'Functional Foods': Healthy or Hype?

Experts weigh in on gastro-friendly yogurts, vitamin-rich water
By E.J. MundellHealthDay Reporter
SUNDAY, April 1 (HealthDay News) -- The line between the supermarket and drug store keeps getting fuzzier.
Television commercials for Danone's "Activia" line of yogurts claim it's just the thing for folks struggling with what gastroenterologists call "slow transit time."
Switch the channel, and ads for sterol-enriched Becel margarine trumpet its cholesterol-lowering goodness.
Then there are the new "fitness waters," loaded with antioxidant vitamins.
Each of these products cost more than "regular" yogurts, margarines and bottled waters. But are they worth it?
"It's a personal choice," said Patricia Vasconcellos, a Boston dietitian, diabetes expert and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. She said that most of these "functional food" products do deliver on their promises -- but that doesn't mean everyone needs them, or stands to benefit equally.
Take the example of the margarines, cooking oils, milk drinks and other members of the Becel line of cholesterol-lowering foods. Fortified with plant sterols and stenols, they hit supermarket shelves in the late 1990s and can cost twice as much as regular butter or margarine.
"In studies, sterols and stenols have been proven to lower your total cholesterol and your LDL 'bad' cholesterol,'" Vasconcellos said. In fact, according to information on the Becel Web site, clinical-trial participants who took in 2 grams of sterols per day from these products saw a 10 percent to 15 percent drop in LDL within "a few weeks."
Vasconcellos said the spreads "can be expensive. But if you just use it for toast or a potato, instead of cooking with it, that's much cheaper. For cooking, I'd recommend other healthy fats, such as olive or canola oil."
She said that even people who take a cholesterol-lowering statin drug such as Lipitor, Pravachol or Zocor may still benefit from sterol-containing products. "It will only enhance the effect, and work with the statin," Vasconcellos said.