What is a Dietary Supplement Anyway?

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Okay, we can’t lie to you – we need to tell you right from the start – this a boring post! Simply put, anytime you start quoting the FDA – your eyelids get heavy, drool starts running down your mouth and before you know it….

Close, I almost dosed off writing this post. While it may not be the most interesting topic, does seem like a good idea to define Dietary Supplements since that is what this site is about. Okay FDA take it away…

What is a dietary supplement?

Congress defined the term “dietary supplement” in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994. A dietary supplement is a product taken by mouth that contains a “dietary ingredient” intended to supplement the diet. The “dietary ingredients” in these products may include: vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, and substances such as enzymes, organ tissues, glandulars, and metabolites. Dietary supplements can also be extracts or concentrates, and may be found in many forms such as tablets, capsules, softgels, gelcaps, liquids, or powders. They can also be in other forms, such as a bar, but if they are, information on their label must not represent the product as a conventional food or a sole item of a meal or diet. Whatever their form may be, DSHEA places dietary supplements in a special category under the general umbrella of “foods,” not drugs, and requires that every supplement be labeled a dietary supplement.

- FDA Website

So, a Dietary Supplement is not a food and it’s not a drug – it is somewhere in between. We will deal with this more in another post, but here are a few key things to remember about Dietary Supplements:

• They must be ingested (so something like a patch would NOT be a dietary supplement)
• There is NO FDA approval for Dietary Supplements
• They can not be used to dignosis, treat, cure or prevent any disease

Okay, enough of the boring stuff – we just wanted you to have this base understanding of supplements because we will reference it in future articles.

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Tagged as: diet, Dietary supplement, FDA, Health, Nutrition, supplements, US Food and Drug Administration, Vitamin