The food industry sees huge dollar signs in erasing the border between medicine and meals.
Anneli Rufus
Alternet
Cinnamon is no longer just the spunky spice on cinnamon toast. Turmeric is no longer just the bitter yellow dust that colors curry.
These days, both are hailed as superpowered disease-fighting “nutraceuticals” — part nutrient, part pharmaceutical. Along with many other once-humble substances (think pomegranates, fish oil and flax seeds), they’re key ingredients in “functional foods,” which comprise a booming $30-billion-a-year industry bent on erasing the border between medicine and meals.
When is candy not candy? When are potato chips not potato chips? When are crisp salty discs and dark-chocolate balls not mere hedonistic treats? When they’re functional foods, in this case Corazonas chips and foil-wrapped Frutels — bought in hopes of lowering cholesterol and curing acne.
For fear of FDA/FTC backlash, functional-food companies must exercise great care in promoting such near-miracles. But consumers are fluent in the lexicon by which thousands of new products are marketed — and old products reframed — as not just tasty but “healthy” and “scientifically proven,” “according to studies,” “to reduce the risk” of very specific, sometimes very deadly diseases.
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