Limerick researchers develop guide on creating medicinal foods

RESEARCHERS at the University of Limerick (UL) have developed a new step-by-step guide to designing foods which not only provide nutrition, but can act like medicine.

The study led by Daniel Granato, a professor in food science and health at the college has shown how a group of so-called ‘functional foods’ can help reduce heart conditions.

He said: “The capacity for our food to do more than provide us with nutrition is huge and relatively unexplored. Cardiovascular diseases are a main cause of death but they can be prevented. By bringing food scientists, medical scientists and pharmaceutical companies together we can employ the same methods used in producing medicinal drugs and produce foods that might mitigate health conditions.”

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The study involves research staff at UL’s Bernal Institute, the Federal University of Alfenas in Brazil, and college university from the South American nation, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.

It’s also been published in a globally renowned food research journal entitled Trends in Food Science and Technology.

Prof Granato who leads a research team in food chemistry at UL said: “Food science, heart disease therapy and in computer modelling should be linked to produce functional foods to mitigate atherosclerosis. This is critical to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in good health and wellbeing, as well as ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages, by optimising discovery of bioactive compound sources, and reducing time to market for new functional foods.”

The guide will form the basis of another research project aiming to identify functional foods that lower the risk for diseases such as Alzheimer’s.