Marketing Scoops: consumption

Design elements: Getty Images. EatingWell animation/Cassie Basford.

Taking dietary supplements can be beneficial for some people. But there’s a catch to taking them that many of us overlook. Several popular supplements can interact with each other, and that can make or break their benefits. For instance, taking certain supplements together can reduce their effectiveness or, worse, negatively affect your health. Conversely, other supplements enhance each other’s absorption. So, they may work better together than when taken separately……..Continue reading…..

By : Lauren Manaker

Source: Eating Well

Critics:

Work done by scientists in the early 20th century on identifying individual nutrients in food and developing ways to manufacture them raised hopes that optimal health could be achieved and diseases prevented by adding them to food and providing people with dietary supplements; while there were successes in preventing vitamin deficiencies.

Preventing conditions like neural tube defects by supplementation and food fortification with folic acid, no targeted supplementation or fortification strategies to prevent major diseases like cancer or cardiovascular diseases have proved successful. For example, while increased consumption of fruits and vegetables are related to decreases in mortality, cardiovascular diseases and cancers, supplementation with key factors found in fruits and vegetable, like antioxidants, vitamins, or minerals, do not help and some have been found to be harmful in some cases.

In general, as of 2016, robust clinical data is lacking, that shows that any kind of dietary supplementation does more good than harm for people who are healthy and eating a reasonable diet but there is clear data showing that dietary pattern and lifestyle choices are associated with health outcomes. As a result of the lack of good data for supplementation and the strong data for dietary pattern, public health recommendations for healthy eating urge people to eat a plant-based diet of whole foods, minimizing ultra-processed food, salt and sugar and to get exercise daily, and to abandon Western pattern diets and a sedentary lifestyle.

As continual research on the properties of supplements accumulates, databases or fact sheets for various supplements are updated regularly, including the Dietary Supplement Label Database, Dietary Supplement Ingredient Database, and Dietary Supplement Facts Sheets of the United States. In Canada where a license is issued when a supplement product has been proven by the manufacturer and government to be safe, effective and of sufficient quality for its recommended use, an eight-digit Natural Product Number is assigned and recorded in a Licensed Natural Health Products Database.

The European Food Safety Authority maintains a compendium of botanical ingredients used in manufacturing of dietary supplements. In 2015, the Australian Government’s Department of Health published the results of a review of herbal supplements to determine if any were suitable for coverage by health insurance. Establishing guidelines to assess safety and efficacy of botanical supplement products, the European Medicines Agency provided criteria for evaluating and grading the quality of clinical research in preparing monographs about herbal supplements.

In the United States, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health of the National Institutes of Health provides fact sheets evaluating the safety, potential effectiveness and side effects of many botanical products. The regulation of food and dietary supplements by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is governed by various statutes enacted by the United States Congress.

Pursuant to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and accompanying legislation, the FDA has authority to oversee the quality of substances sold as food in the United States, and to monitor claims made in the labeling about both the composition and the health benefits of foods. Substances which the FDA regulates as food are subdivided into various categories, including foods, food additives, added substances (man-made substances which are not intentionally introduced into food, but nevertheless end up in it), and dietary supplements.

The specific standards which the FDA exercises differ from one category to the next. Furthermore, the FDA has been granted a variety of means by which it can address violations of the standards for a given category of substances. Dietary supplement manufacture is required to comply with the good manufacturing practices established in 2007. The FDA can visit manufacturing facilities, send Warning Letters if not in compliance with GMPs, stop production, and if there is a health risk, require that the company conduct a recall.

Only after a dietary supplement product is marketed, may the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) review the products for safety and effectiveness.To assure supplements have sufficient quality, standardization, and safety for public consumption, research efforts have focused on development of reference materials for supplement manufacturing and monitoring.

High-dose products have received research attention, especially for emergency situations such as vitamin A deficiency in malnutrition of children, and for women taking folate supplements to reduce the risk of breast cancer. Limited human research has been conducted on the potential for dietary supplementation to affect disease risk. Examples:

vitamin D – acute respiratory tract infections^[
iron – maternal iron deficiency anemia and adverse effects on the fetus
multiple supplements – no evidence of benefit to lower risk of death, cardiovascular diseases or cancer
magnesium supplementation – in reducing all-cause and cancer mortality, as well as improving glucose parameters in people with diabetes and insulin-sensitivity parameters in those at high risk of diabetes.
folate alone or with B vitamins – stroke

A 2017 academic review indicated a rising incidence of liver injury from use of herbal and dietary supplements, particularly those with steroids, green tea extract, or multiple ingredients.Improving public information about use of dietary supplements involves investments in professional training programs, further studies of population and nutrient needs, expanding the database information, enhancing collaborations between governments and universities, and translating dietary supplement research into useful information for consumers, health professionals, scientists, and policymakers.

Future demonstration of efficacy from use of dietary supplements requires high-quality clinical research using rigorously qualified products and compliance with established guidelines for reporting of clinical trial results (e.g., CONSORT guidelines).

Cod liver oil”.

Dietary Supplements: Background Information”.

Food Supplements”.

Dietary Supplements Market Size & Trends Report, 2021–2028″.

Dietary Supplement Label Database”.

Half of Americans use supplements”.

FAQs on Dietary Supplements”.

Structure/Function Claims”.

Dietary Supplement Labels: Key Elements”

Guidance for Industry: Frequently Asked Questions About Medical Foods”

The genetics of vitamin C loss in vertebrates”.

Vitamin and mineral supplements in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer: An updated systematic evidence review for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force”.