European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 9, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By Molly o Neill new York times like so Many Alices in wonderland grocery shoppers in the United states wander through a Maze of products that seem to sing out Quot eat me you la feel  they buy a High fiber this an Omega-3 that. They eat to heal. And scientists Are scrambling to isolate additional components of common foods that can prevent or cure disease. Their findings will be big business l our years ago Paul Stitt a biochemist who owns natural ovens in Mambo wac wis. Began baking bread cookies and Cereal with flaxseed Oil which is Rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. Since then a study by or. Lilian Thompson of the University of Toronto found that in addition to its cholesterol lowering ability flaxseed Oil caused a 50 percent reduction in pre cancer cells in Laboratory animals business at natural ovens has climbed 130 percent. And Stitt said general Mills and the Kellogg co have ordered flaxseed Oil from him he holds the Patent Lor stabilizing the Oil the companies would neither confirm nor deny the purchases instead of Selling food based on what it does t do like raising blood pressure or cholesterol Levels big food companies Are increasingly developing and marketing products with what advertisers Call Quot proactive Quot health claims extolling specific health enhancements Quot pro Active health claims Are the hottest food Selling tool today Quot said Martin Friedman the editor of Gorman s new product news a Trade publication. Quot the fantasy is a pro Active grab it Zap it gulp it health product the big companies Are looking at everything from folkloric Good cures to ancient chinese Bota meals Quot while the major food manufacturers Are studying time honoured holistic cures with an Eye toward a new class of processed food researchers Are trying to keep science ahead of food technology and marketing claims the National cancer Institute has recently developed a $20 5 million program to study photo chemicals minute compounds that Are linked to cancer prevention and Are found in some common foods in the next year the Institute will try to identify the specific cancer fighting compounds in flax members of the garlic family Citrus fruits members of the Parsley family and Licorie Root extract All of which Are thought to inhibit cancer Over the next five years or Herbert Pierson a toxicologist who is directing the cancer Institute s program plans sequential Laboratory and clinical research into the preventive potential of 20 other foods and to develop food products containing concentrations of photo chemicals. In nature the Levels of phytochemical compounds very widely from Plant to Plant. They can even be toxic in science Quot to can isolate and extract and regulate the beneficial compounds and formulate designer food products that could fight disease Quot Pierson said. Other scientists warn that several generations of in search will be needed to determine the full Impact of photo chemicals but they agree As Pierson put it Quot the future is prevention Quot and food products have a starring role. Quot it s More Cost effective than looking for new drugs Quot said Pierson who added that delays in the approval of new drugs and the High number of drugs that fail the screening process have forced science and the government to Quot look at food As a preventive Medicine of the  Chris Lecos a food and drug administration spokesman concurred. Quot there is a growing evidence that certain foods fight disease Quot he said. Quot we can no longer discourage the use of this information in Labelling. We Are looking at ways to regulate  currently health claims Are used in Labelling but the Fra plans to have specific regulations governing that use written by 1991. Meanwhile Pierson is studying folkloric cures and cultural eating customs which provide Quot thousands of years Worth of epidemiological evidence of the Healing properties of some foods Quot he said. These Are among the findings that prompted his interest a preliminary studies by danish researchers showed a Low incidence of heart disease among eskimos and this prompted a University of Chicago study that in 1974 isolated the Omega-3 fatty acids in fish an Eskimo mainstay voila foods Rich in the compound have a new Selling Angle. Observing a polish Folk cure or. Victor Gurewich a cardiologist at Tufts University in Medford mass., administered onions to 20 patients in 1982 and found that the onions triggered a positive shift in cholesterol Levels. A intrigued by the Low incidence of respiratory trouble in los Angeles among mexicans who smoke or. Irwin ziment a professor at the University of California school of Medicine has Over the past 10 years begun to prescribe chillies As pulmonary strengthener. Or. James Duke an economic botanist for the department of agriculture who is assisting the National cancer Institute in its phytochemical research began to study the link Between garlic and cancer after noting the amounts of garlic eaten in certain provinces of China and the Low incidence of cancer there. Quot my favorite sport is finding the science behind the custom Quot said the 60-year-old Duke who likes to cite what he Cally the Quot Ginkgo seed  Quot in Japan Gin goes Are eaten with cocktails because they Are believed to fight drunkenness Quot he said. Quot in completely unrelated research we find that the Ginkgo contains compounds that Speed up the metabolism of  the growing body of such scientific evidence As Well As the rising use of special diets in alternative health care intrigued Jean Carper a newspaper columnist for the King features Syndicate. She describes herself As a Quot very traditional even conservative medical  after three years of research she became convinced that foods could be Good Medicine and published the food pharmacy Bantam 1988a compendium of lore and scientific evidence that sounded the Clarion Call Carper discusses the medicinal uses of onions hot peppers chinese mushrooms cranberries garlic Yogurt cabbage Broccoli and carrots. Today she is finding it difficult to keep up with the Field she helped bring to the forefront. Quot the studies have increased 500 percent Quot she said. Or. Chris Beecher an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago has catalogued 900 photo chemicals that Are common in nature and that studies have found could prevent certain diseases. Quot the correlation Between Folk Medicine and phytochemical is astounding Quot he said. Quot it convinces me that people s tastes Are shaped at least in part by a subliminal knowledge of what keeps them alive Pierson s Quot designer food Quot is a High tech missile aimed at those same eating for survival instincts Quot imagine a Frozen food that can be popped into the microwave Quot he said. Quot the product is devoid of cholesterol fortified by huge concentrations of Citrus or Licorie that delivers natural molecules that fortify human tissue against chronic insults. Quot we could produce Orange juice with the phytochemical Content of 20 oranges or Salt and fat free Bee stroganoff with High concentration of allium. Food technologists say the production would be a Breeze. Quot we could build certain properties into food products that Are Carcinogen scavengers Quot said or Manford Kroger a professor of food technology at Pennsylvania state University. Quot for that matter we could add birth control to Cereal or feed students compounds that limit daydreaming and make them  Pierson said he has "150 food companies waiting to work with me Quot but he added Quot our biggest Challenge is trying to put science ahead of technology and  in a culture in which technology routinely runs of science Pierson is not underestimating his Challenge. Photo fast food a instant soup with concentrated doses of garlic instant Cereal Laden i the cancer fighting components of flaxseed Oil car custom made for today s eating to heal shopper Quot it takes the old fashioned merits of food gives he scientific legitimacy and gives them to people w to Don t have much time for cooking Quot said Mona of _ the president of consumer network a trend a c group in Philadelphia. Quot that s right on the Money Friday ahead Page 14 a a a the stars and stripes