Shaw Watanabe*

President, Medical Rice Foundation, Visiting Professor of Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan

*Corresponding Author: Shaw Watanabe, President, Medical Rice Foundation, Visiting Professor of Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan.

Received: January 02, 2024; Published: January 11, 2024

Abstract

Japan has a long history of using foods with health benefits, and Japanese people are well-known for their longevity. In 1991, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare introduced a functional food regulation called “foods for specified health uses” (FOSHU) [1,2]. After presenting the available food system, many clinically proven FOSHU products with health benefits have been developed and launched. As a result, the net sales of FOSHU products reached 6.2 billion dollars in 2007 [3]. Most of the health claims relate to improving gastrointestinal health using probiotics. Hypertriglycemia, hyperglycemia, high blood pressure, and high LDL-cholesterol are mainly associated with the related health claims. After 2007, the market for FOSHU products was almost saturated because of the expensive cost of RCT and poor performance.

References

1. Iwatani S and Yamamoto N. “Functional food products in Japan: A review”. Food Science and Human Wellness2 (2019): 96-1012.
2. Arai S. “Studies on functional foods in Japan--state of the art”. Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry 60 (1996): 9-15.
3. Takeshi Takeda. “Global Nutrition Group, Inc. Overview of the new function claim system of foods in Japan”. Clinical and Functional Nutriology5 (2014): 244-249.
4. Tee E Siong. “Food-based dietary guidelines of Southeast Asia Countries”. Clinical and Functional Nutriology 4 (2015): 194-199.
5. Nagamura Y. “Meaning and problem of the functional indication food system”. Clinical and Functional Nutriology 2 (2016): 79-84.
6. E-Siong Tee. “Functional food and health claims in Asia-focus on rice function”. Clinical and Functional Nutriology 1 (2015): 32-35.
7. Watanabe S., et al. “Food as Medicine the New Concept of Medical Rice”. Advances in Food Technology and Nutritional Sciences - Open Journal 2 (2016): 38-50.
8. Watanabe S., et al. “Medical rice: A new wax-free brown rice and its protein reduced rice”. Advances in Food Technology and Nutritional Sciences - Open Journal 1 (2018): 10-16.
9. Masuzaki H and Yabe D. “Discussion Meeting on Care and Treatment of Obesity Syndrome: Latest Approach through Nutrition, Diets, Exercise, Lifestyle Modification and Psychological Aspects”. Nihon Naika Gakkai Zasshi4 (2015): 748-762.
10. Masuzaki H. “Role of award system in obesity”. Jikken Igaku 34 (2016): 110-114.
11. Watanabe S., et al. “Dietary therapy with low protein genmai (brown rice) to improve the gut-kidney axis and reduce CKD progression”. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition 3 (2022): 341-347.
12. Watanabe S and Kashiwara N. “The International Conference on Dietary Therapy for Chronic Kidney Disease with Special Reference to the Gut-Kidney Linkage and Low Protein Brown Rice (Genmai)”. Diabetes Complications1 (2023): 1-3.
13. Itakura H., et al. “Tripertite: DRI2015 and Guideline: Big change in cholesterol intake”. Clinical and Functional Nutriology3 (2014): 118-24.
14. Nishimuta M. “Salt intake”. Clinical and Functional Nutriology4 (2013): 192-196.
15. Menon V., et al. “Effect of a very low protein diet on outcomes; Long-term follow-up of the Modificatio of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) Study”. American Journal of Kidney Diseases 53 (2009): 208.
16. Ueki K., et al. “Effect of an intestified multifactorial intervention on cardiovascular outcomes and mortality in type 2 diabetes (J-DOIT3): an open-lanel, randomized controlled trial”. Lancet Diabete and Endocrinology12 (2017): 951-964.
17. Okuyama H. “Risk of cholesterol lowering therapy”. Clinical and Functional Nutriology5 (2014): 254-259.
18. Tsugane S., et al. “Cross-sectional epidemiologic study for assessing cancer risk at the population level. II. Baseline data and correlation analysis”. Journal of Epidemiology 2 (1992): 83-89.
19. Watanabe S., et al. “Study design and organization of the JPHC Study”. Journal of Epidemiology 6 (2001): s3-s7.
20. Shaw Watanabe. “A Trap of RCT in Low Protein Dietary Therapy. Revaluation of Pro-Post Study for Dietary Intervention". Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 1 (2023): 35-38.
21. Kikuchi Y and Watanabe S. “Personality and dietary habits”. Journal of Epidemiology 10 (2000): 191-198.

Citation

Citation: Shaw Watanabe. “Medical Foods: Beyond the Functional Food Claim".Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 8.2 (2024): 37-40.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2024 Shaw Watanabe. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.