Weight Management

 Americans like sweets, but their love affair with sugar may be souring. Concerns about obesity are driving many consumers away from candy and soft drinks, and toward healthier fare made with alternative sweeteners. In fact, demand for low-calorie sugar substitutes could exceed $1.1 billion in the United States alone by 2010, according to a new report by The Freedonia Group Inc. (Cleveland).

 Weight-loss supplements have taken a drubbing in recent years from government officials, consumer groups, and the media. A key issue behind the controversy is the level of scientific substantiation for product claims. While researchers haven’t reached a consensus about the effectiveness and safety of most weight-loss products, many popular natural ingredients do have some supportive data, and the number of research studies generating useful information is growing.

At the World Health Organization’s (WHO; Geneva) upcoming European Ministerial Conference on Counteracting Obesity, which will be held in November in Istanbul, Turkey, many of the world’s leading health experts will convene to develop new plans for dealing with the obesity epidemic. With any luck, functional foods will be one of the strategies that helps makes a difference.

Let’s focus on milk and soy. To say which of these two protein sources is more significant would be to detract from their uniqueness. Milk, after all, is animal based, and soy is vegetable. Milk protein accelerates physical recovery from numerous ailments, and soy protein mitigates heart disease.

Chances are increasingly slim that the country will escape the twin epidemics of diabetes and obesity if present trends continue. More than 20 million Americans already have diabetes, and more than 60 million Americans are obese. The two conditions have become so intertwined that experts recently coined a term to describe their relationship: diabesity.

How will the new products fare in the market? That depends on how the science behind them stacks up. Here’s a look at the latest crop of ingredients to keep an eye on in 2006.

Two years ago, nutrition bar manufacturers launched a record number of low-carbohydrate products. The low-carb era was glorious-but brief-imploding shortly after it began. Now, some nutrition bar companies are pinning their hopes on a different concept: the glycemic index.

As some of the most functional, versatile, and great-tasting ingredients derived from milk, whey ingredients are uniquely designed to function well in beverage applications. Whey is a nutritional powerhouse, containing the components of milk that remain soluble during the process of making cheese, which amounts to about half of the nutrients from milk.

With obesity and overweight problems reaching epidemic proportions worldwide, the good news is that more and more consumers are choosing foods that promote wellness. They want to feel good, vibrant, and invigorated throughout their lives. At the same time, they don’t want to give up flavor and texture, which raises the challenge of developing food products that fit into an active, health-oriented life style.

While the ban did eliminate a top-selling ingredient, in the long run it may have ended up helping, rather than hurting, the industry. As manufacturers have backed away from stimulant-based approaches to weight loss, other ingredients have rushed in to fill the void. Moreover, manufacturers are now asking for more clinical and safety data.

The dietary supplement industry is on an upward curve, spurred by more university research and scientific partnerships linking together U.S. and international developers, suppliers, and research centers. One result of this positive trajectory is that raw-material suppliers are now refining and introducing compounds backed by science that address the issues that matter most to consumers: cardiovascular health, antioxidant and immune support, healthy glucose levels, smooth digestion, weight control, energy and stress reduction, and detoxification.

Inspired by the popular but controversial Atkins and South Beach low-carb eating regimens, consumers have turned to low-carb products in record numbers.

Could low-calorie be the next low-carb? If new product trends are any indication, the answer is an unqualified yes.

Dieters hoping to lose pounds may find help in a milk bottle rather than a pill bottle, according to research from the University of Tennessee Nutrition Institute (Knoxville, TN) and other sources.