The Co-op Food Stores of New Hampshire and Vermont

added 09/27/10

by Mary Saucier Choate, M.S., R.D., L.D.

Dietary supplements include vitamins, minerals, and other less familiar substances — such as herbal mixtures or single herbs, roots, leaves or flowers, amino acids, enzymes, and animal extracts. Deciding to take a dietary supplement is an important health decision. Many consumers don’t realize that they should be doing their homework before taking a supplement they hear or read about.

Some dietary supplements can be beneficial to health. For example, calcium, vitamin D, and B12 have lots of research behind them to show that they are safe and effective. But some can involve health risks, side effects, and interference with over-the-counter or prescription medicine you may be taking. For example, St. John’s wort can interfere with birth control pill effectiveness and with blood thinners. Taking it with antidepressants may lead to serious side effects such as severely increased blood pressure.

Some Things Smart Consumers Need To Know

• The government does not approve dietary supplements for safety and effectiveness before they are marketed. Only if the dietary supplement contains an ingredient that is new to the market will that ingredient will be FDA reviewed (not approved) for safety, but not for effectiveness.

• Under law, once the product is marketed, FDA has the responsibility for proving that a dietary supplement is “unsafe,” before it can take action to restrict the product’s use or removal from the marketplace.

• Dietary supplement serving sizes are not standardized and there are no restrictions on the amount of a nutrient that can be in one serving. The amounts that a manufacturer decides to put in a supplement may be at an insignificant, safe, or excessive level. It’s left up to the consumer to read the label carefully for the supplement serving size and amount of nutrients. See the table below for the recommended upper limits of vitamins and trace minerals for adults.

• Manufacturers or distributors of dietary supplements do not have to tell FDA or consumers what evidence they have about their product’s safety or what evidence they have to back up the claims they are making for them.

• Supplement manufacturers can make “structure/function” claims on a dietary supplement label. In general, these claims describe the role of a nutrient or dietary ingredient intended to affect the structure or function of the body. An example would be, “calcium supports strong bones,” but not “calcium prevents osteoporosis”. These claims are not pre-approved for the product by the FDA. The manufacturer is responsible for ensuring the accuracy and truthfulness of these claims. For this reason, the law says that if a dietary supplement label includes such a claim, it must state that FDA has not evaluated the claim and that product is not intended to “diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.” Only a properly tested drug can legally make such a claim.

Dietary Supplements At The Co-op

Healthnotes computers. Using the science-based information on Healthnotes, customers can learn about a supplement’s safe use, dosages, best form to take, effectiveness, and any warnings that may apply, such as interactions with prescription or over-the-counter meds.

Our professional sales staff will help you to find the supplements that you have researched on your own or on the Healthnotes computer. We are not trained medical providers and so will not diagnose your ailment, but will recommend local health practitioners.

Learn More

What’s the tolerable Upper Intake Levels (ULs) of vitamins and trace minerals for adults? Check out the attached chart below.