Benders'dictionary of nutrition and food technology

197fluoxetine An antidepressant acting to stimulate serotoninergicactivity (a serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitor); also hasanorectic activity, and is used in treatment of obesity and bulimianervosa.Trade name Prozac.FMN See flavin mononucleotide.FNIC Food and Nutrition Information Center, located at theNational Agricultural Library, part of the US Department ofAgriculture; web site http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/.FOAD Fetal origins of adult disease, see epigenetics; programming.foam Colloidal suspension (see colloid) of gas bubbles in aliquid or semi-liquid phase. Most so-called aerosol foams (e.g.whipped cream) are correctly foams, since an aerosol is a colloidalsuspension of liquid droplets in a gas phase. Formation offoams can be a problem in manufacturing processes, and can beprevented by use of antifoaming agents or mechanical meansof eliminating the foam, such as heating, centrifuging, sprayingor ultrasonic vibration.foam cells Macrophages that have accumulated very largeamounts of cholesterol and other lipids as a result of uptake of(chemically modified) low-density lipoprotein. They infiltratethe arterial wall and lead to the development of fatty streaks, andeventually atherosclerosis.foam-mat drying A method of drying food.The liquid concentrateis whipped to a foam with the aid of a foaming agent, spread on atray and dried in a stream of warm air. It can be reconstituted veryrapidly with water because of the fine structure of the foam.foie gras (French, fat liver). The liver of goose or duck that hasbeen force fed and fattened; may be cooked whole or used as thebasis of pâté de foie gras, the most highly prized of the pâtés.folacin, folate See folic acid.folate equivalents See dietary folate equivalents.folic acid A vitamin that functions as a carrier of one-carbon unitsin a variety of metabolic reactions. Essential for the synthesis ofpurines and pyrimidines (and so for nucleic acid synthesis andhence cell division); the principal deficiency disease is megaloblasticanaemia, due to failure of the normal maturation of redblood cells, with release into the circulation of immature precursorsof red blood cells.Occurs in foods as a variety of one-carbon substituted derivatives,and with a varying number of γ-glutamyl residues. Mixedfood folate is about 50% as biologically active as synthetictetrahydrofolic acid used in enrichment and supplements.Supplements of 400 µg free folic acid/day begun before conceptionreduce the incidence of spina bifida and other neural