Dietary Supplements Essay

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Dietary supplements are used to add additional nutritional value to the diet. Some common forms of supplements include: vitamins, amino acids, minerals, herbs, and enzymes, and can be found in a multitude of forms such as capsules, liquids, gel caps, powders, and tablets. Dietary supplements are becoming increasingly popular among Americans today. According to the Centers for Disease and Control, “Over half of the adults in the U.S. use at least one type of dietary supplement, the most common being multivitamins.”1 Many use these vitamins because they are believed to present a number of benefits, such as helping or treating diseases, etc. While dietary supplements can be beneficial to your health; Americans should also be cognizant of the health …show more content…

Whole food sources such as fish, vegetables, fruits, and other healthy foods are the best sources when trying to consume a variety of nutrients. For example, phytochemicals, which are derived from plant compounds, contain multiple phytochemicals when consumed from a whole food, whereas supplements usually only contain one type. Another important substance not available in supplements is fiber. Katie Baker, a naturopathic doctor, states, “In the end, we all benefit more from improving our diets naturally than from adding pills and powders to a standard American diet of too many processed simple carbohydrates and fats and not enough lean proteins and complex carbohydrates (like whole …show more content…

Some supplements increase or decrease the effects of a medication, while others inactivate medications all together. For instance, medicinal herb, St John’s wort, is said to make drugs for heart disease, depression, HIV/AIDS, birth control pills, etc. less potent. Another example is vitamin k, which can lessen the effectiveness of blood thinners. Robert Mozersky, a medical officer at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), says, “Certain dietary supplements can change absorption, metabolism, or excretion of a medication and therefore affect its potency. “You may be getting either too much or too little of a medication you

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