Functional Foods: How Much Is Hype?

The New York Times tells us that a study conducted by BrainReserve in 2004 found that 65 percent of people were using diet to treat an illness, whether through a low-fat regimen, a diet of organic food or a higher intake of certain kinds of food.  Because numbers like that do not go unnoticed by marketing departments, dozens of major food makers are now selling foods whose marketing campaigns suggest that they may lower blood pressure, relieve arthritis pain, lower cholesterol and do whatever else is hinted at, even slightly, by often questionable research. The Times reports that Dannon, the American division of the French company Group Danone, expects to spend $60 million next year
aiming a new product at the 70 million Americans who suffer from digestive problems. The Times doesn’t tell us what works and what doesn’t, except when it comes to marketing, where, yes, money works. Read more.