CAN THESE BE GOOD FOR YOU?; COMPANIES TOUT FLOOD OF DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS.

Byline: Jenifer Hanrahan Daily News Staff Writer

You've probably already heard of comfort foods. But how about tortilla chips that lift your spirits? Or granola bars that increase your sex drive?

And then there's chewing gum that helps you concentrate better and remember more. Talk about food for thought.

Products that promise to prevent disease, improve your health beyond standard nutrition or just plain make you feel better are one of the hottest trends in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Called nutraceuticals, the products encompass a wide variety of food, beverage and dietary supplements enhanced with vitamins, minerals, herbs and other nutrients.

Remember the days when following the food pyramid was the key to good nutrition? It's not so easy anymore, some medical experts say.

``We're entering an era (in which) we realize you can't necessarily get - through a regular diet - the amount of nutrients you need for optimal health,'' said Dr. Marcus Elliott, a Santa Barbara sports medicine specialist.

As the popularity of herbal remedies grows, customers are gobbling up ever more creative concoctions. Instead of popping pills, people can now get the benefits of dietary supplements in food that actually tastes good.

There's corn puffs with ginseng, hard candy with fiber and multivitamin Gummi Bears. The chewing gum contains phospholipids, a type of fat that plays a role in nervous-system function; manufacturers of Brain Gum promise you'll ``reverse age-related memory loss by 12 years'' just by chewing a piece of gum three times a day, preferably after a meal, for three to four weeks.

But not all doctors are buying into the hype. Humans are physiologically programmed to extract everything we need from regular food - that's why we've evolved so successfully, said Dr. Laurence Kedes, executive director of the Institute for Genetic Medicine at the University of Southern California.

``For the vast majority of people, a normal, balanced diet of fat, protein and carbohydrates will give you all the vitamins, minerals and dietary requirements that you need,'' Kedes said. ``We are not lacking anything.''

Kedes, however, on the advice of his doctor, admits to taking vitamin E, an anti-oxidant that seems to help protect cells from damage.

``I need something to counteract the horrible diet I eat,'' he said.

Boon or bust

The question for consumers: Are these products really better for you, or are the additives just a gimmick to boost sales? And, even more importantly, are they safe?

They look like junk food. They taste like junk food. But manufacturers insist they are really health food.

Robert Ehrlich, president of Robert's American Gourmet in Roslyn, N.Y., makes Ginkgo Biloba Rings (puffed potato and corn flavored with onion), Power Puffs (corn puffs with bee pollen and ginseng) and Veggie Booty (puffed rice and corn with spinach and kale).

His snack foods, which sell for 99 cents a bag, are low in fat (1.5 to 6 grams of fat per 1-ounce serving) and calories (about 120 calories per serving).

While he admits his snack foods probably don't contain enough herbs for a ``therapeutic effect,'' ``it's a lifestyle-changing food,'' Ehrlich says. ``If you're doing something positive, you may do something else positive.''

But that conclusion does not satisfy scientists or the medical establishment.

No one knows for sure what dosages of herbs actually provide health benefits, medical experts say. Conversely, the long-term effects of many herbs are still not known, said Bruce Silverglade, director of legal affairs for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

``While they may have benefits, they may also have risks, just like a prescription drug,'' Silverglade said. ``The fact that an herb has benefits should send up warning signals to the consumer that it may have side effects or be dangerous at certain dosages.''

Eating it up

Despite doubts about their effectiveness and concerns about safety, the public is in a nutraceutical feeding frenzy.

Dr. Stephen L. DeFelice, chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine, coined the term in 1989 to describe foods with nutritional and pharmaceutical qualities.

Since then, it's been applied to a broad range of products - from fortified breakfast cereals to herbal dietary supplement capsules to increasingly bizarre recipes like Kava Kava Corn Chips laced with the pulverized roots of kava, a South Pacific pepper plant that purports to have relaxing properties.

Food and pharmaceutical companies are rushing to satisfy the public's appetite by forming partnerships to market nutraceuticals to baby boomers who made low-fat, low-cal foods such a success.

Nabisco's Specialty Products Division now makes a version of Knox unflavored gelatin called NutraJoint that's enhanced with vitamin C, calcium and two amino acids used by the body in building joint cartilage.

Johnson & Johnson Co.'s McNeil Consumer Products unit has obtained worldwide marketing rights to stanol ester, a patented dietary ingredient that lowers cholesterol by blocking its absorption into the bloodstream.

As major corporations have embraced the products sometimes called ``functional foods'' or ``enhanced foods,'' nutraceuticals have moved from the shelves of alternative health stores to major grocery and drug stores.

Sales of nutraceuticals hit $8.8 billion in 1996, according to a study by Datamonitor, a New York-based independent research firm.

While most of the money used to come from sales of pills and tablets, enhanced foods are rapidly gaining market share from dietary supplements.

Fortified juices and soft drinks account for nearly 30 percent of functional food sales.

Some are as standard as orange juice with calcium added. Others are as exotic as Alter Ego beverages. The Smartness Enhancer drink features ginkgo biloba and Siberian ginseng, said to boost energy and endurance. Body Relaxer contains kava, chamomile and valerian, a sedative. Energy Booster contains guarana, a stimulant from the Brazilian rain forest, and fo-ti, an ancient herb used by the Chinese before going into battle that is supposed to intensify awareness of your surroundings. A four-pack sells for $5.99.

``We are not attempting to tell people that by drinking these products they will cure any diseases,'' said Sumner Katz, president of American Marketing Technology Group that launched Alter Ego beverages a few months ago. ``We have tried to put in a synergistic blend of herbs that would have a health benefit and taste good.''

Claim jumpers

They better not claim to treat disease, or they may get in trouble with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Herbal remedies and additives became more prevalent after 1994, when the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act exempted dietary supplements from the rigorous regulation required of drugs.

That means dietary supplements - and many nutraceuticals fall into this category - can make all sorts of health claims on the label without showing any proof, so long as they don't promise to treat or cure disease.

``It has made these products in a regulatory gray area,'' said an FDA spokeswoman. ``Many of the ingredients are not approved as food additives. It's a confusing issue that we are looking at now.''

A recent New England Journal of Medicine editorial argued that herbs should be held up to the same standards as other drugs. Testimonials and speculation are no substitute for precise medical evidence that treatments are safe and effective, the editorial said.

``There cannot be two kinds of medicine - conventional and alternative,'' wrote Drs. Marcia Angell and Jerome P. Kassirer in the Sept. 17 issue. ``There is only medicine that has been adequately tested and medicine that has not, medicine that works and medicine that may or may not work.''

The doctors, while acknowledging that most untested herbal remedies are probably harmless, also described a series of incidents involving harmful herbal additives:

Doctors from Alberta Children's Hospital in Canada reported two cases in which parents opted to treat their children's cancer with shark cartilage or the herb astragalus instead of standard medicines. In both cases, the cancers progressed, and one child died.

The California Department of Health Services tested 260 traditional Chinese medicines and found one-third were contaminated with heavy metals, such as lead and arsenic, or pharmaceuticals not listed on the labels.

Doctors from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey tested a mixture of eight herbs, sold as PC-SPES, on men with prostate cancer. They found it worked like estrogen, decreasing testosterone and cutting sex drive. While not proving whether it cures cancer, the study shows the herb blend has potent hormonal effects.

What seems sure is that the nutraceutical market will continue to grow as herbs are embraced by consumers in the never-ending quest for endless youth and good health.

While some believe nutraceuticals may mean consumers spending billions in wasted money, some experts are hopeful they will eventually weed out the quackery from the curatives.

``It is confusing for the consumer, but the consumer is the one who fuels this,'' said Dr. Paul Lachance, head of the food science department at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., and director of the school's Nutraceutical Institute. ``The potential is a decrease in health-care costs if we can find the right approaches. That's where the secret lies.''

Researchers color them effective

A team of researchers from around the country has divided nutraceuticals into four categories - green, yellow, orange and red - based on effectiveness.

Green: Herbs and compounds found in the ``green'' category have proved efficacy during rigorous scientific testing and clinical trials in humans.

About 19 percent of the 600 claims investigated so far fall into this category, said Dr. Paul Lachance, head of the food science department at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., and director of the school's Nutraceutical Institute.

Vitamins and minerals that doctors long have known are necessary for good health, such as vitamins C and D, calcium and beta carotene are in this category.

St. John's wort also falls into this category for treatment of mild depression. So does guarana, an herb that acts as a stimulant similar to caffeine.

Yellow: About 9 percent of the products tested so far fall in the ``yellow'' category, compounds that seem to have some health benefits when held up to scientific scrutiny, but additional tests still are needed.

Claims that ginkgo biloba improves circulation and alleviates tension headaches fall into this category.

So does echinacea's role in boosting the immune system's function.

Orange: About 30 percent of compounds fall into the ``orange'' category. These products have been tested only in animals or have undergone very limited testing in humans.

Valerian, to alleviate insomnia, and green tea, said to be an anti-oxidant, fall into this category. So does kava, a root extract that some say eases menopause symptoms and anxiety.

Some manufacturers claim St. John's wort provides protection from viral infections. There's not much to prove this; for this claim, St. John's wort also belongs in orange.

Red: The rest of the nutraceutical compounds - a whopping 41 percent - fall into the ``red'' category. These are the ones where ``there is very little or no evidence to support the claims,'' Lachance said.

For instance, there is almost no evidence that ginkgo biloba will help with premenstrual syndrome or improve eyesight or sex drive.

- by Jenifer Hanrahan

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Box

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) JUNK FOR JOY

Health food trend cranks out `good' snacks

(2) no caption (Snacks)

David R. Crane/Daily News

Box: Researchers color them effective (See Text)