Are Fortified Foods Nutritious?

A Quick Analysis

These days, store shelves are full of breakfast cereal with added vitamins and minerals, orange juice with bone-building calcium, and milk shakes with added protein. While these every day foods with pumped-up nutritional profiles appear to be health superstars, relying on them for a healthy, balanced diet is not a good idea.

While fortified and enriched foods may help to fill nutritional gaps, they aren’t better than a healthy, balanced diet, according to nutrition experts.

What About Chocolate Protein Bars?

If you think you have found an excuse to eat a cookies ‘n cream bar for dinner, because it’s loaded with protein, and vitamins think again. Fortified foods should still be nutritious in their own right. Look for natural nutrients first and consider fortification a bonus. Choose calcium-rich skim or 2% milk and whole-grain, high-fibre breakfast cereals (if they have added nutrients, it’s a plus). A little extra nutrition is fine but it shouldn’t be the reason to choose a food.

So, Should You Bite?

If you are eating a good healthy diet, you should not need to take a daily multivitamin, or worry about eating fortified foods. But you do need fibre, good fats and the hundreds of protective phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables—and they don’t come in pill form.

However, if you have a food allergy or a medical condition fortified foods may be good for you. For example, if you’re lactose intolerant, and can’t get your calcium from dairy you might want to give that calcium-enriched orange juice a try.

Also, keeping one of those protein bars, or ultra-healthy breakfast cereals around for busy times when you need a quick energy boost might be a good idea. Just don’t forget that those vitamins in a bowl aren’t a replacement for a balanced diet.