The FDA And It's Relationship To The Food Supplement Industry

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There is a lot of buzz these days about supplementing your diet with everything from vitamins, to herbs that are specifically thought to increase certain attributes of your person. Are any of these legitimate? Hi, I’m Steve Beaman and welcome to the Physical Path.

I received an email from a friend recently that introduced me to the latest money making venture, a multi-level vitamin marketing concept with Donald Trump behind it! What, now the Donald himself is getting into vitamin supplements? The reality is, he’s not stupid. This industry now exceeds $25,000,000 in annual sales it’s is not expected to slow its rapid growth. The reason of course is that Americans flock to the quick fix. Want to lose weight, don’t exercise and control your diet, take a pill. Not feeling energetic enough, take an energy shot. On the run through airports and trying to get class, have a protein bar.

The reality is as America has increased in its general portability, so has the need to create portable foods and that is where a large part of the supplement industry falls. Very few doctors would disagree for example with the notion that taking a multi-vitamin for a 50 year old is a good thing. Centrum has all sorts of research to support the notion that supplementing calcium, iron, and vitimins is, in fact a good thing.

Now with that said, buyers need to be careful because you should know that the FDA does not regulate this area of the food industry. There is no federal oversight of the “safety” of these products except that companies are required to maintain and file reports regularly highlighting any health problems or indications of health problems. Most of the supplement industry is based on natural product that is generally accepted as safe, although from time to time, you do get something like ephedrine, which was used for weight loss that is found ex post facto to be dangerous.

As with most things, a little common sense here goes a long way. Is taking an extra vitami
C supplement a good thing to do in the winter? The answer of course is probably yes.. And I say probably because I’m not a doctor and I’m sure there’s a case where someone shouldn’t have taken some. But generally, the supplemental vitamins found in the quality multi-vitamins can boost up your body’s own defenses and work to provide you a healthier life. But along the same lines, the pills that promise miracle weight loss, or enhancement, have bye and large been found to be frauds. They don’t hurt you, but they don’t do anything either. Remember, these supplements cannot be marketed to you as a cure, because by definition, they haven’t undergone the massively expensive, and massively time consumer process to be approved for a treatment. The federal legislation on supplements, signed in 1994, basically allows manufactures to use natural substances which have been effectively proven to be safe, in any way they want, as long as they don’t add anything “new” to a pre-existing list. Thus the enormous diversity of supplement claims. The FDA’s position on these things is largely, no harm, no foul. So you should be very careful when you spend your hard earned money on supplements that might just be doing nothing but making you poorer.