The Prepared Foods' 2005 R&D Trends Survey: Functional Foods and Beverages makes it plausible to believe that Western culture may transition to eating foods that support disease prevention as doctors have suggested for years. Evidence of the efficacy of functional foods certainly did cause Aaron Tabor, MD, to switch directions.

Tabor, a young medical student in 1997, did not likely think that menopause would ignite a career detour from reconstructive cranial facial surgery into functional food processing. Nevertheless, the post-menopausal irritations his mother experienced led him to create shakes and bars for her--based on the knowledge that protein and isoflavones from soybeans would relieve her symptoms. His recipes caught on with family and friends and, in April 1998, led to the development of Revival Soy (Kernersville, N.C.), the manufacturing company of which he is CEO and medical research director.