Rebecca Wright, Editor/Associate Publisher05.31.12
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) issued a report about the nation’s nutrition status in April, which offered a mixed picture of the importance of supplements. While we covered it in our May issue, a lot of the commentary surrounding the study surfaced once we went to press.
One of the major themes from pundits commenting on CDC’s assessment was that vitamins and supplements are anything but necessary—some even stretched it to say they could be harmful. We’ve certainly heard this before. In fact, at this point, I find this common refrain BORRRRR-ing.
One thing I did take issue with was what one high profile individual said, that vitamins and supplements give consumers license to behave badly. In other words, they can scarf down burgers and fries, but as long as they take their vitamins they are good to go. While I agree the U.S., by and large (pun intended), is a nation of binge eaters, I don’t think supplements are going to make that situation worse. In fact, I think the opposite is true.
Survey after survey shows that those who take supplements are actually healthier than those who don’t. A recent CRN study bears this out: “Supplement users engage in the following healthy habits in higher percentages than do those who don’t take vitamins, minerals and other supplements: ‘I try to eat a balanced diet’—84% of supplement users vs. 76% of non-supplement users; ‘I visit my doctor regularly’—73% of supplement users vs. 62% of non-supplement users.”
Saying supplements are useless or deadly is just as irresponsible as saying that supplements are cure-alls. The truth—and reality—is somewhere in the middle.
If you really want to point fingers, let’s look at food. According to the National Cancer Institute, “Serious diseases that are linked to what we eat kill an estimated three out of four Americans each year. These diseases include heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, some types of cancer and diabetes.” If this were the case with supplements, the market simply would not exist. And yet the food industry is alive and well.
I am not arguing that the food industry cease to exist, but rather that it has just as large a responsibility as the supplement market in ensuring the health and well-being of its customers. Besides, isn’t it food that got us here in the first place, with soaring obesity rates and huge increases in type 2 diabetes? Americans certainly didn’t get fat and diseased by gobbling fistfuls of supplements.
I know it is popular for some groups (which will remain nameless) to pooh-pooh supplements and say that the ONLY good source of nutrients is our diets. But we also know that most Americans are overfed and undernourished. And even for the healthiest individuals, eating a nutrient-dense, well-balanced diet alone will not satisfy most nutrition goals.
I’m not anti-food and I am not pro-supplements. But I am pro-moderation. In this day and age, most consumers need equal parts supplements, drugs and foods to meet their nutrition goals. That’s what I call a balanced diet.