The public has picked up on how some functional foods differentiate themselves from conventional foods by targeting specific health benefits, and by offering to protect and improve the body’s defenses against disease and illness. Food and Ingredient Trends Addressing Specific Diseases and Other Health Conditions looks at the ability of certain functional foods and/or their components to offer consumers opportunities to establish a defense against disease and other health-related conditions. While these foods cannot be used to cure a condition or illness, or guarantee that one will not experience a disease or health condition, they can be consumed to help fortify the body’s defenses against any number of maladies.

Consumers are more aware of food and dietary issues and are monitoring and adjusting what they eat and drink as they have become more proactive in improving their health. On a global scale, consumers are actively looking to improve their health through diets. Food and diet have come to occupy a focal position in the prevention and treatment of many chronic diseases.

The vast attention paid to healthiness and its antithesis, unhealthiness, reveals a change in society’s attitude to food in an age of plenty. Health and fitness have become increasingly commercialized and commodified into foods.

Packaged Facts looks at the following factors and health conditions and explores which foods or food components can reduce the risk of the condition beyond their usual nutritional benefits:

• Obesity
• Heart concerns
• Cancer
• High cholesterol
• Memory loss
• Lack of energy
• Bone heatlh
• Gastrointestinal disorders

Then the report explores the following key foods that target these specific diseases and other health conditions:

• Whole grains - targeting cardiovascular disease, cancer and high cholesterol.
• Berries - targeting infection.
• Leafy vegetables - targeting different cancers.
• Probiotics and prebiotics - targeting gut health.
• Fish and omega-3 fatty acids - targeting heart disease and the central nervous system.
• Soy - targeting bone health and osteoporosis.
• Plant sterols and stanols - targeting high cholesterol.
• Fruit - giving that energy boost.
• Green tea and antioxidants - targeting heart disease and cancer.
• Red wine, in moderate consumption - with its resveratrol - targeting heart disease.

Report Methodology

Data for the report was gathered from company product literature, annual reports, and other corporate brochures and documents, as well as information found in the scientific and trade press. In addition, interviews were conducted with company executives and researchers. This report reviews the nature and direction of research, and reports on future trends. In analyzing the trends and conclusions set forth in this report, Packaged Facts harnesses data from scientific studies, government-approved product health claims, and develops trends information based on data from Datamonitor’s Productscan Online’s new product introduction database, from Simmons Market Research Bureau’s Spring 2004-Spring 2007 and Winter 2008 surveys, and from Information Resources, Inc.’s InfoScan Review.

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