 Good day everybody. I am Dr. Shirley Guevara, the Dean of the College of Home Economics. I'm a food technologist currently teaching courses on food service and hotel management under the Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management. Our college focuses on the daily needs of Filipino families such as food, clothing, shelter and family life. The course FN1 or Food Drip is a general education course that is currently being offered by the Department of Food Science and Nutrition in our college. In this course, we tackle the different aspects of food in the everyday lives of Filipinos and the society. We also talk about the social, cultural, economic, political, psychological and biochemical aspects of food as well as the practical ways on how we can ensure and improve the health and nutrition of our people and our families. I am currently joined by the faculty members who teach FN1. Hi, I'm Dr. Tashana Blanca Villarino, a food technologist and I teach statistical analysis and food research, research methods and sensory evaluation. Good day everyone. I am Professor Luz Calyanta, a registered nutritionist dietitian and I teach courses on food service nutrition. I mainly focus on culinary nutrition and sports nutrition. I am also the chairperson of the Office of Community and Extension Services of our college. Hi, good day. I am Professor Aeron Andrew Bonifacio. I'm also a registered nutritionist dietitian teaching courses on public health nutrition. And I am the college information officer of our college. So we will now continue with our segment titled, Mga Gabay Samalusog Napamumuhai, Our Guides to a Healthy Living. In our previous episode, we've talked about food labels and processed food, where we learned how we can examine our food based on the indicated labels to become waiz or wiser consumers. So for this episode, we will be talking about food and dietary supplements and functional foods. I am pleased to introduce our esteemed guest for this episode, Dr. William Riley is a PhD graduate from Cornell University, majoring in nutritional biochemistry and minoring in biochemistry and physiology. He is currently the CEO and president of the William W Riley and associates limited is also working as a part-time professional lecturer in the department of food science and nutrition of our college. He chess graduate courses in clinical nutrition, nutritional assessment, nutrition in wellness and physical fitness and molecular nutrition. He is a consultant of several Canadian and European food and nutrition companies. Once again, please welcome Dr. William Riley. Good afternoon, Dr. Riley. How are you today? Good day. Thank you. And that exhaust my Tagalog vocabulary. So looking forward to our discussion in English today. Yeah, that's wonderful. We sincerely thank you for accepting our invitation. This is an exciting episode because we have so much in store for our audience this afternoon. So it looks like we have a lot to talk about today. We can now proceed to our first question. Hi, Dr. Riley. So we are all aware about the trend of consuming health and nutrition products such as pills, shakes, teas and other products to improve our health or prevent disease even before COVID-19. This trend became even more popular with the promise that these products can strengthen our immune system against contagious disease like COVID-19. Can you explain to us and of course our audience, what are functional foods and what does it actually do? Well, functional foods are actually real. Functional foods means that a food we consume has a function beyond just providing us normal nutrients. And by that I mean, you know, each day we need energy, we need vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, etc. But by functional, we mean that the food contains something beyond these nutrients. In other words, it has some component that has a function that goes beyond just the nutrient requirement of the food. And science research has shown us that there are foods that contain some of these compounds. I know we all know that you are a foreigner but you've been staying in the Philippines for quite some time now. Do you have any idea about the definition of food and dietary supplements by Philippine law? Well, you know, a general definition of a food supplement is it's a concentrated source of a nutrient. And in general, we look at a concentrated source being something that is making up for deficiency in our diet. Philippine law, and I'm going to read this, I haven't memorized it, so bear with me please. By Philippine law, it states a processed food product intended to supplement the diet. And that's an important component supplement the diet that bears or contains one or more of the following ingredients. It would be a vitamin mineral herb or other botanical, meaning based on plant amino acid and dietary substance to increase the total dietary substance, the total dietary daily intake and amounts conforming to the latest Philippine recommended energy and nutrient intake or international agreed daily requirements. And I'm going to come back to that as we discuss further. That's an important point. It really meant to by law just meet the requirement for those nutrients. And continuing with that, that definition, usually in the form of capsules, tablets, liquids, gels, powders of pills, and not represented for use as a conventional food, or as the sole item of a meal or replacement of drugs and medicines. So again, I want to go back to that key point of the definition I gave you, and then also of the official by law definition that supplements, meaning you know the pills you'd find in the store advertised online, etc. are really intended to bring up your, your, your food, your noble diet where you might be deficient. Another example in the Philippines is unfortunately many Filipinos deficient in some key nutrients, one of them being vitamin A, for instance, most women are deficient in iron, and many Filipinos are actually deficient in calcium because you have a fairly low intake of dairy products. Unfortunately, but unfortunately, many of the sellers of supplements, you know food supplements, like to make us believe that well, you know those requirements are only minimums, and you should actually take far more than that. That's the reason they get us to buy more of those. So, you know, you might hear your dietitian of which, you know, our department teaches people to be dietetics or dietitians right, will tell you, you know, a supplement is when you may be deficient in these nutrients. So, you know, you need to take a limited amount of them, but then somebody selling them to you might tell you, Oh, no, no, no, no, you need to take far more of those, because you need much more than maybe that requirement calls for. So that's a that's a subtlety that I want to make clear to the viewers today. You might hear two different contradictory messages coming to you from, say a professional and somebody who might be trying to sell you supplements. So, thank you very much for that very complete answer. But it also gives rise to some more questions that a layman may ask. Okay, so you mentioned supplements being in the form of pills or powders or the like. So, my question is, when is it really absolutely necessary to take these supplements? You mentioned something about being deficient. What if you are not the kind of person who will go to a doctor and ask, am I deficient or to have a blood test to tell them that I am deficient? Are there any signs to tell you that, okay, I need to take these supplements? And if I will take the supplements, are there any issues that you can share with us that has something to do with these supplements or these what we call functional foods? That's a very good point. You know, right right now, we brought up the point of COVID, and many people are locked in, not getting a sufficient diet, perhaps not getting the types of food that we should be getting. And by that I mean maybe some of the nutrient dense foods, meaning foods that have many of the kinds of nutrients we need, like vitamins and minerals. In those cases, it may be a good idea to be taking a multi vitamin mineral tablet. So, my question is, what are the differences, myself being included by admission, I am a senior citizen. And as you get older, your requirements for calories, especially decrease, meaning it's extra important to consume only high quality foods. And you can't afford to be eating, maybe some of the things we'd like to be eating, like sweets, and say, perhaps junk foods. And many of the elderly, the senior citizens are we've been shut in, we're not supposed to be going out. And so we may not have access to the proper foods. And we're not eating the right foods. In those cases. Personally, I have been making sure I take a vitamin mineral supplement, because as my caloric intake goes down relative to when I was younger and more active. I do have to be careful that I'm meeting my proper nutrient requirements. That's another good example. People who are ill also need to be care to be careful. Illness increases the requirements for, certainly for certain nutrients, when your immune system is stimulated, your requirements for protein will go up. And your requirements for other nutrients may increase. Pregnant and lactating women in particular will have increased requirements. There's a reason why every pregnant woman should have a prenatal supplement. Particularly for iron and folic acid. Pregnant woman's blood volume will go up by 50%, meaning a lot more red blood cells. And so even she's marginal for iron, even when she's not pregnant. So when she is pregnant, her iron requirement will go up significantly. And likely she's not going to get that from her food. Her cell volume goes up. Folic acid, a B vitamin, is extremely important for that because it can lead to birth defects in the child if she does not have that. So that's a very, very good example of when supplementation is important. So there are certain situations where it's absolutely crucial. And as I mentioned, here in the Philippines, unfortunately the Philippines is one of the countries in the world where stunting of growth has been an issue. And stunting of growth is due, in many cases, to inadequate intake of calories and certain nutrients. And in those cases, yes, supplementation, not only of calories but of nutrients is important as well too. So there are certainly repercussions of not doing that, not taking supplementation. I think the situation now that we're facing here with the COVID situation where children and elderly have been locked into the home. Incomes have decreased and we're not able to buy the proper foods. I think is a fairly good example of where taking even a multivitamin may not be a bad idea. And as I said, I certainly have done that. Dr. Riley, I think one of the issues regarding food supplements is the high cost. And one bottle would cost about $2,500. So I'm not a fan of food supplements, unfortunately, but I do take my multivitamin source that. You know, personally, I'm not a fan of food supplements either. But I take a multivitamin. And I think that is adequate because if you take a good multivitamin supplement, if you look on the label, by a good one, I mean by a reputable manufacturer, generally one of the pharmaceutical companies, you'll notice that they don't, they don't include 100% or more of each of the vitamins and minerals. They contain a portion of the requirements. Okay. And that's what's important that they're still assuming that you get the bulk of your required nutrients, daily nutrients from your food. And that's important that you still try to get your basic requirements met by your food supply. And I'm not a fan at all for several reasons of taking individual nutrients as a supplement, because really the information, the research is very tenuous on the benefits of doing that. And I say that from experience. When I was much younger and active as an athlete, I'm guilty of taking them all. And I consider that a waste of my time and a waste of my money years ago. And I don't do it anymore. I don't recommend it to anybody, really. You still should get your nutrients from your diet. And that means that everybody to the best of their ability should try to eat a good balanced diet. But it's also reality that the unemployment or partial employment rate right now in the Philippines is really low. And so it's difficult for people to get the foods that they should. But I agree with you totally that you should simply be taking, you know, a good multivitamin supplement. And it doesn't necessarily have to be the brand label one. You know, it can be a generic one, because often the brand label is you're simply paying for the brand. Right. And not necessarily for the nutrients. Thank you. That's so reassuring, Dr. Riley. I'm very happy that you said we get our nutrients from the food first. As a nutritionist, we always tell people food first before anything else food first. Yes. Okay, so I am happy that you said that. But going back to what Dr. Shirley asked earlier, you answered that. Yes, a multivitamin, but no to a food supplement. So can you draw the line? I thought that a vitamin mineral or a multivitamin tablet is tantamount to taking a supplement. That's what I mean is a supplement as such. I call it the same thing, you know, multivitamin supplement. When I was able to consume much more, you know, my chlorine requirements were much higher. I didn't bother. So I went from when I was younger and far more active. I did take all the supplements and I realized now it was a complete waste. I went through that period in, you know, middle life where I realized I didn't need them and I didn't. You know, I was able to consume, oh, you know, 2,500 to 3,500 calories a day when I was still very active. And I realize now that there was no need for any supplementation at that level of intake. You know, I think we know that as we get beyond a certain age and everyone will learn this the hard way that your requirements for calories drops precipitously. And the only, the only have two options. You have to either really continue to eat to stay very active, which unfortunately the mind may be willing, but our bodies, you know, take exception to that. We do our best, but you have to cut down on what you consume because your requirements really do drop with age when I, you know, I literally am half. I can eat only half of what I did, maybe 15 years ago. And so I do then have to hedge and take some kind of a supplement, especially being locked in as I am now. And I've watched my weight. I, you know, I cannot eat much more than 1500 calories a day. And I used to feel sorry for the younger students, female students, you know, when I would lecture and think, wow, you have it so difficult. Well, I'm in the same situation now and I, you know, I understand from personal experience, you cannot afford to eat any junk food or sweets when you're at 1500 calories a day. And so it is also very difficult to meet some of the requirements for the nutrients at that low of a level. So that's why I say, Yes, I just, I'm careful, you know, and it's hard to get calcium. It's hard to get my iron. So I do take that supplement just in case. Yeah, thank you, Dr. I think it's more of our issue nowadays is we have these, you know, a wide range of food items that are high in calories, you know, the energy that we need, but very low in the micronutrients that we need. And so, you know, we can blame also our diets, like, for example, in this pandemic that we are always, you know, reliant on processed foods for, for the Ayuda and the gift packs and the source or our fresh foods are very limited. So these are the times definitely that we might consider using these supplements. But moving forward for the first question revolved around functional foods. So compared to taking like this pills, the shakes, this dietary supplements, like what would be your being like the difference between functional foods and do we want to focus on them versus this supplements going about like here talking about food improving our health or maintaining our health or even preventing disease. I think the good aspect of what we call functional foods is the functional foods tend to be what will be considered nutrient dense foods. Examples of functional foods, grapes, cranberries, most fruits as long as we consume the peel of the fruit. You know, I can remember my children were young that we always took the peel off for them thinking we're doing them a favor right, but actually probably should have kept the peels on them, because that's where you find many of the polyphenols. And polyphenols are a good example of what is a functional aspect of the fruit. We always think of fruit as well vitamins minerals and calories right sugars in them, but polyphenols are a part of the fruit that the the fruit itself is developed and evolve to provide protection for the plant or for the fruit polyphenols are antioxidants. And they're also in some cases, antibacterial, they'll kill microbes. And so we consume them they they can do the same thing. You likely heard that red wine is good for you right everybody should drink red wine because of the tannins tannins are polyphenols one type of polyphenols. Right. Well, you know, red wine is fine if you like your red wine then that's an excuse for drinking red wine but if you don't drink, you don't want red wine. Then you'll get the same effect by by having a handful of walnuts or your red grapes or cranberries because it's the polyphenols the tannins that have the same effect. That's an example of a functional food. So they have an antioxidant effect, which is protective and actually can kill bacteria. So that's an example of a functional food soy protein one of the benefits of soy is as considered a functional food as well to the soy protein itself. There's evidence that the soy protein can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, and then the isoflavones have been linked to possibly having a beneficial effect in menopause for women mimicking estrogen. So those are two examples or many others we probably don't have time to go into today but examples of functional foods. So Dr. Riley, another term that we come across which is related to functional foods or dietary supplements are nutraceuticals. So can you explain further or give us some examples of these nutraceutical supplements and some terms that that we come across when we read about this nutraceuticals are phytochemicals, immune modulators and immune stimulating compounds. Are these of any real value in protecting me from any disease? Let me give you two examples and contrast them. One would be beta-glucans and another is omega-3 fatty acids. Now, and I can contrast with functional food. You can get beta-glucans by consuming yeast products as a food. So if you consume certain yeast cell walls but the whole yeast, you will get beta-glucans. It's found in fiber sources and if you consume oats, beta-glucans are found in oats and that has been linked to a positive effect on cardiovascular prevention of cardiovascular disease. But you can also get beta-glucans in a pill form. They've been sort of isolated and put into a pill form. So you can take it in either form, either as the oats or in the pill form. Omega-3 is the same way. You can go to the store and take omega-3s in a little capsule and it can come from either algae or fish oils in a bottle as omega-3s. And of course we know that's also been linked to positive cardiovascular health. Or you could go to the store and see some eggs and it will say these are high omega-3 eggs. Now which do you think if you were in the business as a food scientist, which I know some of you are, trying to sell the eggs as high omega-3, or you sell the nutraceutical in the bottle, what do you think the consumer pays more for? It's a psychological thing, but the answer is the consumer will pay far more for the pills in the bottle because nutraceutical, there's a connotation of pharmaceutical pill. Oh boy, those must do a lot more for me than if I get the omega-3s which have been elevated in the egg and it will actually probably be absorbed better because it's in a food form. They also had high omega-3 in chicken breast, it was incorporated in the chicken breast, and in milk. And you could make the argument that that's a lot better way to give it to the person in the food form. But those routinely have failed. The eggs have been okay, but the consumer won't pay that much more for them because it's an egg. And that's what they look at it as. But they can command a really high price for the omega-3 in the little pill and the same for the beta-glucan. But oatmeal is oatmeal, and the consumer will pay the price for oatmeal, even though there's beta-glucans in it. So it really is an interesting psychological concept. There's still beta-glucans and there's still omega-3s, but what the consumer will pay differs greatly. So I hope that answers your question on what the nutraceutical is. The industry really tries to go that route if they want to make money from it. Put it in a bottle, put it in the health food store, and when you walk in as a consumer, you'll pay 500% more than you will pay if it's in the form of a food. Wow. What about probiotic and prebiotic, Dr. Riley? What is the proposed action of this in the human diet? And how can we ingest probiotics and prebiotics in food or supplemental form? Another interesting concept and a good analogy, too, because probiotics are, shall we say, good bacteria like lactobacillus acid-producing bacteria. It's interesting in what we call the microbiome. We have many microbes, bacteria in our intestinal tract, mostly in the lower intestinal tract, because the intestinal tract is really outside of our body, from the mouth all the way to our anus, and so they can exist in there without harming us. Some of them are good bacteria, some are bad, and the good bacteria tend to be existing in an acid environment, and the bad bacteria are more in an alkaline environment, above pH 7. Probiotics are designed to put more of the good bacteria into our intestinal tract, right? And so probiotics come in, again, two forms. You can get them in yogurt, or most of you have seen the Yakult milks, the drinks, right? Yes. Yeah. And so consumers will pay a certain amount for those, but again, they're in a food form. And so there's a limited amount of money they'll pay for those above normal products. Or they can go to the health food store and go in again sometime and look at what they will pay if it's in a little packet, right? Or even in pill forms, much more for those probiotics. Do they work? Most medical authorities will say, not a chance. Oh, really? Well, now think about this, because taking yogurt, number one is when the yogurt is made, there'll be a certain number of bacteria in that. But by the time you consume it, many of them have died. And so you're putting a few thousand, tens of thousands of bacteria, good bacteria into your intestinal tract, right? How many different microbes live in your intestinal tract in the trillions or more? So it's like taking a few eye drops and putting them in the Pasig River. And did you affect the Pasig River? Probably not. But the consumer feels good about doing that, right? And it sells a lot of Yakult and a lot of yogurt. The same would go for the pill that you're taking in you. And I can tell you that in the animal world, the results have not been very convincing. And when they use probiotics in chickens and in pigs, they have much more control over it. And you still don't see major positive effects. Now with humans, we're taking the yogurt and then we're diluting that out with all the rest of the food we eat that day, right? And the same with the probiotics. So it's difficult to say that they have a great deal of effect on us. In reality, the prebiotics seem to be a little bit better at doing something. Prebiotics are feeding the good bacteria in our gut. It's a little indirect. Those are things like fructo oligosaccharides, okay? They're the food for the good bacteria. But you really would have to have much better control over your whole diet. And when they've done controlled experiments, where you do control people's whole diet, you still... It's very difficult to show a positive effect. But the reality is the average person is not controlling the whole diet. So they might take some of these. Dr. Riley, let's move to a non-average person. I mean, I'm sure with the lockdown and all you have been watching the Olympics going on. And we are very proud that we have our first gold medalist in the person of Hedilindias and several other medalists notably in boxing. And we as nutritionists, we're very happy because we see that they do have a nutritionist on board as part of their team. So my question is, would you recommend a supplement or a nutristutical for an athlete knowing that there is wada out there watching your every move? So what is your thoughts on that? I don't know what Hedilindias was using. A lot of times, if I was now working as a nutrition coach to one of the athletes and they were using something, I might go against my own best judgment. And I likely would not stop them because it would have a negative psychological impact on them. Because unless I thought I was harming them, I would let them go ahead and continue what they were doing. So there's a psychological aspect to it and you work in sports nutrition too. And so you understand what that might do. But if I had to tell somebody what do you need to be taking to perform better? Any athlete, the main thing that they have to worry about is caloric consumption. And I'll give you an example in the 2008 Olympics, Michael Phelps, the swimmer from the U.S. And I think you probably all remember him for the number of gold medals that he won over time. If you had to guess how many calories he was consuming, you probably would guess five or six thousand. But before the Olympics, he actually was consuming 10,000 or more calories in his training. And so you can imagine that given his requirements for other nutrients, he didn't have a thing to worry about. I would never tell him, you need to take any supplements for any nutrients, including protein. Do athletes, even strength athletes, have an additional requirement for protein? The evidence is probably a little bit. But when you're consuming 12,000 calories a day, you don't need to worry about supplementation. And I know what his diet looked like. Do you think that he ate massive amounts of protein? No, he needed carbohydrate for the most part. And so he ate spaghetti. He ate pancakes. He ate some things that probably, you know, I wouldn't recommend normally for people, but the only way he could get carbohydrates was to consume pancakes and spaghetti and bread. He needed because of the amount of activity he was doing. And that goes for weightlifting. It goes for any of the track events. These track athletes that you see running that look like fingers, right? You'd be amazed the number of calories they consume because they are expending so much that they have to consume enormous amounts of food. And that means they get a tremendous amount of nutrients on top of that as well, too. So, yeah, the reality is if I'm advising them, I don't tell them they need all of these things. They eat so much, they don't. You know, unless they're eating empty calories, which they're not. I focus again on good foods meeting, you know, their nutritional needs. And I'm more concerned about the foods not upsetting their, you know, their routines. That means good energy dense foods that they can digest properly and not junk foods, not fried foods that are going to upset them because they're having to train a lot of the time. So, you know, that's the message I would be giving to them. There are some compounds actually like caffeine that have been shown to stimulate metabolism and are allowed in the Olympics now actually. There's a few subtleties in there, too. But other than that, it's just what I said. You know, you are eating so much and enjoy it while you can, right? Yes, that's true, Dr. Riley. That's why nutrition is very important to athletes and just a trivia. The nutritionist dietitian of Hydeline Diaz is a graduate of our community nutrition. So we're very proud of that. So thank you very much, Dr. Riley, for your gift of time and expertise generously sharing your knowledge and food and dietary supplements, as well as functional foods. I'd like to thank also my partners here, Dr. Blanca, Professor Luz and Professor Aaron for the very interesting discussion that we have today. But before we end this episode, Dr. Riley, would you care to give some final message to our viewers? Yes. Get your nutrients from your food. If you feel like you're not consuming enough, just as you said, Dr., a multi-vitamin supplement and stay healthy. Get vaccinated and really watch your health, exercise. It's very simple. Don't complicate life. Don't complicate your diet and stay healthy. I love the Philippines. I've enjoyed being here and I intend to stay. Thank you, Dr. Riley. We also love you very much. Thank you again, Dr. Riley. So for today's episode, we talked about dietary and food supplements. So they are meant to supplement our diet and not to be our main source of nutrients. So we can have these in different forms, but again, let's not complicate things. And maybe we should focus on these functional foods that are basic foods that have other parts of them that improves our health and even protect us from certain diseases. So I hope that we've learned so much from our discussion and make us more aware of the things that we buy and consume. And everyone, stay tuned for our next episode on this segment, Manga Gabay Samalaswagna Pamamuhay. Where will we be talking about food safety? So see you again and goodbye and have a healthy and nutritious day to all of you. Palam.