"Functional foods," "nutraceuticals," "designer foods" and "medicinal foods" are terms that describe foods, and key ingredients isolated from foods, that have non-nutritive or tertiary functional properties. Researchers, healthcare practitioners, laypersons, and the popular media use these words interchangeably. The purpose of this column is to detail valid scientific information available on the physiologic actions of known constituents and combinations of constituents, as they naturally occur in "functional foods," highlighting their medicinal and nutritive mechanisms of action in the body.

According to studies done by the USDA (1992), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI, 1991), a large percentage of children in the United States are not eating the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables per day. Vegetables contain essential vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and micronutrients that support physical, mental, and emotional health. In addition, epidemiological studies demonstrate a strong, consistent relationship between higher vegetable intake and lower risks of cancer (NCI, 1985; Block et al., 1992). In 1992, the U.S. Department of Agriculture published The Food Guide Pyramid for Children (USDA, 1992), which was aimed at children ages 2 to 6. It recommends three to five servings of vegetables per day. The National Cancer Institute and the Produce for Better Health Foundation are aware of the serious health risks that are associated with a limited intake of vegetables. They developed the national Five-a-Day for Better Health campaign to promote increased public awareness of the importance of fruits and vegetables in the diet (NCI, 1991).

In 1998, the Journal of the American College of Nutrition published a study that indicated a grossly deficient intake of vegetables by preschool children, aged 2-5 (Dennison et al., 1998). Researchers studied 223 children in a rural community in upstate New York and were surprised to find that on average only 25% of the children consumed the recommended vegetable servings per day (Figure 1).

Low intakes of vegetables are directly associated with inadequate intakes of vitamin and mineral complexes that are essential to proper physical and mental development in children (Dennison et al., 1998; Bollella et al., 1999; Martinchik et al., 1997; Shepko, 1992).

Average Vegetable Consumption/Day for Children Aged 2-5 years
A second group of researchers studied 3307 children in the US (ages 2-19) to determine the number of children meeting national recommendations for food group intake and found that only 1% met all the recommendations (Munoz et al., 1997).

Nutritional supplements are now available that offer a whole food-based complex that contains the essential nutrients that children are not consuming in their daily diet. The complex should include vacuum-dried or freeze dried green vegetables such as organic alfalfa, buckwheat, Brussels sprouts, barley grass, and kale, that have been grown in nutrient dense soil and contain documented health benefits (Glawischnig et al., 1999; Beecher, 1994, Nijhoff, 1995; Tiwari et al., 1994). Longevity Through Prevention™ Inc. researched and formulated a nutritional supplement for Standard Process® called SP Greenfood™ that contains these ingredients.

Barley grass and alfalfa are bioavailable sources of protein and contain a wide array of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that are crucial for a healthy functioning body, particularly a developing body. Alfalfa contains a significant amount of vitamin K and coumestrol, which function synergistically to maintain proper bone density (Draper et al., 1997). Alfalfa also contains chlorophyll, which has been shown to protect against environmental mutagens and carcinogens (Hayatsu et al., 1993; Amara-Mokrane et al., 1996).

Buckwheat contains inositol, methionine, lysine, and cysteine (Kusano et al., 1974). Inositol is a part of the vitamin B complex that acts as a lipotropic agent, improving fat metabolism and the metabolism of fat-soluble vitamins. It also assists the liver in processing hormones, drugs, glucose, and glycogen. Inositol is a necessary part of cell membranes and exerts a protective effect on the liver. Buckwheat also contains methionine, a sulfur-containing amino acid that is necessary for the synthesis of choline. Two antioxidants found in buckwheat, rutin and quercetin, are antioxidants that offer cellular protection against oxidative damage (Sadzuka et al., 1997; Shimoi et al., 1997).

Brussels sprouts and kale are members of the Brassica plant family, which contains numerous anticarcinogenic and detoxifying nutrients (Beecher, 1994, Nijhoff et al., 1995). Glucosinolate compounds are a particular group of phytonutrients found in kale and Brussels sprouts that are of great importance with respect to cancer and the liver detoxification system (Bradfield and Bjeldanes, 1991). The glucosinolates found in whole foods are broken down into indoles and isothiocyanates upon ingestion. Sulforaphane and sinigrin are two isothiocyanates that protect against, and often reduce the severity of, lung, colon, stomach, liver, and breast cancers (Grubbs et al., 1995). Sulforaphane supports the enzymatic activity that takes place in Phase I liver detoxification and assists the liver in carrying out the Phase II conjugation pathways (Barcelo et al., 1996). Sinigrin complements the activity of sulforaphane by also stimulating the Phase II detoxification system (Manson et al., 1997).

Kale, Brussels sprouts, barley grass, buckwheat, and alfalfa contain specific vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that support each phase of the liver detoxification system (Figure 2).

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

In addition to supporting the liver detoxification system, sinigrin stimulates apoptosis, a process that naturally causes damaged cells to fragment into membrane-bound particles that are eliminated by phagocytosis. Kale is also a potent source of lutein and zeaxanthin, the only two carotenoids that are found in the eye. These carotenoids prevent or reduce the damaging effects of free radicals in the eyes (Tavani et al., 1996).

Nutrition experts agree that most American children over two years of age need to eat more vegetables (USPHS, 1991). Eating habits begin to form early in life and scientists have proven that habits developed in childhood affect eating choices made later in life (Krebs-Smith et al., 1995). In theory, including more vegetables in a child's diet should be a simple task, but in reality we see that parents and/or caregivers are having difficulty accomplishing this (Dennison et al., 1998). It is crucial to introduce children to proper eating habits by including more fruits and vegetables in their diets and, when necessary, introducing a child to safe, whole food-based nutritional complexes to supplement the diet.

Figure 1--In the study by Dennison et al. (1998), only 25% of 223 surveyed children aged 2-5 consumed the recommended daily servings of vegetables (3-5 servings) while 75% ate less than the recommended servings of vegetables (<3 servings) per day (Dennison et al., 1998).

3 - 5 Servings of vegetables/day	25%
<3 Serving(s) of vegetables/day	75%

© COPYRIGHT 2006 Dr. Gina L. Nick

References

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