Dietary Supplements: Buyer Beware

Are you thinking about supplementing your diet because you’ve been told it is conducive to good health?

Or your habits of food consumption are such that you believe a dietary supplements will make up for your diet shortcomings?

Or you have a specific characteristic of your health you want to correct through supplementation?

Dietary supplements are vitamins, minerals, herbs and other substances meant to improve your diet. They can come as pills, capsules, powders and liquids. Warning, Warning, Warning: Supplements do not have to go through the testing that drugs do.

(Prior to 1994 they were subject to the same drug regulations.)

Do you know that the dietary supplement manufacturers are the only ones responsible for ensuring that a dietary supplement is safe before it is marketed. FDA is only responsible for taking action against any unsafe dietary supplement product after it reaches the market.

In addition, these same money making sellers of supplements are responsible for any representations or claims made about their product. And the topper is that these profit makers are also responsible for determining that the claims on their labels are accurate and truthful.

Also manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements are not currently required by law to record, investigate or forward to FDA any reports they receive of injuries or illnesses that may be related to the use of their products. Once a dietary supplement hits the market, FDA has to show that it is “unsafe,” before it can take action to restrict the product’s use or removal from the marketplace.

Now if all this hasn’t deterred you, here’s the government’s recommendations for taking them safely:

  • stop taking it if you have side effects
  • read trustworthy information about the supplement
  • do not take a bigger dose than the label recommends
  • tell your doctor about any dietary supplements you use

Here is the clincher about that final recommendation ~ If you want more detailed information than the label tells you about a specific product, you may contact the manufacturer of that brand directly, this FYI is courtesy of the FDA.

In other words don’t look to the FDA to give you anything on your chosen dietary supplement.

In conclusion manufacturers and sellers of dietary supplements are in a self regulating industry that self informs. The burden is on the FDA to prove otherwise, not easy under the current state of science. Hmm ~ no wonder that market is booming.

Wouldn’t it be easier to prioritize your diet instead?

« Shamless Anti-Aging Skin Care Products Claims Dietary Supplements: Is More Really Better for Good Health? »