Aging baby boomers are practising preventive medicine now to avoid major disease later in life.
A joint conference of the Natural Health Products Research Society of Canada and the Canadian Herb, Spice and Natural Health Products Coalition recently discussed how agricultural crops and their “bioactive” components can help meet these goals by contributing to healthy lives and reducing health-care costs.
Kelley Fitzpatrick, executive director of Flax Canada 2015, told the meeting, which was held in Saskatoon May 10-13, that there has been a shift in thinking about natural health products, with people now using their active ingredients to prevent disease.
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She cited the role flax plays in reducing risks of cancer and diabetes or echinacea’s ability to boost the immune system to avoid colds.
“We as a nation will be crippled by health-care costs if we don’t change the way we look at medicine and lifestyle,” Fitzpatrick said.
“We have to have prevention as our primary focus rather than treatment.”
Fitzpatrick said there is also a greater willingness to embrace food as a road to wellness, citing recent research that shows how less salt in the diet can lower hypertension.
Wanda Wolf, president of the Saskatchewan Herb and Spice Association, said interest is growing in home-grown culinary herbs and spices as people try to eat more natural food and health products.
She cited the increased use of blueberries and cranberries in products.
“The economy has picked up and there’s a little more disposable income and they’re putting it towards health products,” she said. “People don’t want to wait to get sick and get pharmaceuticals to mask it.”
Fitzpatrick said baby boomers are living longer lives than previous generations, are open to alternative medicine and are increasingly skeptical of traditional medicine.
She said Canada is well positioned to take advantage of such trends now that its Natural Health Products regulations are in place.
Canadian products must have the science to support label claims before they go on store shelves, Fitzpatrick said. Those regulations have cleaned up the industry, given it greater credibility and increased consumer awareness and acceptance.
“We can rest assured that our products are of the highest quality.”
Coalition executive director Connie Kehler said the NHP regulations and good agricultural practices guidelines have helped Canada take a lead role in keeping track of where plants come from and how they are used.
“That diligence will make Canada a better place for the whole chain.”
Kehler said recent problems with melamine discovered in pet food will encourage companies to reward suppliers that use sound practices and look beyond buying the cheapest product on the market.
“We didn’t need to clean up our own act in this industry. We needed to differentiate between the people that do the right thing and the people who were not.”
