Supplements and Diet
A dietary supplement (also known as food supplement) is a preparation intended to supply nutrients, (such as vitamins, minerals, fatty acids or amino acids) that are missing or not consumed in sufficient quantity in a person's diet. more...
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Some countries define dietary supplements as foods, whilst in others they are defined as drugs. In the United States, the definition of dietary supplements includes non-medicinal herbal supplements and hormones, such as DHEA, pregnenolone (both steroids) and melatonin. Supplements containing vitamins or dietary minerals are recognised by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (the United Nations' highest authority on food standards) as a category of food.
Regulation
United States
In the United States, a dietary supplement is defined under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) as a product that is intended to supplement the diet and contains any of the following dietary ingredients:
a vitamin;
a mineral;
an herb or other botanical (excluding tobacco);
an amino acid;
a dietary substance for use by people to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake, or;
a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of any of the above;
Furthermore, it must be:
intended for ingestion in pill, capsule, tablet, powder or liquid form;
not represented for use as a conventional food or as the sole item of a meal or diet;
labeled as a "dietary supplement";
Regulation
Pursuant to the DSHEA, the Food and Drug Administration regulates dietary supplements as foods, and not as drugs. Unlike pharmaceutical companies, supplement manufacturers are not required to prove the safety or effectiveness of their products; the FDA can take action only after a dietary supplement has been proven harmful.
The DSHEA, passed in 1994, was the subject of extensive lobbying efforts by the manufacturers of dietary supplements. As such, the true level of popular support for the deregulation of the supplement industry is unclear. A large survey by the AARP, for example, found that 77% of respondents (including both users and non-users of supplements) believed that the federal government should review the safety of dietary supplements and approve them before they can be marketed to consumers.
Similar confusion about the implications of DSHEA was noted in an October 2002 nationwide Harris poll. Here, 59% of respondents believed that supplements had to be approved by a government agency before they could be marketed; 68% believed that supplements had to list potential side effects on their labels; and 55% believed that supplement labels could not make claims of safety without scientific evidence. All of these beliefs are incorrect as a result of provisions of the DSHEA.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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