Dietary Supplements
What are Dietary Supplements?
Dietary supplements are products intended to supplement our diet that contain one or more of the following dietary ingredients:
- Vitamins
- Minerals
- Herbs
- Botanicals and other plant-derived substances
- Amino acids (the individual building blocks of protein)
Dietary supplements can also be a dietary substance for use to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake of a particular nutrient, or a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of any of the ingredients described above. Dietary supplements are distinct from medicines which are described as substances that are intended to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent diseases. Dietary supplements are not intended for use as a conventional food or as the sole item of a meal or diet. Rather they are designed to supplement and address a dietary imbalance.
Dietary supplements are available in many forms appropriate to ingestion including tablets, capsules, powders, geltabs, extracts, liquids, etc. Historically the most prevalent type of dietary supplement was a multivitamin/mineral tablet or capsule that was available in pharmacies by prescription or "over the counter", a wide array of supplement products are now available and they include vitamin, mineral, other nutrients, and botanical supplements as well as ingredients and extracts of animal and plant origin. Dietary supplements widely are available through health food stores, grocery stores, pharmacies, by mail and on the internet.
The Quality of Dietary Supplements
It can be difficult to determine the quality of a dietary supplement product from its label. The degree of quality control depends on the manufacturer, the supplier, and others in the production process.
Standardization is a process that our manufacturers use to ensure batch-to-batch consistency of the product. Standardization involves identifying specific chemicals (known as markers) that can be used to manufacture a consistent product. The standardization process can also provide a measure of quality control.
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