Yogurt: functional food

1999/11/01 Lorenzo, Arantza | Uranga, Ane Miren Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Dietetika/Elikagaiak

More and more people talk about functional foods and also want the type of food of the next century to be a functional diet.

But what are functional foods? In addition to providing the nutrients needed for the body, functional foods are foods that provide components that protect the body from certain diseases, whether they are nutrients or not. Yogurt, fruit, and vegetables are some of them.

As for yogurt, in addition to providing protein, fat, vitamins and mineral salts, we must say that this food contains beneficial bacteria that help us achieve and maintain a healthy state of the entire intestine and body. Dr.
Mary Ellen Sanders, Dairy and Food Culture Technologies Advisor in Littleton, USA and Dr. Ascension Marcos, director of the Institute of Nutrition and Bromatology of the CSIC of Madrid, agree that yogurt contributes to the strengthening of the immune system at this point. Dr. Marcos concludes research with anorexic patients, since the introduction of yogurt at the beginning of therapy significantly improves the immune system of these patients.

Dr. Sanders has gone further and assigned the following benefits to yogurt:

• Protects from cancer.
• It is antipathogenic, that is, mainly reduces the possible harmful intestinal bacteria and prevents them from crossing the walls of the intestine, decreasing the risk of diseases such as salmonellosis.
• Resist the fall.
• Increases the health of the urinary system.
• Improves the state of the stomach.
• Reduces hypertension.
• Decreased cholesterol.

Numerous research has been done to reach these conclusions, but it remains to be seen how HOW bacteria work to reach those benefits.

It should be noted that yogurts that should not be stored in the refrigerator (known as dairy desserts) are not considered functional foods, since they do not have live bacteria.

Therefore, if at the time of taking food we only care about food, the two products, yogurts and dairy desserts, are suitable, but if we also want to combat certain diseases, we have to bet on yogurt.