Functional foods for health: Negotiation and implications

If functional foods are to provide one of the solutions to the problems of dietary health that we currently face, consumers will need to incorporate them into their lives, making sense of them in relation to existing beliefs and values. Therefore, we must understand not only the scientific means of producing foods with additional health benefits, but also the relationship between functional foods and existing understandings of food and health. More research is needed in this area, particularly in the United States where very little scholarly (as opposed to market) research has been conducted to examine the cultural dynamics of functional foods. Here I present some preliminary findings based on my analyses of the intersections between functional foods and beliefs about dietary health among American consumers