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Nutirtional Supplements

Nutrition supplements are intended to augment a person’s diet. In their simplest form, they are a pill that you take to provide a nutrient that you are not getting from your food. The first nutritional supplements were vitamins, but now herbs and minerals are common on the shelves of health stores everywhere.

Nutritional supplements are classified as a food by the FDA. This gives them the freedom to bring products to market without the extensive testing required of anything classified as a drug. The requirement for being a food rather than a drug hinges on how these products are marketed. They cannot be sold to treat or prevent a disease without falling into the domain of drugs, and most nutritional supplements will have a disclaimer on the label saying as much.

While there is a cost benefit attached to the less regulated domain of foods, there can be safety drawbacks. Because the products are not required to be tested for potentially harmful side effects companies usually will not thoroughly investigate what those side effects are. For instance ephedra was very popular in dieting pills for many years, even though there was a known risk of heart attack or stroke associated with the drug.

Another drawback comes from what a nutritional supplement can claim to do. The lack of testing means that backing for the claims made by supplement makers tends to be weaker than that of drugs. Again, diet pills are a perfect example of this. Most of the claims- such as lose 10 lbs in 10 days- are implausible at best. This doesn’t stop the manufacturers from making those claims however, because it’s not illegal for them to do so.

Despite these drawbacks for some of the more activist nutritional supplements, most are very safe. Multivitamins are great supplements for people who have a less than ideal diet. They provide the recommended daily value of a variety of different vitamins and minerals in one easy to consume capsule.

Unlike some herbal supplements, vitamins do not cause harmful side effects on the body. They are also processed easily when a person consumes more than necessary of them. They do not put undue strain on the liver or kidneys.

That doesn’t excuse a person from adhering to recommended daily values however. The RDV for vitamin C is 90 milligrams. The human body can absorb up to 100 mg at a high rate of efficiency. Yet for some reason you can go to the store and buy 1000mg Vitamin C pills. This is unnecessarily wasteful, past 100 mg the rate of absorption drops precipitously. Most of that 1000 mg passes right through your body without being used.

This highlights the need for understanding of nutritional supplements, and nutritional information in general. Few people would buy 1000mg tablets of vitamin C if they knew that 80-90% of the pills were wasted. The nutrition world is full of businesses generally trying to make life better for people; but there are also those looking to scam susceptible people. Don’t be bait for the latter type; be informed and aware of what you are buying.

 

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