diseases such as hypertension, are allowed to carry labels identifying them as "Food for the Specified Healthy Use," or "Functional Foods." This is a very narrow but important definition of functional foods. To determine exactly how the narrowly defined functional foods contribute to the enhancement of health or prevention of diseases, much time will be needed. In this talk, a wide variety of functional foods and physiologically active components are introduced, along with an overview of the current research into functional foods being conducted in Japan.
Session 78, Traditional Asian functional food products and markets
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