ALTERNATIVE CONCEPT OF FUNCTIONAL FOODS
DEFINITION:- According to the food and drug administration(FDA) their is no official definition for functional foods.The academy of nutrition and dietetics define functional foods as "whole foods along with fortified, enriched and enhanced foods that have a potentially benficial effect on health when comsumed as part of a varried diet on regular basis at effective levels based on significant standards of evidence" Basically,these foods provide a health benefits in addition to macro or micro nutrients.THese foods are vital in disease prevention and include fortified foods,phyto nutrients-containing fruits and vegetables, fermented foods, fish and chocolate. OR "any food item inwhich a particular nutrient is added for functional purpose is called functional food. The functional food can have both naturally occuring nutrients and the nutrients added to them artificially. These foods have targeted nutritional values for performing a specific