Beta glucan Found in oats. Reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease
Soya protein Found in soya beans. A daily intake of 25g may reduce the risk of heart disease
Wholegrains Found in cereal grains. Reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease
Lactobacillus Found in yogurt and other dairy products. May improve gastrointestinal health
Stanol ester Found in corn, soya, wheat, wood oils. Lowers blood cholesterol
Omega 3 fatty acids Found in fish oils. May reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and improve mental and visual functions.
Health claim approved by the US Food and Drug Administration
Source: The Functional Foods Revolution by Michael Heasman and Julian Mellentin, published by Earthscan (£16.95 in UK)A beginner's guide to functional foods
First came Fibe-Mini. Then Benecol, Yakult, Actimel, Flora pro.activ, Pro Viva, Logicol ... products marketed as foods despite their dour and medicinal-sounding names.
Blurring the lines between medicines, foods and dietary supplements, functional foods - also known as "nutraceuticals" - claim to offer health benefits over and above their nutritional content.
So there's a spread that will lower your cholesterol, probiotic yogurt that claims to assist your gastrointestinal bacteria and grains that may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.
The term "functional foods" was coined in Japan in the 1980s. Fibe-Mini, the world's first functional food, is a dietary-fibre soft drink marketed for "gut regulation".
It was introduced in Japan in 1988, not by a food manufacturer but by a drug company, Otsuka Pharmaceutical. Just as the products are crossovers, health-care companies are producing foods and food companies are producing what would have been regarded as pharmaceutical supplements.
Most people have heard of feng shui. But not many will know about FOSHU, or foods for specified health use. FOSHU is the world's first regulatory system for functional foods; naturally, it was developed by the Japanese.
To qualify as FOSHU, a food must be just that: a food, not a capsule, tablet or powder. It should be consumed as part of the daily diet and it should have a particular function when ingested, serving to regulate a body process such as the prevention of a disease or the enhancement of a biological defence mechanism.
The Functional Foods Revolution: Healthy People, Healthy Profits? is a fascinating insight into the world of functional foods. Written by Michael Heasman and Julian Mellentin of the Centre for Food &Health Studies, a London-based think tank, the book defines the terminology, relates the history, questions the science, analyses the risks and introduces us to a Japanese dynamo known only as Mrs Nagayama.
By 1999, Nagayama had been visiting offices in the Chiyoda district of Tokyo for 21 years, selling functional foods to office workers. She is one of Japan's star Yakult ladies, part of a door-to-door distribution network started by Yakult Honsha, a health-food manufacturer, in 1963.
Yakult Honsha is based on the vision of the late Dr Minoru Shirota, who believed in preventing rather than treating disease. His company is built on the health benefits of the Shirota strain of the live probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus casei, which Shirota discovered in the 1930s and is now sold as the Yakult fermented-milk drink.
Yakult Honsha's FOSHU- approved products made up more than 38 per cent of all FOSHU-approved sales in 1999, according to Heasman and Mellentin.
Although they are relative newcomers to European countries, Yakult and other functional foods can now be found on the shelves of most supermarkets in the Republic. Some have even been developed here.
In 1999, Superquinn launched the Super Egg, which is enriched with omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E and may help lower the risk of coronary heart disease. The Super Egg, which looks and tastes like a normal egg, was developed by Superquinn in consultation with scientists at Trinity College in Dublin and Queen's University Belfast. It is produced by free-range hens fed a special diet of grains, oils and extra vitamin E. Ten per cent of eggs sold by Superquinn are Super Eggs.
Superquinn has researched customer awareness of functional foods. Last November, a survey of 210 customers found that three out of 10 were aware of Super Eggs, that nine out of 10 were aware of Actimel probiotic yogurt and that three out of four knew about Benecol and Flora pro.activ spreads.
Of those who were aware of Actimel, a high proportion used it, 37 per cent saying they did so for health and taste reasons, 35 per cent for health alone and 15 per cent for taste alone.
The functional spreads are not selling as well as Actimel. This could be partly because Benecol and Flora pro.activ cost about three times the price of ordinary spreads.
In 1995, Benecol made functional-food history when, in a study published by the New England Journal Of Medicine, it was shown to reduce blood cholesterol by 14 per cent in Finnish men with elevated cholesterol.
Since then, there has been a proliferation of products making heart-health and cholesterol-lowering claims.
Paula Mee, Superquinn's food and nutrition manager, suspects consumers may be confused by the profusion of health claims they face as they fill their trolleys. The supermarket has brought out a leaflet explaining the functional-food concept to its customers.
The North/South Ireland Food Consumption Survey identified a number of deficiencies and excesses in Irish diets and lifestyle.
It found that two-thirds of Irish men and almost half of women are overweight or obese, we don't exercise as we should, three out of four adults don't eat enough fibre and few women of reproductive age take in enough folate.
The last finding particularly bothers Mee, who says the fortification of bread with folic acid is mandatory in the US.
An average of seven babies are born in the Republic each month with spina bifida or other neural-tube defects associated with folic-acid deficiency.
Last month, the Irish Food Safety Promotion Board announced details of a folic-acid "flash" designed to alert consumers to the vitamin's presence in processed foods.
Mee argues that this does not go far enough. Superquinn has fortified the flour it uses to make about 15 types of bread since 1999.
"If you eat three slices you will increase your intake by 100 micrograms, which is 50 per cent of the recommended daily allowance ... Fortification should be mandatory," she says.
Given the overlap between functional and fortified foods - those with added vitamins and calcium - it is hardly surprising that the British Consumers' Association found the public was confused about who should or shouldn't be eating the products and how they should be used.
The association has called for tighter controls on ingredients, labelling and health claims for functional foods. It also believes the EU should introduce a mandatory prior-approval system so health claims are proved before products are put on the market.
"There could be a role for some functional foods as part of a healthy diet. But it's important that unhealthy foods aren't marketed as healthy just because they contain a functional ingredient," it says.
There are also worries that if too many foods are fortified or have functional ingredients, we could get too much of a good thing. Australia has removed yogurt, milk, cereal bars and mayonnaise containing cholesterol-lowering plant sterols from supermarket shelves, after concerns that high doses of plant sterols could reduce the uptake of beta-carotene. Table spreads are allowed to remain.
In the Republic, where functional foods are still very much in the minority, there is no official definition of the term and no labelling requirements.
The chief specialist in environmental health with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Dr Ray Ellard, describes it as a grey area. There are general food-labelling requirements and claims must be substantiated, he says: the consumer must not be misled.
The EU has issued a discussion paper on the nutritional and functional properties of foods and is inviting e-mails, by July 20th, to sanco.foodclaims@cec.eu.int