Food or Supplements: How Do You Ensure Good Nutrition?

● Unlike drug products that must be proven safe and effective for their intended use before marketing, there are no similar provisions in the law regarding dietary supplements.

Caution: Natural and harmless are not synonymous.

● The FDA does not analyze dietary supplements before they are sold to consumers and does not have resources to analyze dietary supplements sent to the agency by consumers who want to know their content. Instead, consumers must contact the manufacturer or a commercial laboratory for an analysis of a product’s content.

Caution: If it wouldn’t seem right to give it to a child, then don’t take it yourself.

● Also unlike drug products, manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements are not required by law to record, investigate or forward to the FDA reports of injury or illness related to the use of their products. According to the regulations, once a dietary supplement is marketed, the FDA has the responsibility for showing that it is "unsafe" before it can take action to restrict a product's use or removal from the marketplace.

Caution: Innocent until proven guilty is good for democracy, not medicine.

● There are no rules that limit a serving size of dietary supplements (one, two or ten capsules a day) or the amount of any nutrient in them. These decisions are made by the manufacturers and do not require FDA review or approval.

Caution: The difference between safe and dangerous is often a matter of quantity.

● Consumer inquiries sent to the FDA about the validity of claims for dietary supplements, including what’s on product labels, said in advertisements, shared over the Internet and found in printed materials, cannot all be answered by the agency since the responsibility for ensuring the validity of these claims rests with several sources. The manufacturer must satisfy inquiries about labels, the Federal Trade Commission regulates advertising and the U.S. Postal Service is responsible for what’s sent by mail, and each of these agencies has different regulations.

Caution: If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Eating for Optimal Nutrition

At the end of the day, no matter how carefully you select your dietary supplements, they cannot replace food. In fact, by definition a “supplement” is meant to be taken in addition to or along with your meals, not instead of them. Yet there are many people using dietary supplements who develop a false sense of security that all their nutritional needs are being met in that daily dose, so they neglect the more important piece of the puzzle, namely, to choose their meals wisely.

The good news is, everything we need for optimal health is available in the plants and animals found on this planet. The bad news is, nutrition scientists do not yet know what all of our requirements are, so they cannot make a universally complete supplement. And while many people like to debate the merits of organically grown versus conventional produce and wild caught versus farm-raised fish, this does not mean that most of the food sold in grocery stores and restaurants has no value.

To get the best value in the foods you eat, follow these simple rules:

● Choose as wide a variety from each food group as possible.

● Eat what’s fresh, colorful and in season.

● Select minimally processed foods.

We have a choice at every meal and snack to eat for good nutrition or to leave it up to a dietary supplement. Which will it be for you?

*****

Editor's Note: With finals coming up soon, you might find yourself reaching for potato chips, pizza or candy bars to nosh on while cramming for your exams. Robyn Flipse wants to know: What foods do you turn to when under stress?

Email us at feedback@universitychic.com with the subject line "Food and Stress". The responses received will inform next month's Health and Nutrition column.

And if you have your own health-related question for Robyn, send her your query at our Ask the Experts form.