The term health food is generally is used to describe foods that are considered to be beneficial to health, beyond a normal healthy diet required for human nutrition. However, the term is not precisely defined by national regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
"Health food" is sometimes used as an umbrella term encompassing natural foods, organic foods, whole foods, and sometimes dietary supplements. Such products are sold in health food stores or in the health/organic sections of supermarkets. "Health food" may also refer to functional food: foods for which a specific claim of health benefits is made, such as that consumption of the food may prevent disease. Additionally, "health food" is sometimes used in contrast with "junk food", which may be high in calories but has little other nutritional value.
Jack LaLanne and Robert Bootzin known as "Gypsy Boots" were early promoters of health foods in the past century in America.
Read more about Health Food: Health Claims in Food Labeling and Marketing
Famous quotes containing the words health and/or food:
“... work is only part of a man’s life; play, family, church, individual and group contacts, educational opportunities, the intelligent exercise of citizenship, all play a part in a well-rounded life. Workers are men and women with potentialities for mental and spiritual development as well as for physical health. We are paying the price today of having too long sidestepped all that this means to the mental, moral, and spiritual health of our nation.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“This is the only “wet” community in a wide area, and is the rendezvous of cow hands seeking to break the monotony of chuck wagon food and range life. Friday night is the “big time” for local cowboys, and consequently the calaboose is called the “Friday night jail.””
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)