Nutrition Science and Everyday Application - beta v 0.1

456 ALICE CALLAHAN, PHD, HEATHER LEONARD, MED, RDN, AND TAMBERLY POWELL, MS, RDN
According to the FDA website, the “FDA has found that manufacturing problems have
been associated with dietary supplements. Products have been recalled because of
microbiological, pesticide, and heavy metal contamination and because they do not contain
the dietary ingredients they are represented to contain or they contain more or less than the
amount of the dietary ingredient claimed on the label.” 2
What this means for consumers is that they should use caution when considering whether
to use a dietary supplement. Keep in mind the following information from the Center for
Complementary and Integrative Health at the National Institutes of Health: 1
• What’s on the label may not be what is in the product. For example, the FDA
has found prescription drugs, including anticoagulants (e.g., warfarin),
anticonvulsants (e.g., phenytoin), and others, in products being sold as dietary
supplements. You can see a list of some of those products on the FDA’s Tainted
Supplements webpage.
• Supplement labels may make illegal claims to make their product more
appealing. A 2012 Government study of 127 dietary supplements marketed for
weight loss or to support the immune system found that 20 percent made illegal
claims.
• Dietary supplements can interact with other medications, and cause harm.