What prevents from adding any nutrient to a certain food? And I saw in Wikipedia and other places that food fortification is considred as a very possitive measure helping to reduce population deffiniencies so with the main risk is to have a surplus of a nutrient why not add any nutrient to create a "super food"? And why when fortifying food with certain nutrient companies sometimes keep the predecesor product? Recently a dairy company introduced a yogurt fortified with 10 g proteins,and they kept the original yogurt. Why? Is there some danger in fortification that some people afraid of and refrain from buying? Because other than exceeding the advised quantity of a nutrient I didn't read in Wikipedia anything. So why keep both lines when one is simply better? And how ecactly a food fortification is done? Thanks
1 Answers
You do not need to make health-related conclusions from how the marketers behave or what they say.
They give you the choice to buy either a fortified or non-fortified food, so they can earn from you in each case.
Fortified foods are for those who believe they can benefit from an extra amount of a certain nutrient. People who believe that "natural is the best" might more likely chose non-fortified foods.
There is an evidence, for example, that iodized salt can decrease the incidence of goiter in areas with little iodine in the soil. Also, according to one 2007 study from Bangladesh:
mandatory mass iodination of table salt consumption in a hyper-endemic iodine deficient area is safe and does not cause any side effect.
To know if fortified foods have any side effects, you would need to search from nutrient to nutrient, consider different amounts and forms, etc.
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